Pecs Archives | Anabolic Muscles

If you have a hard time feeling your chest working when you do chest exercises, THIS is the information you need. I’ll give you my best techniques for ensuring maximum activation of your pecs with every set and rep you do. One of the most comment training questions I get with regards to chest training is simply not being able to feel the pecs working at all when doing chest exercises!

And when you can’t feel the pecs working, you know darn well that actual muscle development is simply NOT going to happen.

So enough about the problem…how do you FIX it?

I’ve got a number of techniques for you to try out, some of which may work better than others for you.

But they should get you well on your way towards the chest development you’re looking for.

1. Pre-Exhaust Training

When performing a movement like the bench press, the pecs are definitely involved but can be easily pushed into a secondary role by the front delts and the triceps.

So instead of doing a regular bench press movement, you will instead do 6 to 8 reps of dumbell flyes (an isolation movement for the chest) THEN immediately go right to the bench press.

That’s right, abs too! As we all know, push ups are an excellent exercise that you can do just about anywhere. They work the chest and triceps and to a lesser extent, the shoulders. Put your feet up on an exercise ball or a chair and you can do inclines to focus more on the upper chest. Move your hands closer together and you have yourself a very challenging triceps exercise. But what most people don’t realize is that they work the abs also.

You see, the abs are required to keep the body stabilized when you assume the push up position and the movement puts extra stress on the muscle as you complete each rep. Many cutting-edge exercise physiologists and strength coaches are now recommending that the most effective way to work the abs is using movements that don’t involve too much movement of the abs like crunches but to instead use movements like “the plank”, which stimulate the abdominal muscles without contracting them. It’s also becoming clear that crunches and sit ups may increase the risk of back problems.

How to Train Your Pecs

Push Ups for Pecs, Tris & Abs