The exercises on the bottom of the chest, which I will talk about, are well known to everyone. But at the same time, each of them has its own subtleties of performance, which can help improve the shape of the pectoral muscles and make them truly powerful and beautiful. Read this article to learn how to competently draw up a chest training program, and what you need to know in order to pump up the bottom of the pectoral muscles. The most interesting about training and sports nutrition on our telegram channel
When they ask me how to pump up the lower chest, I understand that the problem is actually different, because I have not yet met people whose lower chest lags behind. A lagging top, an undeveloped middle, insufficient width - this occurs all the time, and the lower section cannot lag behind.
Everyone who regularly performs must have a powerful bottom, since it accounts for up to 80% of the load. Therefore, I understand the question in this way, how to make the pectoral muscles wider at the very bottom, or, more simply, how to cut the bottom of the pectoral muscles? And this is what the exercises that I want to talk about are intended for. But first…
Why is it difficultpump up the bottom of the pectoral muscles?
Pumping up the lower chest can be difficult for tall athletes and people with tight shoulder joints. The reason lies in the fact that they simply do not get the load there when performing normal exercises. Tall guys usually have a wide chest, so pumping the outer areas of the pectoral muscles is very difficult for them.
People with tight joints have a different problem - they cannot use the full trajectory of the projectile in chest exercises, so the bottom of their pectoral muscles remains in its infancy.
The way out in both cases will be a conscious increase in the range of motion and a controlled stretching of the pectoral muscles in width. But since this style of exercise places a lot of stress on the shoulder joints, before starting a workout, I advise you to definitely warm them up, paying special attention.
Conclusion: insufficient projectile trajectory is the main reason that the bottom of the pectoral muscles remains unfinished.
The hit parade of exercises for the lower chest looks like this:
Dumbbell press upside down
The dumbbell press is not as popular as the barbell press, because it is easier to pump the chest with a barbell. Although these exercises are similar in appearance, in fact they are radically different. Pressing the barbell upside down, in my opinion, is a completely useless and rather dangerous way to pump the lower chest. You can pump it up even more with a barbell, but you can’t make your chest wider, and here’s why:
- The trajectory of movement in the barbell press is insufficient; the bar will not stretch the pectoral muscles at the bottom point.
- The angle of the bench bench is usually 30-45°. This means that the load will go to the armpit area, and the outer chest area will be left with nothing.
- The position of the body upside down makes the bench press a dangerous exercise, since few people dare to go to failure. The exercise has to be completed earlier, being afraid to miss the barbell.
- A strong rush of blood to the head, especially in the last repetitions, makes the bench press quite uncomfortable.
But the dumbbell bench press on an inclined bench head down is devoid of all these shortcomings, so I consider it the best exercise for the lower chest. But you just don’t need to tilt the bench much, a slope of 10-15 cm will be enough. The main thing is to consciously stretch the muscles in the lower segment of the movement.
Note: The return on the dumbbell press can be increased even more with the help of a simple device. A thin gymnastic rug folded into a flat and wide roll should be placed on the bench so that it is just between the shoulder blades. It will lift the body up by 2-3 cm and thereby help to further stretch the pectoral muscles when lowering the dumbbells down. This chip can be used in all chest presses without exception, and the effect of its use will always be wonderful.
Conclusion: dumbbell press upside down - the best exercise for the bottom of the chest. Efficient, safe and comfortable.
Unfortunately, not every hall has such a free-weight machine, but where it is, it must be used. The advantage of the exercise is a high degree of isolation of the pectoral muscles, unlike any basic movement. But since our goal is to pump up the lower chest, the seat of the simulator must be adjusted (raised) so that the load vector falls on this particular area.
This is the safest way to pump the bottom of the chest, so the trajectory of movement can be safely cut, focusing on its lower part. If we have already decided to make the chest wider, then let's stretch the muscles to the fullest. The measure of the correctness of the press in the hammer will be a strong feeling of stretching in the outer sections of the pectoral muscles at the end of the exercise.
