Building size and strength in the chest muscles is a big deal to any guy who's into weight training. Thick and powerful looking pecs top off a muscular physique nicely and will lead to a lot of attention. Chest exercises such as the bench press are also among the most enjoyable and popular weight training exercises to do so most weight trainers aren't going to avoid performing them like they may with some of the major leg or back exercises. If you train with a lot of intensity and stick with it, you will build bigger and stronger pectoral muscles in no time. All it will take is following the best chest workout routines to gain this size and strength.

It takes doing the right exercises to build muscle mass and strength for the best chest workout routines. Bench presses, incline presses, decline presses, dips, dumbbell flyes, cable crossovers, and push-ups are among the best exercises for building size in the pecs. You should stick with lifting free weights for the most part, since using them will force you to work the smaller muscles that help stabilize and balance the weight. Most weight training machines force you to lift in one plane of motion and the stabilizing muscles don't need to work as much. Only use machines towards the end of your chest workouts.

When you first start doing the best chest workout routines you need to learn the proper exercise form on all of the major chest exercises. Trying to lift too much weight before you can handle without cheating will cause you to develop bad habits that will be hard to break later on. If you cheat, you could end up injuring yourself. As long as you use proper lifting form on your chest exercises you'll eventually get the gains you want without having to cheat.

Another thing you need to do when you follow the best chest workout routines is to start them off with the major exercises like bench presses or incline presses. If you're a beginning weight trainer, the majority of your chest workout routines should be made up of the compound exercises with very isolation movements. Isolation chest exercises such as flyes shouldn't be done as much until you actually build some size in the pecs.

2-3 sets of bench press

2-3 sets of incline bench press

1-2 sets of weighted dips or decline bench press

1-2 sets of flat or incline dumbbell bench presses

1-2 sets of flyes or cable crossovers

Light Workout

1-2 sets of bench
1-2 sets of incline
1-2 sets of weighted dips or decline bench press
1-2 sets of flat or incline dumbbell bench press
1-2 sets of flyes or crossovers

Medium Workout

2-3 sets of bench
2-3 sets of incline
2-3 sets of declines or dips
2-3 sets of dumbbells
1-2 sets of flyes or crossovers

Heavy Workout

3-4 sets of bench
3-4 sets of incline
2-3 sets of dips or declines
2-3 sets of dumbbells
2-3 sets of flyes or crossovers

Increasing bench press strength is a priority for many guys who weight train. If you look like you lift weights you are almost certainly going to get the "how much can ya bench?" question from people. You'll want that number to sound impressive, right? The bench press is also a more enjoyable exercise to do than other compound exercises like squats and deadlifts. Your pecs will get that nice pumped feeling very quickly when you bench as well.

The best way to increase bench press strength is to always try to lift more weight or do more reps with the same weight as compared to your last chest workout. This means that you need to go all out and not stop your bench press sets until you reach positive failure. You can even go beyond failure by having a spotter assist you for an extra rep or 2.

Performing the bench press with proper form is also essential to gaining bench strength. If you constantly bounce the weight off of your chest and raise your body off the bench to greatly decrease the distance you have to lift the weight, you won't actually be working the chest muscles as much. You will also be much more likely to injure yourself. You can decrease the distance you have to lift the weight without breaking form on the bench press by pulling your shoulder blades inward and contracting your upper back muscles. This will actually focus the resistance on your pecs better than if you keep your back completely flat while you bench. You also need to lower the weight under complete control and not practically drop it on your chest to get a bounce.

Many weight trainers end up overtraining the pecs by doing too many sets of bench presses during their workouts. This can be detrimental to your gains and can even cause you to lose muscle mass and strength if you are chronically overtrained. The best chest workout routines don't call for numerous sets done on the bench. If you train hard it won't take very many sets to get a stronger bench press.