Building muscle mass has never been easy: it's the heavyweights and intensive reps that will allow you to target the muscles so you can rip the tissues apart and build bigger and leaner muscles.
But when our primary target is the pectoral muscle, also known as the chest, the whole process becomes even more challenging.
Even though building a solid chest is a difficult task, it isn't impossible. Thus, we've curated an amazing push and stretch chest workout plan that will persuade you to start lifting heavy weights and rev up your reps and sets.
Benefits of Building a Stronger Chest
Before moving on to the workouts, you must understand a stronger chest's various benefits. Understanding the benefits will help you set clear goals and envision your achievements.
A positive approach and a clear mind are the perfect way to set sailing on a new journey!
1. Improved Posture
A solid chest is a prominent part of our body and is very important for maintaining correct posture. Exercising the chest muscles allows you to stand tall and stabilize the shoulder joints, helping you to maintain an upright posture.
2. Improved Body Functionality
Whether you're a man or a woman, having a strong chest is beneficial for both. A sturdy chest not only helps you walk correctly with a correct posture, but it also allows you to move around freely and lift heavy things easily, without spraining or straining the joints.
3. Increased Upper-Body Strength
One of the significant benefits of a solid chest is increased upper body strength. Whether you're pushing or lifting heavy weights, moving around heavy furniture, or even carrying around kids in your hands, having extra upper body strength never hurts.
Workout Description
|
Main Goal |
Build Muscle |
|
Workout Type |
Single Muscle Group |
|
Training Level |
Intermediate |
|
Program Duration |
12 Weeks |
|
Days Per Week |
1 |
|
Time Per Workout |
45-60 Minutes |
|
Equipment Required |
|
|
Target Gender |
Male & Female |
Exercising the chest muscles, be it for men or women, can help them move around and perform everyday tasks much more quickly, without straining their back muscles due to compromised body posture and weak muscles.
With changing working dynamics and more people working from home, without a proper working setup has resulted in poor body postures, lower back pains, and weak joints.
Our 12-week extensive chest workout program is a specially designed push and stretches workout plan that targets the chest and other joint muscles.
Since our chest muscles are one of the most challenging areas to target, the push and stretch method of exercising is incorporated. In this method, a combination of exercises has been used that push and stretch your muscles alternately to engage them thoroughly.
This push and stretch workout plan for a killer chest is ideal for both men and women and requires 45-60 minutes of your week for the next consecutive 12 weeks so that you can achieve your dream physique.
Related Article: Exercises for a Defined Chest
Target For 12-Week Chest Workout
For the next 12 weeks, the target is to dedicate 45 to 60 minutes once a week to exercise the chest muscles. This is an intermediate-level guide, and for these workouts, you will need to have access to gym gears like barbells, body weights, cables, and dumbbells, so you can perform the workouts with proper form and won't end up getting hurt.
Apart from this, the given chest building workout plan is designed to keep the workouts interchanging, with a few new exercises in between. These may seem to be easy at first, but they aren't. Every couple of weeks, the reps and sets will keep increasing with reduced breaks in between, which will challenge your limits like never before.
Related Article: Weighted Dips: Your Ultimate Solution to Building Your Chest, Shoulders, and Triceps Muscles
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The Workout Program
To help you track your goals efficiently and keep an eye on your body's progress, we've divided the workouts into 3 sets of 4 weeks. For every four weeks, you will be following one workout pattern once a week for 45 to 60 minutes, along with your own back and full-body workouts.
We will start the chest building plan with simple workouts and a few reps and sets. These workouts will keep on jumbling up and down with the increased number of reps and sets and reduced number of breaks that will allow you to defy your boundaries.
Week 1 – 4
In the first 4 weeks, you will follow the below-mentioned exercises in the given pattern. All the workouts for this session have 2 sets with 8-12 reps each and a 90-sec break in between.
This pattern will help you build up your stamina and familiarize your chest muscles with exercising vigorously every week. You will be getting cramps at the start, but following a proper warm-up and cool-down procedure will help you to reduce the pain.
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
Rest (secs.) |
|
2 |
8-10 |
90 |
|
|
2 |
8-10 |
90 |
|
|
2 |
10-12 |
90 |
|
|
2 |
10-12 |
90 |
|
|
2 |
12 |
60 |
|
|
2 |
AMRAP |
60 |
Week 5 – 8
If you've made it through your first 4 weeks, then I can easily say that you've got the strength and passion for reaching your goals. By this stage, either way, you must have started to feel some increased power and better shape than before.
If you haven't seen any progress, you don't have to worry because everybody is different, and we still have a long way to go.
So, for this week's workouts, you will be following the workouts mentioned above along with a few new exercises, but all with an increased number of reps and sets and reduced rests.
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
Rest (secs.) |
|
3 |
10-12 |
60 |
|
|
3 |
10-12 |
60 |
|
|
3 |
10-12 |
60 |
|
|
3 |
10-12 |
60 |
|
|
3 |
10-12 |
30 |
|
|
3 |
AMRAP |
3 |
Week 9 – 12
Now that you've stepped into the final stage of your chest push and stretch workout plan, you need to pat yourself on the back, as reaching this stage requires serious dedication, consistency, and patience, along with the hard work which you've shown profusely.
In the last weeks, you must be seeing some changes and increased strength in your chest. Muscles must have started to replace the fat in your chest area, and the skin would be getting tighter, and you should be feeling your body change for the better.
From this week till the 12th week, you will be performing almost similar tasks but with increased reps and sets and very little rest in between. These last few weeks will challenge your limits and help you break through any growth plateaus.
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
Rest (secs.) |
|
4 |
12-15 |
25 |
|
|
4 |
12-15 |
25 |
|
|
4 |
12-15 |
25 |
|
|
4 |
12-15 |
25 |
|
|
4 |
12-15 |
25 |
|
|
4 |
AMRAP |
10 |
Conclusion
Exercising the chest muscles is not an easy task but an important one. Having a strong chest helps you improve your body posture and enjoy a greater range of motion in your everyday tasks.
When exercising your chest muscles, it is essential to incorporate a push and stretch strategy to engage your muscles properly. Moreover, you need to make sure that you are training your back simultaneously, or else you will end up with a slouching posture and even a hump in the worst-case scenario.