Conclusion: the bench press in a sitting hammer is an isolated exercise for the lower chest, which makes it possible to precisely pump this segment and stretch it strongly in width.
Reduction of hands in a crossover while standing
If in previous exercises we stretched the pectoral muscles, then in this, on the contrary, we compress. Hand reduction in a crossover is often done, but in order to pump up the bottom of the pectoral muscles, it needs to be done a little differently:
- The body must be kept completely straight, located in the center of the simulator
- The chest must be pushed forward, while the shoulders should be pulled back
- You need to bring your hands under your chest
- At the end point, be sure to make a delay of 2-3 seconds
The advantages of such an exercise for the chest are that there are no “dead” points in it, the muscles are in constant tension throughout the entire approach.
When the arms are raised up, the muscles are stretched, when lowered they are compressed, this allows us to improve the shape of the chest at its attachment points, exactly where we need it. Peak tension (when bringing the arms under the chest) is an additional stress factor and an incentive for muscle growth.
Note: in the previous exercises, the initial (stretching) phase of the movement was of particular value, and in this final (compressive) phase. Therefore, you can use partial repetitions in a shortened path, the main thing is not to forget to pause.
Conclusion: bringing the arms together in a crossover while standing allows you to pump the bottom of the chest from a different angle.
Wide grip push-ups on uneven bars
Everyone calls wide grip push-ups with weights the best exercise for the lower chest, but I specifically put it at the very bottom of the charts. Pushing up on the uneven bars, you can really add mass to the bottom of the pectoral muscles, but our goal is not so much to pump it up as to improve the shape, while excluding triceps from work.
chest dips:
- We take the starting position. We tilt the body forward, spread the elbows wider, slightly bend them at the elbows
- Slowly (7-10 seconds) we descend to the lower point and linger in it for 2-3 seconds, stretching the chest muscles
- We don’t go up, we go down from the bars and again we take the starting position
Performing negative repetitions on regular bars, and then returning to the starting position is not very convenient, so the exercise can be replaced with a modern version - push-ups in the gravitron.
The negative phase is more important than the positive one, because gravity helps us to descend. Controlled slow lowering forces the body to include a large number of muscles in the work, which always has a positive effect on their hypertrophy. And enhanced stretching helps to pump up the bottom of the pectoral muscles, just where we need it - in the outer section.
Negative reps are a heavy and complex technique for performing exercises, an additional and very thorough warm-up should be her obligatory companion.
Conclusion: Wide grip push-ups are a really good exercise for the lower chest, but since we don’t need mass, but shape, they need to be done without weight and in a negative way.
Tip 1. It makes no sense to include all the exercises that I talked about in one set of exercises. It would be much more correct to make two or even three separate sets of exercises out of them, so that each workout of the lower pectoral muscles is new to them. The best option is two exercises on the lower chest + two on the top, you can’t throw it in any case. This is a priority area.
Tip 2. Pumping up the lower chest, if we are talking only about muscle mass, is quite simple, but making the chest wider is much more difficult and longer, so you need to get ready for hard work. There is only one way to speed up the process - by constantly lengthening the trajectory of movement.
Tip 3. You can increase the return on exercise if you pump your chest with supersets (a series of two exercises performed without interruption). You just need to arrange them so that the basic exercise goes first (dumbbell press upside down or push-ups with a wide grip), and the second is isolated (press in a hammer or bringing your hands together in a crossover).
Tip 4. At the end of the workout, you need to stretch the muscles without weight. Stretching the chest muscles will relieve excess tension, speed up recovery and help improve muscle shape even faster.
Stretching the pectoral muscles
Conclusion: lower chest training is primarily a conscious stretching of the pectoral muscles in various exercises from all possible angles.
Conclusion
I hope my story about the four best exercises for the lower chest will be useful for you and help you become the owner of not only large, but also truly wide pectoral muscles. May the force be with you. And mass!
