When you’re trying to build muscle mass, you need to focus on “compound” multi-joint exercises. Compound exercises are movements that recruit multiple muscle groups. So, with regards to chest training, a compound exercise would be the bench press and an isolation movement would be cable flies.
The bench press exercise – and pressing movements in general – are great mass builders and because of that, you really need to implement them into your workouts. You can – and you should – mix it up as well. Use a combination of barbell presses, dumbbell presses and use adjustable benches to target your chest from various angles.
Pressing on an incline will target the upper region of your chest and pressing on a decline will target the lower aspect of your chest. For optimal chest development, the best thing to do is to hit the chest from all angles. And for me personally, I’ve gotten awesome results from the flat barbell press – although it’s always a good idea to mix it up and keep your body guessing.
The flat barbell press is an incredible exercise and when done properly, it will work wonders for your chest development. You just need to ensure that you’re utilizing the proper technique and implementing the appropriate loading patterns (repetitions, amount of sets, rest in between sets etc.).
There’s actually a lot of little tricks that you can do while performing the bench press that can trigger both an increase in muscle development and an immediate increase in strength. And when I say a lot, I mean a lot!
