If you ever wanted to get a bigger chest fast, it’s easier than you thought. In this video, I am going to show you how to grow your chest fast with two simple tips that can be applied to your very next chest workout to help you get bigger pecs.
Whether you have a hard time putting more size on your chest or you are not genetically gifted with a large, barrel chest like Arnold, these two tips are going to be a game changer for you. As someone who has struggled to grow their chest, I know the struggle of trying everything to make a difference, but I guarantee this will help.
First up, you want to make sure that you are allowing your chest to dominate the movement. Often, we allow the shoulders to take over the brunt of the work of a chest exercise which takes away from the development that we are looking for. To do this, you want to make sure that your chest is more prominent on each exercise that you do and my cue for you to apply to your very next set, is to raise your sternum.
We are often told to bring our shoulders back, but I don’t think that that is enough. If you are consciously aware of the position that your sternum is in, you will notice that the more that you raise it and try to make it more prominent – the more activation you will be getting from each rep.
The second adjustment that you need to make, is to press through the inside of your hand. You want to press through the index finger and thumb, having them “lead the way” on each chest exercise. This will actually put your arm and shoulder in better position to allow your chest to dominate the movement as opposed to your shoulders. By leading with the inside portion of your hand, your shoulders will naturally become second fiddle to your chest on your pressing exercises.
Leading with your index finger and thumb on every chest exercise will also allow you to get your sternum and chest in the most advantageous position to allow for more chest growth. So, if we can get our chest out and shoulders back, we are putting ourselves in the best spot to grow a bigger chest.
How do we apply this to our chest workouts?
Let’s start with the popular chest exercise the dumbbell bench press. Laying on the bench, try to raise your sternum as high in the air as you can towards the ceiling and allow your shoulders to retract. This will let your chest take over the exercise and help to minimize the contribution of the shoulders. From here, when you press the dumbbells up, lead with your thumb and index finger, almost tilting the dumbbells.
Nothing too different on a cable crossover. Square up, allowing the chest to stand in front of the shoulder to start the exercise. Think about raising that sternum so that you don’t hollow out when you bring your arm out and across your body. Then, like you did on the last chest exercise, lead with the inside of your grip to make sure your shoulders stay out of the movement as much as possible.
What about the pushup, you might ask. These two adjustments apply here too. Think about attacking the ground with your sternum, especially when you reach the bottom of the rep. You can even perform a hand-release pushup to reinforce this concept. When you press your body up off the groudn, you not only want to continue to stick your chest out towards the ground, but again press through the inside off your hands like you would on the other chest exercises.
So often, when it comes to someone struggling to build a big chest, they are making the same mistake over and over again. I would say it’s even more often than not happening to the lanky and skinny guys out there, just because of their body proportions. By allowing the shoulders to become so readily involved in every chest exercise, the chest is taking on less of the work than it needs to in order to grow. By applying these two techniques to your very next chest workout, you will allow yourself an opportunity to grow a bigger chest fast.
Give it a shot and feel the difference for yourself!
If you want a step by step program for how to get a bigger chest fast, be sure to head to athleanx.com and check out the programs available. Each one will help you to build up the size of your chest while training your whole body athletically and getting you to build ripped, lean muscle.
For more videos on how to build a big chest and how to get bigger pecs fast, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube via the link below and remember to turn on your notifications so you never miss a new video when it’s published.
Build ripped athletic muscle here – http://athleanx.com/x/my-workouts
Subscribe to this channel here – http://bit.ly/2b0coMW
“FAST ACTION” Q&A* – Leave your most burning question about this video or any other training, PT or nutrition question within the first 2 hours of this video’s release (AS A SEPARATE COMMENT!!) and I will pick 8 to get a detailed reply from me right here in the comments. Answers will be posted within the first 24-48 hours of you leaving the question. Good luck!
How to add and combine the most common techniques in one workout (drop set, rest pause,ecc.)
how can I do pushups without hurting my lower back?
@Leevi he already says to consult a physician in the event of serious pain
Hi, I would like to ask about “why I should / should not include training TRX Training to my training menu for a better performance for practicing Brazilian jiu-jitsu. If I should, can you give any recommendations on how shall I use the TRX band? Thanks!
Thanks for all the great tips Jeff! I started total beast a few months ago and I already went from beast to total beast! Feel great look great!
Jeff, long time follower! I would love to see a video addressing the best methods to balance out muscle size/strength. I think most people have a dominant arm/leg,/shoulder. How can we balance out the non dominant side. Personally I notice it with my triceps, and how my shirt sleeves fit because of it.
Thanks, and thanks for all of the free advice over the years. Your videos have been my go to for many years!
@Nom Nom Well if you still actively train the strong side so it gets some proper work done its going to stay strong. So like I said the weak side will catch up and eventually their as strong. Im talking basically from the aesthetic viewpoint since Im not that interested about strength. I would myself rather have evenly big arms even a little weaker/smaller than one being stronger and bigger.
@AlwaysCheatAlwaysWin
The strong side was working with it’s 100% volume, and now you reduce it to match the weak side.
If you “still actively train the strong side” like this, it gonna get weaker compares to before.
And we’re talking about both hypertrophy (aesthetic) and strength. You can call it weak/strong side or small/big side.
There are 2 ways to make two sides the same: The weak gets stronger as the strong side, or the strong gets weaker as the weak side.
You choose the latter.
@Nom Nom Personally I do some kind of isolation beforehand or after the usual sets for the weaker/smaller side. So like before/after bench press I do 2×10 with the cable for the smaller side. Like I said I dont care about the strength so if the size different narrows Im happy.