In modern bodybuilding, the chest muscles are divided into three bundles: lower, upper and middle. In this case, the bulk of the pectoral muscle falls precisely on the upper bundle. Accordingly, in order to make the chest more effective, it is necessary to work on the upper part of the chest. When you already have enough training experience, you should think about working out the bottom of the pectoral muscles.
Important! Most often, training the lower part of the pectoral muscles comes down to various bench presses with a reverse incline. That is, the exercise is performed almost upside down, which is quite harmful, because it helps to increase blood pressure. Therefore, we will consider along with these other, no less effective methods.
A beautiful male torso has always attracted ladies, but to achieve it, persistent and systematic training is required. Let's see what chest exercises you can do at home.
Exercises for effective pumping of the lower part of the pectoral muscles
There are the following exercises that allow you to pump up the lower chest muscles:
Push-ups on the uneven bars. Helps develop the pectoral muscles. To a large extent, these exercises work the lower chest muscles. And therefore, experts advise push-ups on the uneven bars for those who want to “cut” the bottom of the chest.
Advice! In order to increase the effectiveness of the exercise, it is necessary to perform it in the "chest" style. To do this, we tilt the body forward, press the chin to the chest and spread the elbows wide.
There are two options for performing this exercise for the lower chest:
- When you want to achieve lower detail, you should do bodyweight push-ups. This is done at the end of the workout for 4 sets of 20 repetitions each.
- If you need to gain mass in the lower chest, push-ups should be performed with additional weights on the belt in a power style. Such exercises are performed in 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions.
Bench press in a sitting hummer. These exercises are practiced quite rarely, since not every gym has this simulator. Some experts consider the bench press to be the best exercise for the lower chest, perfectly balancing convenience, effectiveness and safety.
Important! If there is such a simulator in the gym, then, as a rule, in several versions at once. Therefore, before starting classes, you should ask the trainer on duty about which particular simulator is best for you.
If we talk about drawing and detailing the lower part of the chest, then the effectiveness of the press in the hammer in this regard is lower than when pushing up on the uneven bars. However, this machine will be indispensable for gaining muscle mass. To do this, do 4 sets with 10-12 repetitions in each. These exercises should also be done at the end of a workout.
The video shows the best exercises for pumping the lower pectoral muscles
Greetings, dear fans of sports and a healthy lifestyle. Surely, many of you are wondering how to pump up the pectoral muscles at home, without using barbells and dumbbells. It turns out that this can be done, but first you need to decide what you want to see. After a couple of months of training, do you want to see chests like Arnold in his best years in the mirror? Or you want to see beautifully drawn muscles that will draw attention to yourself when you hit the beach.
If you want breasts like iron Arnie, then we are in a hurry to disappoint you and ask you to leave the page. In order for you to have such a chest you need: to have good genetics, use steroids and press the barbell with an unthinkable amount of twenty-five kilogram pancakes on it. If you do not want this, continue reading the article. Having studied all the exercises that we offer, at the end of the article you will find a training program for your chest at home.
How to pump up breasts at home
So, what is needed in order to pump up the chest at home. Firstly, this is proper nutrition, which will promote the growth of your muscles and will not allow the amount of subcutaneous fat in your body to grow. If we allow fat to take over our body, then you will not be able to see your traced pectoral muscles. So start eating right.
Secondly, we need constant training, 2 - 3 times a week, which will include a variety of push-up options for pumping the top and bottom of the chest. This is very important, because by pumping the lower part of the chest, you will have a disproportion, and the chest will not look very aesthetically pleasing. So, we include all the exercises described below in our program.
push ups on books
The first version of push-ups will work out mainly the middle part of the chest. Look at the picture below.
For push-ups, we need 8 books (sheets, so 500 each). We put them at a distance of 60 - 70 centimeters, or whatever is more convenient for you, and begin to slowly push up. We go as low as we can. You should feel a pleasant stretch in your muscles. Spend 6 to 8 seconds lowering. Do 4 sets of 15 reps. The most important thing in the exercise is speed, do everything slowly.
