Guest Post by Alycia Gordan
A rippling, strong and broad chest is an admirable trait in men that is achieved through sheer hard work and dedication. However, contrary to popular belief, growing a larger and stronger chest is not only about exercise. It is a science and needs to be worked around with technique and precision.
It is easy to think that hours of strength training can give you the strong chest of your dreams. In reality though, there are various dos and don’ts involved with achieving this type of physique.
If you are aiming to build a big chest, here are some ways that you can achieve your goal faster:
#1. The Right Kind of Exercises
The Pectoral Major and Minor make up a person’s chest muscles. Hence, both these muscles need to be exercised to make the chest grow. Pectoral Major is the large fan shaped part of the chest and Pectoral Minor lies underneath it.
Some exercises work on one muscle in isolation whereas some target both the chest muscles together. Performing the right kind of exercise is essential as that will target the particular body part that you want to enhance.
The most popular chest strengthening exercise is a bench press. This exercise is an ultimate muscle builder. More and more weight needs to be added gradually to give the chest muscles a throbbing workout.
Inclined dumbbell press, flat dumbbell fly, bar dip, weighted dips and push-ups are some other popular and effective chest building exercises. Keep in mind that your workout should be so rigorous that each and every rep should count and exhaust the chest muscles extensively.
#2. Increase your Diet
It goes without saying that skinny or underweight people cannot have a strong, broad chest. Moreover, bench press and similar exercises can only get you so far in your quest. To build a broad chest, you need to up your nutrition intake. Consider nutrition as a raw material and a chiseled, rippled body as the final product.
Hence, more calories are required to build more mass. The more nutrition rule applies to both pre and post workouts. Before the workout, you need nutritious, high calorie foods to provide energy for the laborious workout that you will indulge in. Similarly, a meal containing high protein content is required for muscle recovery and growth after an exhausting exercise session.
Your high calorie intake should never come from processed, fatty foods. Instead, your diet should comprise proteins such as chicken, lean beef, eggs and whey along with complex carbs derived from brown rice, sweet potato, barley and oats. The good fats can be consumed in the form of flax seeds, avocado, quinoa and nuts.
Furthermore, you can also use supplement boosters that are usually loaded with carbs and conveniently help to replenish the energy stores in the body taking your training session up a notch.
A simple calculation you can remember is to take 150-200 grams of carbs per day. Your protein consumption should be fixed at 1-1.2 gram per pound of body weight. Similarly, 15% of your diet should comprise healthy fats.
#3. Muscle Overload
The simple truth is that if you want to grow your chest muscles, you have to overload them to the extent that they are damaged! Sounds gruesome but in reality, it is not like that. Muscles grow back bigger and stronger after a strenuous training session. Hence, the more the muscle overload and damage, the bigger the muscles.
This is the reason why high intensity programs are used to gain mass. They work really well! Try to build up your time under tension. For instance, doing 20 reps builds more tension than 15 reps. Similarly, even adding 1kg to your normal routine helps increase the tension in your chest muscles. Hence, ironically the more your muscles break, the greater the benefits you will reap!
#4. Squeeze your Muscles
The mind and body connection should be super strong for your workouts. By just doing your reps, you are letting your body know what you want. However, by “squeezing” your chest muscle after every rep also signals to your brain that you mean business.
Squeezing your chest muscles after every rep will amplify the burn feeling which you experience after a workout and, of course, the more the burning sensation, the better.
#5. Protein Consumption
With such an intense workout, you need to provide the right type of nutrition to your overworked muscles to help them re-grow. A consumption of 23-25 grams of protein right after a demanding workout will help those muscles grow back bigger and stronger. Protein is proven to help rebuild the broken muscle fibers after an exercise. To achieve best results, add glutamine to your protein shake which contains amino acids that are imperative in generating stronger muscles.
When aiming for such high body related goals, one also has to understand that proper rest is as important as workout. If you opt to come to the gym 6 days a week and indulge in such a rigorous routine every day, your muscles, nerves, bones and tissues will not have the opportunity to rebuild. Moreover, your strained muscles will be at a higher risk of being injured.
If you follow the advice mentioned above, we are sure you will only be a few months away from the body of your dreams! It is time to officially say hello to a huge, ripped and swoon-worthy chest!
AUTHOR BIO - Alycia Gordan
Alycia Gordan is a freelance writer. She loves to read and write article related to health and lifestyle, sometime on health-tech as well. She is crazy about chocolates and you can find her on Twitter: @meetalycia