@AlwaysCheatAlwaysWin
1. You can call it small side and big side (cuz it’s not only about strength), we’re talking about muscle imbalance.
2. Do addition volume is one way to make to fix imbalance.
But if you do this before the main workout. The weak side won’t be as fresh and has less energy to perform the workout.
And if you try to match the strong side to the same volume of the weak side, you’re reducing the volume of the strong side even further.
Bro, you’re killing your gains trying to fix your imbalance this way.
@AlwaysCheatAlwaysWin
1. You can call it small side and big side (cuz it’s not only about strength), we’re talking about muscle imbalance.
2. Do addition volume is one way to make to fix imbalance.
But if you do this before the main workout. The small side won’t be as fresh and has less energy to perform the workout.
And if you try to match the big side to the same volume of the small side, you’re reducing the volume of the big side even further.
3. There are 2 ways to make two sides the same size:
The small side gets bigger, or the big side gets smaller.
You choose the latter.
Jeff, can you make a video that goes over the different types of stretching routines you can incorporate before and after a workout?
@Nom Nom Dont belive in everything what you see on youtube. After some time every youtuber makes video “I WAS WRONG”. If you always follow one person you will make the same mistakes.
@WorkFORit
Sure, but it applies the same to listening to you on youtube.
If you believe someone’s wrong, you provide proof or explanation for your statement. Not making a general assumption and violate the red herring fallacy.
So I’m gonna choose to listen to an actual PT strength coach who’s got a degree, over someone who can’t provide proof or explanation for their statement.
If only they read and reacted to a single comment.
@Nom Nom Read books instead YouTube. Or find fitness Channel on youtube with guy which have “Doctor” in front of his name.
@WorkFORit
1. Just because it’s on youtube, doesn’t mean it’s all false or an inferior source of information.
2. You still can’t provide any proof or explanation for your statement.
3. I’m gonna leave a quote here for you to read beside your “books”:
“Jeff received his Masters Degree in Physical Therapy and Bachelor of Science in Physioneurobiology / Premedicine from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, CT (one of the top 5 universities in the country in physical therapy and sports medicine)”.
I have been a fan of you for such a long time that i know you’ve covered every possible angle in terms of muscle development. Still, if i were to ask you one thing: i would say a video about a perfect training regime for a period of let’s say 6 months. That includes training, rest days, intensity/speed, volume, and basically a whole video about all those things
Tbf that’s unlikely to happen when he is selling programmes
He has full programs on his site but you must purchase them he doesn’t give all his info out for free 😉
@KyleSG88 you are right, but he doesn”t have to say everything, just kind of an indication. Like for example how Jesse’s current routine is over such a period
@DjokerNole Cristi I go back to exactly what I said in my first comment 😉 lol. It’s not hard to figure out a plan that works for you if you watch his videos. Get yourself an arm day, back and leg day, shoulder day and chest day and throw some other stuff amongst that and see how that works for you and what exercises work best. Trial and error.
Man, even his programs are 3 months max.
You gotta make your own routine of get a program.
Just watch his videos to get an idea.
I have a question for you, Jeff. I recently began focusing a lot more on my shoulders by doing things like starting off my second push day with overhead press. But after just 2 weeks I am getting some intense shoulder pain. Is there any particular shoulder excercises I should or should not do to build my side delts and avoid the join pain? Thanks!
Are you training your back and rear delts?
List all your shoulders exercises
Q: Let’s say i’m going to train soon but starting to feel hungry, what’s the best option to eat right before a session? in other words – what food is the fastest conversion from calories to available energy for the body?
Simple carbs, i.e. sugar
stretching and warming up Jeff! we need a whole video on how to warm up
Watch this video
10 Best Mobility | Flexibility Drills (PRE-WORKOUT)
to warm up you just do the exercise but lighter
@Josiah Day
Here you watch this too
_Workout Warm Up SCREW UP! (Big Workout Mistake!)
Hi Jeff, here is my Q&A question: How long would it take an average male to reach his maximum genetic muscle building potential, assuming that he trains hard, follows structured program like PPL and gets enough protein? There is a lot of misinformation about this subject, some saying it takes 10 years minimum. What is the truth? Thanks
Hey Jeff
I’m 65 years old and am currently doing week 3 of your AX-1 program. I love the way it’s laid out. Next I will move on to the dumbbell program. Thanks
Kudos to you for deciding to work out at your age
65 good for you.. I hope you can keep it up… (Is what she said!,. Jk.).
Only Jeff could give such a great, accurate cue like this in less than three minutes. True king of YouTube fitness.
Thanks for this. I’ve always felt I wasn’t doing pushups quite right. I always felt it closer to my shoulders even with keeping my elbows down and back. Going through everything you mentioned here and only doing 6 push ups, I can feel the difference in my pecs. I’m also instructing an upper body class where I’ll be starting with pushups, so I’ll be going through all these tips.
*The mаin quality i learned here is to start today! No metter how! No еxcuses. Now I’m filming workouts form Ukraine and want to say thank you for motivating me all this years! I think I found my passion thank to you!*
The sheer amount of good advice you give, it’s insane! Nice one mate. Appreciate your work.
Loved how quick and to the point this was but still super informative.
Hey Jeff, question: I have been doing a lot of chest exercises recently and ended up messing something up between my left shoulder blade and spine. My form seems to be good, but I do have hyper mobility. Do you recommend anything to help with recovery and to prevent this from happening in the future?
Short, sweet, and to the point.
Thanks Jeff!