Are you struggling to achieve a well-developed chest like Arnold Schwarzenegger, even after years of bench pressing heavy weights? It may be time to switch up your training system. Here's a specialized chest fly and press plan that can help you build big chest muscles.
While bench presses are important for muscle building, they have a significant drawback - they also load other muscle groups in addition to the chest, such as the shoulders and triceps. Since these smaller muscle groups tire out quicker, you may not be effectively targeting your chest muscles. Therefore, it's important to follow compound exercises with isolating exercises that focus solely on the chest.
When performed correctly, the chest fly isolates the pectoral muscles and minimizes the involvement of the shoulders and triceps. However, this exercise is often saved for the end of a workout, when energy levels are low and heavy weights are no longer feasible.
To combat this, try a chest workout plan that prioritizes the fly exercise.
Benefits of fly
With dumbbell or machine fly exercises, you can effectively work out your pectoralis major muscles with focus and concentration. Additionally, the fly exercise can optimally stretch the pectoral muscles in the lower range of motion, allowing more blood to flow into the muscles, resulting in increased muscle pump.
Therefore, the fly exercise is excellent for building chest muscles. However, you may have always believed that heavy compound exercises like bench presses should be done at the beginning of a workout while you still have enough strength. But it may be beneficial to start with the fly exercise. How can you do it? It's straightforward: using the stretch and squeeze method, alternate between fly and heavy presses, performing fly at the beginning, middle, and end of your workout.
Stretch and squeeze principle
This workout plan follows the stretch and squeeze method, which involves alternating between fly and heavy presses to optimize the growth of your chest muscles. By starting with a fly, you will deplete the pectoral muscles, making them more receptive to the bench press that follows. The second round of fly will further isolate and target the chest muscles, followed by a bench press with a different angle, such as an incline press, to ensure full chest muscle development. Finally, the last set of fly will exhaust the chest muscles, allowing for one final bench press to fully stimulate muscle growth. Remember to focus on correct form and execution for each exercise to ensure maximum benefit.
Correct fly performance
Since the fly is the focus of this training plan, it's important to discuss proper execution of the exercise. During the movement, the arms should not be straight, as this can put strain on the elbow joint. Instead, you should slightly bend your arms to create an angle of approximately 45 degrees between your shoulder and forearm, and maintain this angle throughout the exercise. Some athletes perform a kind of pushing motion by bending their elbows at the bottom of the movement and straightening them upwards, but this should be avoided.
It's also crucial to ensure that you stretch your muscles adequately at the bottom of the exercise to maximize its benefits.
Exercises for the chest workout program
Incline dumbbell fly
You start out with the incline fly, but not as a warm-up! You do one or two warm-up sets, and then immediately move on to heavy weights. After the warm-up, do three sets of eight to ten reps each and rest for 90 seconds.
You will probably have less strength than usual when doing presses because you have already expanded strength with the fly, but our goal is not to lift as much weight as possible but to develop the chest as best as possible. So you better leave your ego at home!
Incline bench press
If possible, use a bench with an adjustable incline and set it to the lowest or second highest position. This helps you engage your upper chest with your front shoulders working less. Many incline benches have an angle that is simply too large and the shoulders do most of the work.
Lower the barbell to your chest and pause (but do not place the barbell on your chest). A common mistake is bouncing the barbell off the chest. First, it minimizes the effectiveness of the exercise because the muscles work less, and second, it increases the risk of injury. If you pause with the barbell, you will use less weight and fewer reps, but you will train safer and more efficiently - which is the most important thing!
A small but extremely important point: do not straighten your arms at the top of the movement, but shortly before that, stop and tense the muscles. Here, you also do three sets of eight to ten reps, with a 90-second break.
Cable lying fly (horizontal bench) or butterfly chest machine
After two free weight incline bench exercises, it is time to move on to isolation exercises using machines. This allows you to focus on your mid-chest and work your muscles safely and in isolation.
When performing the cable lying fly or butterfly chest machine, it's important to focus on the stretch at the bottom of the exercise. This will feel different on the horizontal bench than on the incline bench, so pay close attention to your form.
Perform 3 sets of 10-12 reps each, with a 90-second rest between sets. Remember to adjust the weight accordingly to ensure proper form and technique.
Dumbbell press on a horizontal bench
At this point in the workout, your chest muscles should already be feeling pumped up. For the dumbbell press on a horizontal bench, choose a weight that allows you to feel your muscles working without being too heavy.
Lower the dumbbells down to your chest while keeping your elbows at a 45-degree angle to your body. Avoid fully extending your elbows at the top of the movement to keep your chest muscles under constant tension. If you feel your triceps starting to take over the movement, lower the dumbbells back down.
Complete 3 sets of 10 to 12 repetitions each, resting for 90 seconds between sets. Remember, it's more important to perform the exercise with proper form and control than to lift the heaviest weights possible.
Cable standing fly (crossover)
To perform this exercise, stand in the middle of two cable machines with the handles at the highest position. Take a step forward to create tension in the cables. Keep your elbows slightly bent and bring the handles together in front of your body, squeezing your pectoral muscles. Lower the handles back down slowly, taking at least three seconds to complete the negative part of the movement.
It's important to avoid flexing your elbows during the movement, as this can make it easier but less effective. Aim for 3 sets of 12 reps each with a rest period of 60 seconds between sets. As you near the end of your workout, consider shortening the rest periods to increase the intensity.
Parallel bar chest dip
This chest workout plan ends with a chest dip, the best bodyweight exercise for your chest muscles. Tilt your upper body forward slightly to focus on your chest rather than your triceps. Is bodyweight exercise too easy for you? Certainly not after this workout. The goal is to do as many reps as possible before the muscle fails. You have to do 2 of these sets, the pause is only 60 seconds.
Source: www.muskelaufbau.de
You may also be interested in reading the additional material 9 Tips on How to Fix Your Lagging and Not Growing Chest
Comments
Post a Comment