New Exercises for Chest Building

A powerful, dense, cut chest is high on the list of most bodybuilders, both professional}} and amateur.  Unfortunately, there is so much bad information out there when it comes to properly working the pecs}} that chests like I just described are becoming a thing of the past.

The big key to building the pecs you need is to choose exercises that maximally activate the chest muscle fibres.  The first exercise that springs to mind for most body builders when they think of chest exercises is the flat barbell bench press.  But the bench press is not a great chest builder unless you happen to have the optimal leverage for it.  On top of that, most people do the bench press incorrectly.  If you put together bad leverages and bad technique it is no surprise why you feel the bench more in your delts and triceps than in your pecs!

Let's take a look at three of the best chest exercises.  It is important to keep in mind that if these are done with bad technique you are short-changing your muscle gains and may be setting yourself up for injury.  To prevent this from happening make sure to get some technique tips from an expert so that you can build the chest you want without getting hurt.

Paused BB Bench Press
I know I just finished saying that the barbell bench press is not the best chest builder, but there are certain variations that do hit the pecs rather well, provided you perform them properly.  The paused bench press is one such variation.  By pausing the bar at the chest for 1 to ten seconds before pressing it back to lockout you kill the stretch reflex and lose any stored elastic energy you created while lowering the weight.  This makes pressing the weight back up much harder, but it will also force your pecs to create a huge amount of force in order to launch the bar from your chest back to lockout.

45-degree Incline DB Bench Press
One of the common complaints of body builders is not just their overall chest mass, but their upper chest mass especially. Incline movements are a great solution to this because they target the upper portion of the pectorals, which gives the appearance of a higher chest, without giving you a saggy looking chest.  The use of dumbbells is a good addition here as they will allow you to get a deeper stretch in the bottom of the movement.  This deep stretch stimulates a lot of underused motor units in the pectorals which can cause new growth to occur.

Cable Crossovers
While variations of the bench press are good for variety, to really focus on the pecs you need to work on the flying motion.  This can be done with many different exercises, but I really like the cable crossover here because of the consistent tension the pulley gives you during the entire exercise.  The key is to concentrate on a good stretch at the start and continuing to keep tension on the pecs during the entire movement.  This is a fantastic ending movement to any chest workout.


Remember that while these exercises are fantastic for building powerful pecs, they must be done with the right technique in order to get the most benefit.