Push-ups with a stop
For the second exercise, we do not need books. It will be simple push-ups, but with one nuance. Having lowered halfway down, stop and linger in this moment for 2 to 3 seconds. Then go down to the end and in this position again linger for 2 - 3 seconds. Do 4 sets of 10 reps.
Explosive pushups
Quite a difficult exercise that requires training. As soon as you master it, feel free to include it in your program. Go down, preferably slowly, starting to rise to the starting position, that there are forces, push off the floor, so that your palms come off the floor. You can do clap, but it is difficult and at first you can not do it.
Do this exercise last, do 2 sets with as many repetitions as you can handle.
We swing the top of the pectoral muscles
The most difficult part of the pectoral muscles to train. Pumping it up at home is very difficult, but possible. There is only one exercise for this, but we can constantly complicate it.
Incline push-ups
The point of these push-ups is to keep your legs above your body, but otherwise they are regular push-ups. But we don’t need regular push-ups, so we’ll complicate it. The first option is push-ups with a pause at the lowest point. stop for 2-3 seconds, and then return to the starting position. The second option is push-ups on books. Well, the third option is explosive push-ups with an inclination.
Do 4 sets of 15-20 reps with different variations.
How to pump up the lower part of the chest
To pump the bottom of the pectoral muscles, we will use everyone's favorite push-ups on the uneven bars. I think it will not be difficult for you to go to the nearest sports ground 2 times a week and devote half an hour to training. And if you have bars at home, then this is very wonderful.
Push-ups on the uneven bars
Simple push-ups on the uneven bars. Everyone knows how to do them, everyone was taught at school. We complicate the push-ups on the uneven bars by stopping at the bottom point for 2-3 seconds. We perform 4 sets of 15 - 20 repetitions.
This exercise can be made more difficult by using a weighted vest.
Program for training the pectoral muscles
The article would not be an article if we did not give a training program consisting of all the exercises that we described. See table.
*If you cannot do the number of repetitions that is written in the table, do as many as you can. Don't box yourself in.
Rest between sets should be 45 - 60 seconds. Watch the speed of your push-ups all the time, try to feel your muscles and do push-ups as slowly as possible. The p90x program has a wonderful chest and triceps workout.
We looked at several types of push-ups that will allow you to blow your chest. Try not to skip workouts and you will succeed.
P.S. While the author was writing the article, he did 80 push-ups.
Most athletes ignore exercises on the bottom of the pectoral muscles. As a rule, their program is based on basic exercises, such as bench presses and dumbbells on a horizontal bench or a bench with a positive incline. Often, they are added to the presses or the reduction of hands in the simulator, push-ups on the uneven bars and the army press on the top of the chest. This tactic seems to be quite effective for working out the middle part and top of the pectorals, but it has one drawback - it weakly works out the very bottom of the chest. This is reflected in the shape of the muscles: despite the large volume, they can be poorly drawn in the lower part and not outlined by a clear line. However, solving the problem is not so difficult. It is enough to adjust the training program and add 1-2 exercises to the bottom of the pectoral muscles to it.
Reverse Incline Bench Press
The most popular exercise for the bottom of the pectoral muscles is performed on a bench with a negative slope of 20-45 degrees with both a barbell and dumbbells.
- Set the back of the bench so that it has a negative angle of inclination. Rest your feet on the floor and fix your feet behind the rollers of the bench.
- Lie down on the bench and carefully remove the barbell from the racks. Grip - at shoulder level.
- As you inhale, lower the bar down so that the bar is at the lowest point at the level of the nipples. The bar should be as close to the chest as possible, but not in contact with it.
- Pause and push the bar up
Push-ups on the uneven bars with a slight inclination of the body
Classical dips require a strong forward tilt of the body so that it barely deviates from parallel to the floor. With this technique, the middle part of the pectorals is loaded - exactly the same as with barbell presses, just the opposite. But worth it change the slope of the body and lean forward a little less in time, as push-ups on the uneven bars begin to work perfectly on the bottom of the chest.
