Transform your Chest

I've been talking alot lately about gym goers who neglect their lower bodies in favor of endless routines of bench presses and curls.  And while these gym denizens do need to expand horizons over to the squat rack (and not to stand there and curl in it), it is important to include a good upper body routine into your fitness regiment. Developing a good chest requires activating it from several different angles. Usually, I try to get a flat press, an incline press a nd a decline press in every workout at a minimum. I also usually do some sort of flys, just because I think they're fun. Here's the routine I've been using to add quality mass to my chest during the offseason - notice that I never use barbells for my presses. I've found barbells tend to add more stress on the shoulder and as the years have gone by, it's resulted in a lot of discomfort in my shoulders.  To overcome, and really to make the presses a bit more challenging, I've now pretty much gone completely with dumbbells or machines for presses unless I'm using a Smith Machine to isolate. You may have to buy new shirts after using this workout for a few weeks. Just sayin'. Incline Presses (machine) 3 x 15 - 20 Iso-lateral bench machine 3 x 10 - 12 Decline Bench (either dumbbells or the machine depending on what's available) 3 x 10 - 12 High Cable Flys Drop Sets 3 x 10-12 Incline DB Press 3 x 10 - 12 supersetted with Smith Machine incline presses 3 x 10- 12 Low Cable Flys Burnout sets 3 x 15 - 20 I do hit incline several times in this routine, mainly because at the moment I'm working on building a thicker upper chest, but the movements are slightly different.  The superset at the end provides a burnout as the DB part of the superset activates pretty much everything in the upper chest area, and then the Smith machine just isolates your upper pecs and allows you to fully fatigue the muscle and allow for maximum growth. I'll put on my asbestos pants as the debate on that last paragraph fires up. Fitness is all about balance - and a pleasing physique is most definitely balanced. Lift heavy and stay hungry! Wayne is a former “IT” guy who decided to take his love for fitness and turn it into a new career.  Now a personal trainer by trade, Wayne spends his spare time hitting the weights and learning all he can about bodybuilding and nutrition.  He stays true to his IT roots by staying active on Twitter and several online games.