Paul Pidgeons’s Top Tips for Building Chest Size
PRESS UPS
Master your press-ups and then your press-up variations. Close hands, wide hands, slow form, power press-ups - always do these to failure. The press up is the most fundamental movement in creating power in the pecs, master them and you have the primary weapon for building your chest,
DEAD PRESS
This is my favourite movement for mastering the power required in concentric (pushing away from the body) contraction. So how do you do it? On a rack set the bar up so that when racked it is at chest height on the safety bars. Now position yourself under the bar; the aim is for the concentric part to be as powerful as possible, controlling the bar at all times, and the eccentric part (bar coming back towards the body) to be performed as slowly as possible.
FORM
Master your form. If you want to increase your chest size correct form whilst training is fundamental. You need to make sure your chest is under tension at all times and that your body is not over compensating with your shoulders or your triceps at any point. When performing a movement like chest press make sure your hips are on the bench and that your feet are in a stable and flat position to ensure focus is on the chest and not another part of your body.
CONTRACTION SPEED
Have a go at slowing down your movements. For example on bench press try a 3 second concentric, 1 sec pause and a 3 second eccentric press to increase your time under tension. I find this really helps target my chest muscles.
SECONDARY MUSCLE USE
Remember when you are doing bench press (like all weight lifting movements) you have primary muscles and secondary muscles in use. In a flat bench press the primary muscles used are the pectoralis major and the tricep brachii, the secondary muscles are the anterior deltoid, trapesius and lats/rhomboid. You should make sure these muscles are adequately trained also to develop overall strength and size.