- Rest your hands on the bars and lift the body, tearing your feet off the floor. Turn your elbows out to the sides.
- Slightly lean forward 20-30 degrees, no more. The stronger the angle of deviation from the vertical, the more the middle of the pectorals will be involved in the work and the less the muscle fibers of the lower chest will contract.
- As you inhale, lower yourself down, spreading your elbows to the sides.
- At the bottom point, feel the stretching of the chest and take a short pause.
- As you exhale, return to the starting position and tighten your chest at the top.
Push-ups on the bar
This exercise has long been known to everyone who is used to training on horizontal bars. It perfectly works out the pectorals with an emphasis on the bottom of the pectorals, although it is a little more difficult to perform it than push-ups on the uneven bars. Recommended for those who already know how to work on the uneven bars, for beginners push-ups on the bar should be postponed until better times.
- The starting position is a handstand. The grip is slightly wider than the distance between the hips, palms facing you.
- Start lowering yourself down by bringing your legs forward to balance your torso.
- At the lowest point, the crossbar should almost touch the chest, after which it is necessary to return to its original position.
Reduction of hands in a crossover while standing
Another exercise that perfectly loads the bottom of the pectorals. It is performed in a crossover and helps to “finish off” the chest at the end of the workout.
- Stand in the middle of the crossover and grab the handles.
- Put one foot forward so that the body is more stable.
- Lean forward slightly - 30 degrees will be enough.
- Hands are located on the sides of the body so as to feel a slight stretching of the pectoral muscles. The elbows are bent and are behind the body.
- Bring your hands in front of you in a wide arc from the top position so that the handles are at the level of the navel.
- Slowly return to starting position
Reduction of hands in a crossover lying
We will not talk about the classic information of the hands in the crossover in front of you, because in this variation the exercise loads the middle part of the pectorals. But what if we completely change the mechanics and bring your hands down from the top position- same as it happens in the standing variation? This technique will shift the focus to the bottom of the chest.
- Place a bench on one side of the crossover.
- Lie down on a bench and put your feet up.
- Take the handles. We will not pull them up, as in classical information, but strictly down to the hips.
- At the beginning of the movement, the forearms are at an angle of 90 degrees to the body, and the arms are bent at the elbows also at a right angle.
- Squeeze the handles down towards the hips. During the movement, the elbows are straightened.
- At the bottom point, you need to pause for a second, and then return to the starting position.
General principles of training
- If getting well-defined pectoral muscles is your number one task, we advise you to put exercises on the bottom of the pectoral muscles at the start of the workout. In this case, you will be able to give your best, and fatigue will not force you to conserve strength.
- Don't focus on the same exercise for a long time. In this case, the body adapts easily, and progress will stop. Every 2-3 months try to change your training program and include in it new exercises on the bottom of the pectorals.
- One of the reasons for the insufficient drawing of the pectorals may not be the lack of muscle mass, but too high fat percentage. Therefore, in some cases it makes sense to focus on fat loss and cardio training.
- Try not to train pectorals more than once every 4 days. Muscles need rest and recovery. Without it, instead of progress, you can get a reduction in muscle mass.
- Try to resist the weight and focus your attention in the negative phase of the exercise. This is especially true for all exercises in the crossover.
The pectoral muscles should be pumped evenly, because the thing left in half will not look spectacular and any guy who wants a powerful relief should pump up their lower part, and this is done with simple exercises performed at home.
Young people, coming to the gym, are trying with all their might to acquire the desired forms using various types of loads, but not really understanding what effect each of them should give. Another group of men uses 1-2 exercises in order to pump all the pectoral muscles, including their bottom, but this will not be enough, because you need to take a comprehensive approach to pumping up the relief and know what kind of training and when to apply.
Experienced bodybuilders recommend starting a lower chest workout with an exercise called the negative incline bench press, because you need to use freshness and fullness of strength to pump the problem part with maximum effect.
