How to pump up a man's chest? The best exercises for the pectoral muscles in the gym

The main difference between the thoracic spine and its other parts is that it is inactive. There are twelve vertebrae in its structure, just like throughout the entire spinal column, connected by intervertebral discs. But they are protected from hypermobility by the ribs, and the load on this zone, compared to the adjacent cervical and lower lumbar, is minimal. However, the chest area, no less than others, needs a strong muscle corset, which can be formed with regular exercises.

Exercises for the thoracic spine

How to properly prepare for classes

Before doing exercises for the pectoral muscles at home, do a joint warm-up. To do this, make 8–12 rotations in both directions, following the “top to bottom” principle:

• head;
• shoulders;
• hands;
• elbows;
• brushes;
• pelvis

This technique opens the chest well: clasp your fingers behind your back and pull them back and up, bringing your shoulder blades together. Do the exercise for 30 seconds.

To make the most of your chest workout at home, do a cardio session of jumping rope, boxing, or jumping jacks while swinging your arms from the bottom up for 8-10 minutes.

Anatomy and structure

The pectoralis minor muscle (anatomy is described descriptively on the website) is a paired thin triangular muscle located in the upper part of the chest, which originates from the coracoid process of the scapula and reaches the upper ribs. The base of the muscle is formed by fleshy linings extending from 3-5 ribs, close to the costal cartilage. At the point of attachment, at the coracoid scapular process, the muscle flattens and becomes a tendon.

Although the minor muscle is an important organ of the chest, the pectoralis major muscle is stronger and larger. Both muscles have the same innervation, but act differently. The small one is designed to move the scapula, and the large one is designed to provide flexion and adduction of the shoulder.

The main nerve supply to the muscle comes from the medial pectoral nerves, but can be innervated by the lateral pectoral nerve through a communicating branch known as the "ansa pectoralis".

The pectoral muscles are metabolically active tissues that require a high supply of blood to function properly and stay strong.

From an anatomical point of view, the vascular supply to the small muscle comes from several sources:

• The thoracoacromial artery (a branch of the second part of the axillary artery) gives rise to two feeding branches - the thoracic and deltoid.
• Superior thoracic artery (branch of the first part of the axillary artery).
• Lateral thoracic artery (branch of the axillary artery).

The blood vessels are located behind the pectoralis minor muscle and are called the subclavian. The accompanying bundle of nerves is called the brachial plexus.

Exercises for the pectoral muscles at home

First, a little anatomy. The table provides a list of the superficial pectoral muscles with their main functions.

Wide hand push-ups

These chest exercises at home are performed in a lying position, with your arms and legs positioned wider than the shoulder line. Smoothly lower yourself towards the floor without touching its surface. Hold the lower phase for a couple of seconds and push up.

Plyometric push-ups

Perform a few classic push-ups with partial range of motion to prepare for the push-up. From the bottom point, sharply push off with your hands and lift your hands off the floor at the top point.

Deep push-ups

This exercise is done using special stands that can be bought at any sports market. Hands on stands are placed perpendicular to the shoulder line, and the body forms a straight line. Get down on your elbows as low as possible and push up smoothly.

Push-ups on stools

Chest training at home using this technique is performed with simple equipment, which can be three stools. Place your legs on one, and the other two will serve as a support for your arms.

Do push-ups with a large amplitude, deepening your chest below the level of your hands, to maximize your chest pumping.

Lifting dumbbells while lying down

Lie on your back, take dumbbells, place your arms along your body and bend your elbows (dumbbells up). The palms should be facing the feet or facing each other. Smoothly press the dumbbells toward the ceiling, extending your elbows until they are straight and keeping your elbows straight, and then slowly lower. Watch your breathing: inhale when lowering your arms, exhale when pushing the dumbbells up.

Working out the triceps and chest muscles on the uneven bars

Grasp the bars from the outside with your palms facing down. Straighten your arms, slightly spread your elbows to the sides and tilt your body forward 30 degrees.

As you inhale, lower your torso, bending your elbows 90 degrees. As you exhale, rise to the starting position and hold for a couple of seconds at the top point.

Pullover with dumbbell

Position yourself across a bench or fitness ball with your feet firmly on the floor. Take the projectile, clasping it with both palms at the bottom of the disk. Raise the dumbbell above your head with your elbows slightly bent. As you inhale, calmly lower the weight behind your head, stretching your chest muscles. As you exhale, reverse the movement.

