Building Your Chest Muscles – Follow the Perfect Plan!

Time is running at its pace and you too are getting older with each passing day. Sayings like “beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder” has now become passé; replaced by “beautify yourself.” Many among us can be seen taking a lot of pain to look attractive – opting for various cosmetic treatments, natural remedies and so forth. Besides all those cosmetics and beauty products, muscle building also plays an important role in boosting your looks while keeping you healthy and in shape.

People are now more conscious about their health and appearance and you can find them indulging in gymming and following muscle building diet plans, and related exercises that target different body parts, including biceps, triceps, thighs and chest.

Lately, chest muscle building has gained a lot of popularity; especially among the youth. Generally, men desire for heavy chest and shoulders. Undoubtedly, a well-built chest simply adds to their looks and attractiveness. Another advantage of muscle building is that it helps you gain power or strength – a symbol of manhood or masculinity. This may also push many of you to go for it.

There are three types of muscles in the body – skeletal, smooth and cardiac. Muscles are the support system of your body. These give shape to the body. Strong muscles maintain your bone density as well as provide protection against physical stress and strain. To some extent, this also helps decrease the risk of bone-related diseases.

Before building muscles, it is important to understand the mechanism of muscle growth. Firstly, muscle activation is necessary to gain strength. This can be achieved by weight lifting. During this process, your body starts working at the cellular level. The repairing or replacement of damaged muscle fibers begins to take place. The muscle fiber group forms new muscle protein strands or myofibrils. These repaired fibers increase in thickness as well as in number to cause muscle growth. You should always remember that this process occurs when you take rest. So, proper rest is necessary at regular intervals during the training session. In general, the breakdown of muscles occurs before the formation of the new ones. However, the rate of muscle protein breakdown is less than the muscle protein synthesis.

Different body parts respond differently to various exercises. So, exercises should be chosen according to the body part in focus. Building chest muscles requires special exercises. Read further to know about a few exercises that can help you grow chest muscles.

How to Build Your Chest Muscles?

You should perform chest exercises once or twice a week, while keeping the exercise duration to 30-60 minutes per day. This time should be devoted to tough exercises. Chest muscle exercises are a bit different from other exercises. These include:

1. Bench press
2. Push-ups
3. Dips
4. Dumbbell press

1. Bench Press:

This exercise individually focuses on upper and lower chest. For rounded and fully developed chest, barbell bench press, chain or band barbell press, close-grip bench press and neck bench press should be performed.

Low-incline barbell bench press, machine decline press and seated machine chest press target upper chest muscles. Decline bench press increases lower chest muscles. In bench press, you have to lie on the bench and lift the weight as per your capacity.

2. Push-Ups:

Push-ups are performed to enhance the upper chest muscles. You have to raise and put down your body with the help of your arms. After this, try doing weighted push-ups, chest squeeze push-ups, archer push-ups, plyometric push-ups and suspended push-ups.

3. Dips:

This exercise is the fastest way to grow chest muscles. Chest dips are performed between the parallel bars. Hold the bars, lean forward while raising your feet up. This will flare your arm muscles. Incline bench cable fly is also a type of chest dip, which is highly effective.

4. Dumbbell Press:

This type of exercise include flat bench dumbbell press, incline dumbbell press, incline dumbbell pull-over, pec-deck machine, dumbbell squeeze press and single-arm dumbbell press.

To perform this, lie on your back, hold the dumbbell in bilateral hands and squeeze your arms. You have to try that dumbbell should touch each other. Once you start doing this, switch to flat bench, incline, and perform other dumbbell exercises. All of these are almost similar. All you need is to stick to the basic exercise pattern.

Duration of Exercises

Serial No.	Exercises	Sets	Repetition	Rest time (in seconds)
1.	Bench Press	4	5-8	90-180
2.	Push-ups	3	15	90
3.	Dips	4	8-12	120
4.	Dumbbell press	4	8-12	90

Diet Plan for Building Chest Muscles

Energy is the one of the requirements for exercising and muscle building and food is its sole source. For chest muscle building, you need to include specific types of food in your diet as well as follow a special diet plan. To fulfill your energy requirement, you can additionally go for supplements. However, it is recommended to consult a professional trainer, dietician or nutritionist for diets and supplements. For building chest muscles, you should strictly include the following foods and supplements in your diet:

1. Carbohydrates and Fats:

Carbohydrates obtained from brown rice, oatmeal, barley and sweet potatoes should be preferred. Fats from fish oil, avocado, flaxseeds, nuts and nut butter should be included in the diet.

2. Supplements:

The supplements enhance your workout performance. Some supplements like citrulline malate, alpha-GPC, beta-alanine, creatine monohydrate, caffeine and betaine help you boost muscles. These supplements focus mainly on your chest muscles and enhance their growth.

Do’s and Don’ts of Chest Muscle Building

Do’s of Chest Muscle Building:

• You should increase your appetite. Adequate weight gain is important for exercises. Include proteins and supplements in your diet. You should take creatine 3-4 times a day.
• For better muscle growth, you should take proper rest because muscles grow faster during the rest phase.
• Initially, when you are focusing on developing strength, try lifting heavy weights quickly.
• You should use a proper technique, i.e., maintaining correct body posture while performing a particular exercise or set of exercises.

Don’ts of Chest Muscle Building:

You should always avoid eating processed food, extra calories, and fried food.

Points to Remember While Building Chest Muscles

• Apart from specific chest muscle exercises, you should also work on your overall strength and bulk.
• Strength and bulk can be increased by involving squat and deadlift in your warm-up section. These exercises increase the testosterone and growth hormone levels that lead to chest muscle growth.
• Squats is putting your body down forcefully with your legs apart and then, getting up.
• Deadlift is lifting a heavy weight or loaded barbell only up to the level of your hip.
• If you are unable to do it alone, you can get a trainer for assistance.
• In case, you notice severe chest or body pain, do consult your doctor.