Upper Body Workouts: Focus on the Chest

A Hard Upper Body Means Working Your Chest

Most guys who hit the gym on a regular basis are interested in learning about effective upper body workouts. This is true of body builders and for people involved with general strength training as a way of maintaining wellness.

Recently, I completed an installment of different workouts involving the chest, arms and back. My hope with providing these different types of upper body workouts was to stimulate motivation on your part and to show you different approaches to body sculpting.

How upper body muscles work

Muscles of the upper body are really no different than all of the other muscles located throughout the body. In men however, some muscles are more prominent than others. Here, we are talking about the pectoral muscles and lateral muscles.

Muscles work by shortening and pulling on the bone they are attached to. The pectoral muscles (major) are divided into three parts – upper, lower and middle respectively. Knowing this information can be tremendously helpful to you on your quest to builder a larger, more muscular physique.

Training Your Chest Muscles: Frequency

In order to experience optimum growth, you should try to train your chest at least two times a week. If you try to do more than this, may very well develop sore shoulders. You also run the risk of falling victim to overtraining syndrome.

If you train our chest less than 2 times a week, you likely will not see the results you are hoping for.

Good chest exercises for men

To develop the entire pectoral muscle set, meaning upper, middle and lower, you will want to use a variety of resistance training approaches. Some good chest workout options include:

• Bench presses
• Barbell incline press
• Push ups
• Dumbbell flys
• Machine flys
• Cable crossovers
• Pullovers
• Decline bench press
• Incline bench press

Machines vs. Free Weights and Upper Body Workouts

There has been a long running debate in the body building world about which is better, machines or free weights? My own thought is that using a combination of both from time to time can help to create change in your strength training and conditioning program and go a long way with combating muscle memory and muscle adaptation.

Captain America Workout: Chest

Chris Evans, the actor who plays Captain America uses a number of approaches for working out his upper body, including free weights and machines. He also reports spending a lot of time at the gym and uses a trainer. 

I am including a video of an interview with Chris Evans for 2011 where he discusses preparing his body for the role of Captain America. It’s always good to know about the psychology behind the physique and to examine the importance of mind body connection.

Remember, the massive chest on Chris Evans did not happen through genetics. He is considered to have a mesomorph body type, which is the most common of body types among men.

The dude seriously worked out in order to achieve the look you see in the movies.

Summary: Upper Body Chest Workouts

No question about it – guys want to grow impressive upper body muscles with particular focus on the chest. I would be interested in hearing which exercises you do to blow up your pectoral muscles?

What do you do to create change in your body building workout for the chest?

Thanks for visiting!