Pull-up on the horizontal bar with a reverse grip

To make chest training on the horizontal bar more effective, it is advisable to do pull-ups with a medium grip. Smoothly lift your body, leaning back slightly until your chest touches the horizontal bar, and then slowly lower down.

Possible diseases and pathologies

Poor sitting position, which negatively affects the posture of the upper body, negatively affects the functioning of the pectoralis minor muscle. Postures that involve long periods of extension of the scapula cause it to contract, holding the bone in an undesirable position.

What influences the development of pathologies:

• Chest injury.
• Major or minor fracture, deformation of the upper ribs.
• Using crutches for long periods of time.
• Hyperventilation or heavy breathing.
• Long-term mental stress.
• Carrying a heavy backpack or other heavy objects for a long time.
• Holding the head forward for a long time in a position with a lowered chest, characteristic of people working at a computer.
• Previous or irregular heart pain due to a heart attack or angina.

The pectoralis minor muscle (the anatomy of which is constantly being studied) may show signs of disorders and abnormalities.

Therapy depends on the severity of the pain and the area of ​​injury, but the treatment process is often conservative:

• Rest. A patient suffering from major or minor muscle pain should avoid physical activities that worsen the condition and increase the pain. Rest allows you to repair any minor damage through your own immune system.
• Physiotherapy. This is the most important part of the treatment for pain in the pectoral muscles. In most cases, doctors prescribe physical therapy. During the recovery period, stretching, light resistance, and strength training are helpful.
• Anesthesia. Ice packs are applied for immediate relief, reducing inflammation, and reducing swelling. In some situations, mild analgesics are used.
• Surgery.

Wright's syndrome

The term "syndrome" is used in medicine and surgery to refer to a group of abnormalities that repeatedly occur together. Since the pectoralis minor muscle connects the scapula to the chest and at the same time is close to nerves and blood vessels, the term pectoralis minor syndrome implies:

• abnormal scapula mechanics;
• abnormalities affecting adjacent nerves and vessels.

Minor abnormalities of the chest can lead to compression of nerves and blood vessels, as well as pain in the scapula area.

Pectoralis minor syndrome is compression of the brachial plexus between the uncinate process on the top of the scapula and the contracted pectoralis minor muscle. This occurs due to a tight muscle that puts pressure on the neurovascular structures between it and the chest.

A tight and shortened muscle also causes the rounded shoulder blade to straighten. Weak scapular retractors (the muscles that pull the shoulder blades toward the back) contribute to this posture because they lack the strength to resist the pull of tight pectoral muscles.

Wright's syndrome or tunnel syndrome develops with hypertonicity and muscle shortening. With maximum abduction of the shoulder, the pectoral muscle presses the vascular and nerve bundles to the coracoid process of the scapula.

Sometimes there is compression of the subclavian artery, the veins that pass under the place of attachment of the pectoral muscle to the coronoid process.

Microtrauma, repeated many times, causes vascular spasm and maintains irritation of the trunks of the brachial plexus.

Classification

There are four forms of thoracic outlet syndrome:

• Anterior scalene syndrome.
• Costoclavicular syndrome.
• Pectoralis minor syndrome.
• Cervical rib syndrome.

The upper opening of the chest (aperture) connects the neck and chest. This area is considered the "outlet" where arteries carry blood from the chest to the arm to nourish the tissues of the upper limb, and motor neurons carry motor innervation from the chest to the arm to control contraction of the muscles of the upper limb.

However, this condition is sometimes called thoracic inlet syndrome because veins in this area carry blood and sensory neurons transmit innervation to the chest from the arm. This concept is used for any compression in this area, regardless of whether the compressed structures are exiting or entering.

Symptoms and signs

General characteristics of the syndrome include:

• the head is constantly or often in a forward position;
• increased cervical lordosis;
• increased thoracic kyphosis;
• raised, elongated or rounded shoulders when the muscles are in a continuous state of stretch;
• the visible part of the scapula protrudes instead of lying flat (wing of the scapula).

The misshapen muscles associated with the syndrome place stress on surrounding muscles, tendons, bones and joints, causing most people to develop symptoms:

• headache;
• pain and tightness in the chest, neck;
• pain in the upper back, especially in the shoulders;
• soreness in the jaws, shoulder blades;
• fatigue;
• limited range of motion of the neck and shoulders;
• numbness, tingling in the forearms;
• compression of the pectoral girdle;
• feeling of pain coming from the inside of the elbow;
• pain that occurs inside the hand and spreads to the middle, ring and little fingers;
• numbness of the forearm, hand and fingers;
• Difficulty while sitting, driving a car, or stretching your arm forward and upward.