If you perform a load on this area at the end of the workout, then there will be much less strength and the problem area will not stop being like this. In addition, it is better to increase the weight lifted and reduce the number of approaches, because the effect will become more noticeable.
The main thing to remember is that the answer to the question of how to pump up the lower part of the chest is the maximum attention paid to this zone, and for this you need to put the exercise for it in the first place.
For complex pumping of the chest, various forms of loading are used, performed at different angles, and in the case of the lower part, the system is not particularly different. A special simulator, on which you can change the slope of the lift, can help with this, for this you need to gradually change the angle.
You also need to know that there is no point in doing two identical exercises in a row, for example, a dumbbell press, and then a barbell, while being at the same angle of inclination. In such a situation, you need to at least change your position by a few degrees, and for a better effect, you can change the number of approaches. Let's say for a barbell being at a negative inclination of 20 °, 4-5 sets with a lot of weight will be considered a good load, and dumbbells can be taken lighter, change the angle to 25 ° and do 8-10 repetitions. Such experiments with weight and the plane on which the body is located at the time of the exercise will help both to keep the body in good shape and pump up the bottom of the pectoral muscles.
Performing loads on one muscle group
When the arms are brought together in a crossover or the same exercise is performed at a negative angle with dumbbells, this allows you to pump up the lower chest well, because the work of the triceps is minimal here, and the load is directed only to problem muscles.
In this case, you need to increase the load or increase the number of approaches, but it is advisable to perform such exercises towards the end of the training process.
Variety of the training process
When the same movements are performed for a long time, they already become boring, although they continue to give results, but not the same as at the beginning. To improve the pumping of the lower part of the pectoral muscles, it is sometimes necessary to diversify the training process. Change the slope more often, do exercises with shells that have not been used before, etc. You need to do this so that the muscles constantly feel something new and then the effect will be stronger.
You can also do push-ups on the uneven bars with and without weights, but to pump this zone, you should tilt your legs slightly back, and move your body forward and then the load will go to the desired muscle group.
Intense workout
Many bodybuilders are fans of training to failure, when the muscles are no longer able to lift the load, and then reduce the weight and repeat the same thing.
The technique will help to pump the lower part of the chest, if you use techniques such as:
- Drop set. It is necessary to perform the exercise with weight until there is no strength to repeat it and reduce the load by 20-30%, and then repeat the same. The pause between trips should be minimal and should not exceed 5-10 seconds;
- Rest-pause. Such a method is performed, for example, with a barbell. The maximum weight that the athlete can lift is taken and 1 lift is performed. Next, rest for 10 seconds, then again, etc. When you no longer have the strength to do this, you can reduce the weight by 25% or ask a partner to help in the final stage;
- Negatives. The positive rise of the same bar is when it is raised up, and the negative is when it is lowered down. This workout will require 2 people. The first will lift the projectile up, and the second will perform the exercise with a negative, that is, lower it slowly down.
Such techniques, combined with exercises for the lower part of the pectoral muscles, will help pump them faster, but no matter how much training, they must be combined with proper nutrition and rest.
Pumping chest muscles at home
The key to muscle growth at home is proper nutrition and constant training. In the diet of a novice bodybuilder, there should be foods containing a large amount of protein, which is important for the formation of relief. As far as workouts go, push-ups should be part of them, which will bring a lot of benefits, especially for the lower chest muscles.
You can properly do push-ups at home like this:
- For a full-fledged muscle load, 3 sets of 20 times are enough. It is necessary to work out not strength, but endurance, and therefore push-ups with a pause are the best solution, because you need to do the exercise not quickly and feel the whole load;
- To make the procedure more difficult, you can put books under your feet or clap while lifting, but initially it is better to do several sets of simple push-ups. For those who have not done such exercises before, it is better to put soft matter under their hands and gradually increase the number of approaches.
Regardless of where the classes are held, at home or in the gym, you need to know how to pump the relief, including the bottom of the pectoral muscles, otherwise you can simply deplete them and not get the desired result.
