How to Do Chest Exercises Correctly

There is definitely an art to working the pectoral muscles, and learning how to do these exercises correctly will not only help you avoid injury, but it will also increase the intensity and effectiveness of your workout. These tips on how to do chest exercises correctly should be followed each and every time you pick up the weights to work those pecs.

Difficulty:

Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Choose an appropriate weight. Don't make the mistake of starting off with the heaviest weight you can possibly lift. The muscles need to be warmed up or else you run the risk of ripping or tearing muscles fiber, and if you're injured then you can't work out at all. Start with a warm-up set of about 10 to 15 reps at a weight that you would consider to be a 4 on a scale of 1 to 10. Once the muscles are properly warmed-up, then move on to a more challenging weight.

2. Include a day of rest between chest workouts. Just as muscles need to be warmed-up, they also need to be rested between workouts. The hours and days between workouts is actually when your muscles get stronger. After all, if muscular strength increased during the workout, then we'd all be stronger on the final set than we were on the first. Allow at least 24 hours for your muscles to repair themselves before you do another chest routine.

3. Work through a large range of motion. You can really tap into the full potential of the muscle if you perform a "pre-stretch" before you start the movement. For example, if you're doing a dumbbell chest press, bring the dumbbells down to your shoulders so that the pec muscles feel a stretch before you push up into the press. Do this on every repetition so that you can activate the entire pec muscle and not just a limited part of it. To determine your individual range of motion, go to the Web site of the C.H.E.K. Institute (see Resources below).

4. Protect your shoulders. Chest exercises are often quite taxing on the shoulder and rotator cuff. If you have weak or injured shoulders, shy away from chest flyes and focus on a pressing movement instead. Using dumbbells for chest press instead of a straight barbell is another way to protect the shoulder and rotator cuff. Barbells force the shoulder into a slight internal rotation, which often times causes irritation in the anterior deltoid (front of the shoulder).

5. Don't arch your back. If your lower back is excessively arched off the bench when you're doing a chest exercise, then your core is not engaged. To help alleviate this situation, simply place your feet up on the bench instead of the floor. This will give you a posterior pelvic tilt and help to keep your lower back on the bench.