Causes

Shortening of the small muscle or tonic tension is most often the cause of neurovascular disorders occurring due to compression of the neurovascular bundle. Various movements can cause the syndrome, but in most cases it develops due to poor posture when the head is stretched forward for a long time.

Reasons influencing the anomaly:

• Muscle injury. After healing, it became shorter, covered with scars and lost elasticity.
• Developed hypertrophy, which is especially typical for athletes.
• Congenital anomaly of the organ.
• Prolonged use of the hand during monotonous work, for example, among carpenters and construction workers. This is also typical for office workers who slouch at the computer for long periods of time. By holding your arms in front with your elbows bent, they narrow the space where the arteries and nerves pass. Over time, the incorrect position leads to increased muscle hypertonicity, shortening of the muscle, in the process of adapting to the new position of the scapula.

Treatment methods

Chest stretching is one of the main treatment methods because it reduces spasms of the pectoralis minor muscles.

Pectoralis minor muscle

Treatment methods:

• Massage, manual therapy. The procedures work on the muscles, breaking down the scar tissue between layers of muscle, muscle fibers, tendons and fascial restrictions of the neurovascular bundle.
• Laser treatment. Accelerates healing and regeneration of nerves from damage caused by chronic compression.
• Paraffin treatment. Used for severe persistent pain.

In some cases, novocaine blockade is used. If there is no result after conservative treatment, surgery is recommended - intersection of the tendons of the pectoralis minor muscle.

Complex for women

Exercises for the pectoral muscles at home for girls can be performed according to the following scheme:

1. Joint exercises and cardio 10–15 minutes.
2. Push-ups with wide arms.
3. Lifting dumbbells while lying down.
4. Exercise on parallel bars.
5. Pullover with a dumbbell.
6. Plyometric and deep push-ups.

Girls at the initial stage can limit themselves to 10–15 repetitions in 3 cycles with a break of 2–3 minutes, gradually increasing to 20 repetitions in 3–4 sets.

If it is difficult to do push-ups with your legs straight on the floor, you can do push-ups from a bench or on bent knees.

FAQ

How to start muscle growth?

For muscle growth, it is necessary to systematically increase the load and include at least 1.3 grams of protein per 1 kg of weight in the diet.

How to increase the load?

Increase the number of approaches and repetitions, or increase the weight of the equipment. You can also include swimming in the pool as an additional workout 1-3 times a week.

How to choose dumbbells?

When choosing equipment, take it for a test drive by completing a cycle of 10 exercises. If it was easy, you should add 0.5–1 kg. And if you can’t do 10 repetitions, reduce the weight.

What to do if you can’t do push-ups?

Start doing push-ups from a bench or from your knees. After a couple of weeks of training, do a few push-ups with your legs straight off the floor.

Benefits of Lower Chest Workout

Strengthening the chest can help the muscles rise above the rib cage more, rounding out the lower part of the chest. Carter also believes that lower chest training has value for powerlifters.

“If you bench with a shoulder-width grip in competition,” he says, “the rib pectorals will contribute to that lift. So strengthening that part of your pecs will help you in the bench press.” In fact, Carter says that working your lower chest through push-ups, along with training your triceps, should probably make up the majority of your accessory work on the bench press.

Why only 1 approach?

You may be surprised that in these workouts we only recommend one set of each exercise, when you've probably heard for years that 3 or more sets are more optimal. Scientists are still debating how many sets are needed to grow muscle, but Carter's experience has led him to believe that one hard set—pushed to failure—is all that's needed. This is supported by a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, which showed that only three complete sets per muscle group PER WEEK were enough to produce muscle gains, and the gains were equal to those measured in athletes who performed as many as 12 approaches!

The researchers wrote: “Hypothetically, both low- and high-volume training may result in microtrauma to muscle fibers, but high-volume training requires additional effort and time...

“Equality in lower- and upper-body strength development... indicates that when a minimum (threshold) level of strength training volume is performed at higher intensities, subsequent physiological adaptations may be optimized and additional workloads (e.g., 12 sets per muscle group) per week) do not contribute to further improvements, at least during the short training period.”

In other words, do 1 set of lower chest exercises to failure, then leave the gym!