The PERFECT Chest Workout (Sets and Reps Included)

The perfect chest workout should consist of exercises for your upper chest muscles, middle chest muscles and lower chest muscles. But, even that doesn’t guarantee chest gains. In order to round out your pectoral muscles you need to fill in the gaps of what is lacking on those popular chest exercises.

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If you look at the four main exercises that people do in their chest workouts you will see incline bench press, barbell bench press (done on a flat bench), dips and the regular push-up. Take a close look into each of these upper body movements and you will see one thing in common. They hit the primary muscles but lack a full shoulder adduction within the exercise.

This is a problem when it comes to developing chest muscle definition. Just because you are going through a full range of motion on the exercises that you are doing it does not mean that you are taking a muscle through its full range of motion. For instance, all chest exercises are performed by changing arm angle at the shoulder. Because the shoulder is a three dimensional ball and socket joint, you have a great deal of motion available to you on your chest exercises.

That said, with the hands being fixed on a barbell, dip station or the floor through most of the common chest exercises you are not able to take your shoulder through the full horizontal adduction that it is capable of going through. Due to this, there is limited activation of the pecs since they are built to take the arm fully across the body, over midline into a more complete adduction.

The key to growth for the chest muscles is to not forego the popular mass building chest exercises using heavier loads but add to them, in drop set fashion using a cable crossover machine and band training. Here is how to construct the perfect chest workout with that in mind.

0:00 Intro

4:20 Barbell Bench Press - 4 sets of 6,8,10,12 reps

- Lie on a flat exercise bench taking an overhand grip on a bar loaded with heavy barbell plates, a slightly wider grip than hands shoulder width apart. Press upward and slowly lower the bar to the starting position. 
- Go immediately into a horizontal cable chest (on cable machine) or band crossover (with resistance bands) for 15 reps

5:19 Incline Dumbbell Bench Presses - 4 sets of 6,8,10,12 reps

- Set an incline bench to a 30 degree incline angle and sit holding a pair of dumbbells with an overhand grip. Press upward and slowly lower the pair of dumbbells to the starting position.
- Go from incline presses immediately into a low to high cable (on cable machine) or band crossover (with resistance bands) for 15 reps

6:00 Weighted Dips - 4 sets of 6,8,10,12 reps

- Start in dip position on a dip apparatus. If desired you can add heavy barbell plates for extra resistance.  Lean forward slightly and bend the elbows to dip down and return to the starting position.
- Go from dip position immediately into a high to low cable or band crossover for 15 reps

6:24 Weighted Pushups - 3 sets to Failure

- Starting position is in a strong plank position with hands stacked under shoulders with light to heavy barbell plates on your back. Lower down and then push back up in a fluid movement. 
- Immediately into a banded push-up sets for 15 reps with band on each arm

Focus on the muscle fibers you are working as you move through each effective movement to improve your mind to muscle connection. This will afford you additional gains, muscle definition and chest growth potential. Keep your core tight the entire time to 

When you put this together in drop set format as I’m suggesting here, you not only now hit the chest through it’s full range of motion but you hit every area of the chest as well. The drop down allows for the less intense exercise to be more taxing since it was just preceded by a more difficult compound lift. This will help you achieve strength gains quicker and boost your muscle growth potential.

This perfect chest workout is just one example of how to apply science to your chest workout repertoire. If you want to train like an athlete you want to put science back in every workout you do. You can do that with the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs available at http://athleanx.com and get started right away on building a ripped, muscular, athletic body.

For more chest workout videos for the upper chest, lower chest and inner chest, whether you have access to a barbell, expensive cable setups, a pair of dumbbells, or just need bodyweight movements, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at / jdcav24 and don’t forget to turn on notifications so you never miss one.