Chest workouts
Before you crack on with the workouts, it’s important that you take the time to prepare your body. Not only will a thorough warm-up help you perform at your best when you tackle the lifts, but it will also reduce some of the muscle soreness you’ll feel the next day. That’s not a small thing, because chest DOMS really is no fun at all.
It’s not only the chest you’ll be working in the sessions below, so your warm-up needs to prepare your whole body. That means jumping on the treadmill for five minutes of slow jogging won’t do because it won’t properly warm up the muscles you’re about to use.
Start with this short warm-up routine for the gym, which involves seven dynamic stretches that hit the whole body, then move on to warm-up exercises specific to the workout you’re about to do. These could even be the same exercises you’re going to do in your workout, just done with a very lightweight or no weight at all. This will get your body used to the movement patterns involved and prime the relevant muscles to fire when you add weight.
Workout 1: Chest 1
1 Bench press
Sets 5 Reps 5 Tempo 10X0 Rest 60sec
Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.
2 Incline bench press
Sets 5 Reps 5 Tempo 10X0 Rest 60sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.
3A Incline dumbbell press
Sets 4 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 20sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand by your shoulders. Brace your core, then press the weights up until your arms are straight. Lower them back to the start.
3B Incline dumbbell flye
Sets 4 Reps 10 Tempo 2111 Rest 20sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your face, with your palms facing and a slight bend in your elbows. Lower them to the sides, then bring them back to the top.
3C Press-up
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Get into position with your feet together and hands underneath your shoulders. Brace your core so your body is straight from head to heels. Bend your elbows to lower your chest, then press back up powerfully.
Workout 2: Total body 1
1 Squat
Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Stand tall with a bar across the backs of your shoulders. Keeping your chest up and core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.
2 Chin-up
Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Hold a bar with an underhand grip. Brace your core, then pull yourself up until your chin is higher than the bar. Lower until your arms are straight again.
2A Overhead press
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 20sec
Hold a bar with your hands wider than shoulder-width apart. Keeping your chest up and core braced, press the bar overhead until your arms are straight. Lower it back to the start.
2B Bent-over row
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 20sec
Hold a barbell with an overhand grip, hands just outside your legs. Bend your knees slightly, brace your core, then pull the bar up, leading with your elbows. Lower it back to the start.
2C Good morning
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Stand tall holding a light barbell across the backs of your shoulders, feet shoulder-width apart. With your core braced, bend forwards slowly from the hips, as far as your hamstrings allow but not past horizontal. Return to the start.
Workout 3: Chest 2
This uses the same moves as Workout 1 but with different protocols – low sets and high reps to focus on increasing muscle mass
1 Incline bench press
Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 4010 Rest 60sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start.
2 Bench press
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 4010 Rest 60sec
Lie on a flat bench holding a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Brace your core, then lower the bar towards your chest. Press it back up to the start
3A Incline dumbbell press
Sets 3 Reps 12 Tempo 3010 Rest 20sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand by your shoulders. Brace your core, then press the weights up until your arms are straight. Lower them back to the start.
3B Incline dumbbell flye
Sets 3 Reps 15 Tempo 2010 Rest 20sec
Lie on an incline bench holding a dumbbell in each hand above your face, with your palms facing and a slight bend in your elbows. Lower them to the sides, then bring them back to the top.
3C Press-up
Sets 3 Reps 20 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Get into position with your feet together and hands underneath your shoulders. Brace your core so your body is straight from head to heels. Bend your elbows to lower your chest, then press back up powerfully.
Workout 4: Total body 2
1 Front squat
Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2010 Rest 60sec
Stand tall with a bar across the front of your shoulders with elbows up. Keeping your core braced, squat down as deep as you can. Drive back up through your heels to return to the start.
2 Rack pull
Sets 5 Reps 8 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Stand tall in front of a barbell resting on safety bars at knee height. Using a double overhand grip, bend down and deadlift the bar up, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top.
3A Standing dumbbell biceps curl
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2010 Rest 20sec
Stand with dumbbells by your sides, palms facing forwards. Keeping your elbows tucked in, curl the weights up, squeezing your biceps at the top. Lower them back to the start.
3B Triceps extension
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 20sec
Stand tall holding a dumbbell over your head with both hands, arms straight. Keeping your chest up, lower the weight behind your head, then raise it back to the start.
3C Lateral raise
Sets 4 Reps 12 Tempo 2111 Rest 60sec
Stand tall, holding a light dumbbell in each hand with palms facing. Keeping your chest up and a bend in your elbows, raise the weights out to shoulder height, then lower back to the start.
Home Chest Workouts
Press-up workout
This challenging session involves doing a variety of press-ups, taking as little rest as possible in order to stimulate growth in your chest muscles.
See the workout
Resistance band workout
PT Bradley Simmonds put together this workout, which works the entire upper body using bodyweight and resistance band exercises. Rattle through all six exercises, then rest for 60 seconds. Do three rounds in total.
See the workout
10-minute press-up workout
Tack this quick press-up session on to the end of a longer workout, or do it by itself when you just want to blast your chest, shoulders and triceps. There are four moves in the workout, which you do in rounds with as little rest as possible. Three rounds will take around 10 minutes, and you can always add extra when you have more time.
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