Chest exercises at home

By the healthiergang writer , medical student.

The pecs are a muscle that is easy to train at home. Gravity makes numerous pushing exercises possible. Obviously, optimal training can be more easily achieved with a bench press, a barbell and dumbbells. This does not mean that you cannot have good results by training at home.

Follow Giovanni's chest workout routine:

Pectoral Anatomy

Chest exercises at home | Chest workout at home Before going into the details of the exercises it is important to make some anatomical notes on the pectoral muscle. Once the functions to which this contributes are clear, it will be easier to have greater muscle recruitment without wasting time or unwanted injuries.

The pectoral has a fan shape and is mainly composed of explosive fibers and little prone to prolonged efforts.

The pectoral muscle is mainly composed of two heads:

1. upper pectoral, or clavicular part, originates from the elevated part of the clavicle and is inserted near the upper end of the humerus;

2. middle pectoral, or sternum-costal part, originates from the anterior part of the sternum and also inserts into the upper extremity of the humerus;

3. little known and also undersized compared to the previous ones is the lower pectoral, or abdominal part, originates from the upper part of the rectus abdominis and from the aponeurosis of the external oblique muscle and is also inserted on the upper part of the humerus.

It is evident that all three heads are inserted in the lateral part of the intertubercular sulcus of the humerus, it follows that all three heads have a control over the movements of the arm.

Pectoral functions

Taking the body as a fixed point, the pectoral flexes, that is, raises the humerus, extends, or lowers, adds the humerus on the horizontal plane and intra-wheel the humerus. If, on the other hand, the arm is considered as a fixed point, the pectoral lifts the trunk.

The three leaders are stimulated starting from an advantage in the position of the arm. This means that the high pectoral is most often recruited when the arm is elevated while the middle pectoral intervenes when the arm is perpendicular to the torso. The abdominal head is activated in synergy with the middle pectoral, a greater recruitment can be obtained when the arm is slightly inclined downwards.

Chest workout at home

Since the pectoral is preferably predisposed to short and intense efforts, it is important to use significant overloads or in any case have a high intensity of effort.

1. Dip

The first of our chest exercises at home is the dip. The dip is a great exercise for the pecs. Even if we do not have parallels at home, it is still possible to find a DIY solution: an elevated position that forms an angle.

This can be found in a corner of the kitchen top, between two resistant and suitably secured chairs or you can opt for a more difficult solution: dip with front grip. Simply place your hands in front and by contracting your abs and stabilizing the entire body you perform the exercise.

Chest exercises at home | Chest workout at home

When performing dips it is important to keep the shoulder blades retracted and adducted. At this point, flex your arm to form a 90 degree angle (even less if you can and if you don't have shoulder disease).

At this point it pushes back to the starting position. As previously mentioned, the main function of the pectoral is the adduction of the arm. In the concentric phase (ascent) imagine pushing your hands until they close, you will immediately feel a greater contraction of the pectoral.

2. Crosses

If you have a TRX or rings they are probably the best option you have for chest training. Even if you do not have such tools, you can use two dumbbells or put something slippery under your hands (a cloth) in order to slide your hands on the floor and use your body for resistance.

Chest exercises at home | Chest workout at home

When performing the crosses it is important to focus on keeping maximum tension on the pectoral and not on the shoulders, which must be properly retracted in order to avoid injury.

3. Pushups

Push-ups could not be missing from our list of chest exercises at home. Push-ups are the simplest exercise you can do for the chest. Only downside is that they are not a difficult enough exercise.

The movement becomes immediately more difficult if in the positive phase you try to generate a thrust such as to lift your body from the surface with which you are in contact. Or you can increase the range of motion by raising your hands off the surface.

Chest exercises at home | Chest workout at home

Another very challenging option is to try one-handed push-ups. As a preparatory exercise for this, you can try a simpler solution: placing one hand on the floor and the other on the edge of the wall in order to have only one of the two pecs do most of the work.

As with dips, it is useful to focus on bringing your hands together in order to recruit more of the bib. Also in this exercise the shoulder blades are adducted and retracted. If you want to promote the training of the upper part of the pectoral, just increase the angle formed between the torso and the arm (place the feet on a chair or place the arms further in front of the body).

These three exercises are enough to get an effective chest workout. The keys to progress are consistency, commitment and a progressive increase in work.

2. middle pectoral, or sternum-costal part, originates from the anterior part of the sternum and also inserts into the upper extremity of the humerus;