Maximizing Your Pec Gains: A Comprehensive Guide

The pecs are one of the most popular muscles in the human body, for men at least. Well-developed pecs are a weightlifting status symbol if ever there was one. To the degree that the first day of our work week has been dubbed, “International Chest Day.” 

But many bench press and pec fly themselves into a near coma without seeing the growth they want. In this article, we are going to put an end to that. 

There are three key factors to consider when training a specific muscle. 

1. The anatomy of the muscle. The role it plays in the human body amongst some other anatomical considerations. 
2. The fiber typing of said muscle, which will dictate the amount of reps, sets, and frequency used.
3. Line of resistance. The direction from which the resistance is coming and how to adequately apply resistance through a long range of motion. 

Also, range of motion is often incorrectly assumed to be “the distance a weight or body part travels. It’s not. ROM is equal to the number of degrees a joint flexes” against resistance. - Bret Contreras

Luckily, you do not have to read a single anatomy chapter or research study. I have the science and research right here.

Anatomy

The pecs can be divided into three different regions. Clavicular (upper), sternal (middle), and costal (lower). However, across most of the research, the sternal and costal regions are combined into one, referred to as the sternocostal. Also, the middle and lower regions seem to act totally in conjunction with each other. So for this article, we are going to stick to two primary regions. Clavicular and sternocostal. 

The clavicular head only makes up 19% of the pecs. The sternocostal makes up the remaining 81%. I would recommend you reflect on this in your training. The majority of your chest work should be flat, pressing horizontally in front of your body. 

The pecs have more functions than the majority of your other body parts. However, there are two key functions that should be highlighted. 

1. Shoulder Horizontal Flexion. This is your pecs’ primary function. Shoulder horizontal flexion occurs when you bring your upper arm from out at your side to directly in front of the body horizontally. This is essentially a pec fly motion. All regions of the pecs work together to perform this role. 

One important note, it is only considered horizontal flexion when your shoulder is internally rotated (palms facing down toward the ground). We will come back to internal rotation momentarily. 

2. Shoulder Horizontal Adduction. Your pecs' secondary function. This is still a pec fly motion. The key difference is having an external rotation of the shoulder joint. 

The pecs also play a minor role in: 

1. Shoulder Flexion. Raising your arm from next to your torso to in front of you. This is essentially a front-raise exercise. The front deltoid is the primary mover. 
2. Shoulder Extension with a flexed arm. The opposite of shoulder flexion. Bringing the arm from in front of you to your side. Think of a bent arm pullover exercise. The lats are the primary movers for this function.

Based on the above, the more you flare your elbows out (internally rotate the shoulders) while performing a pec exercise the better. When internally rotated, you train every head of the pecs simultaneously (even upper).

Another thing to consider here is the health of your shoulder joint. Internally rotating the shoulder joint also means you have less space in the joint. Placing a load on the joint in this position when you already have shoulder issues can bring some discomfort or maybe even pain. My motto is always, let pain be the guide. If it hurts the joints, adjust, or don’t do that exercise at all. 

The more you tuck your elbows in on a bench press, the more you turn the exercise into a shoulder flexion exercise, shifting the tension from the pecs to the front deltoid. If flared elbows give you pain, try a 45-degree angle between your upper arm and torso. If internal rotation during a fly gives you pain, just externally rotate.

Reps, Sets, and Frequency

Based on the research, it makes the most sense to have rep ranges and weekly volume goals that are muscle-specific. Each muscle has different requirements. 

I consider two key factors when making volume and rep range recommendations.

1. Fiber Typing. Fast twitch muscles expend energy quickly, fatigue quickly, and recover more slowly than their slow twitch counterparts. A fast twitch dominant muscle should be trained with fewer reps, sets, and less frequency. 
2. Whether the exercise being performed is compound or isolation. For example, both the bench press and the chest fly are pec exercises. However, the bench press involves other muscles, distributing the stress from the weight across more joints and tissue. The chest fly is all pec, and therefore, all shoulder joints. Performing low reps and heavy weights makes less sense in the context of an isolation exercise. Especially when the primary joint is as sensitive as the shoulder. 

The pecs are one of the most fast-twitch-dominant muscles in the body. Again this means we should use less volume, frequency, sets, and reps.

One study compared the recovery rates of the pecs, biceps, triceps, quads, calves, hamstrings, abs, and lats. The pecs were found to have the slowest recovery rate of them all. (This study was done using untrained or beginner subjects.) The pecs had not fully recovered from training five days later. 

Considering the above, here is what I recommend for optimal pec training.

Beginner Lifters:

• 2 Sessions per week with at least 72 hours of rest in between each session.
• 2-3 sets per session. I know it seems low, but the pecs sustain muscle damage easily. With all things muscle growth, you want to walk a fine line. You need to induce enough muscle damage to see growth, but not so much that the muscle can’t recover. 
• 4-8 reps for pressing exercises. 8-12 reps for fly exercises. 

More Advanced Lifters:

• 3 Sessions per week with at least 48 hours of rest in between each session.
• 3 sets per session. 
• 3-8 reps for pressing exercises. 8-12 reps for fly exercises. 

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‍Exercise Selection (Line of Resistance)

Line of resistance is everything when it comes to selecting exercises. Not only do we need to perform the anatomical function of the muscle we are training, we need to do it against resistance for a long range of motion. 

Quick aside. The line of resistance for a dumbbell or barbell exercise is always vertical and travels through the dumbbell or barbell itself. The line of resistance for a cable exercise is the cable itself. 

We want to perform horizontal flexion (or adduction). In order for us to get a long range of motion for the pecs, we need the resistance to not only come from behind the body but from the side as well. The resistance should travel medially (towards the midline of the body).  

Because of this, cables are your best friend. 

Cable chest presses, cable pec flies, and cable crossovers with your shoulder internally rotated would rank as excellent chest exercises. When performing cable chest exercises, you must perform flexion or adduction against resistance for the entire range of motion. 

Dumbbell and barbell chest exercises have a shorter range of motion than cables. The first 1/3 of a dumbbell or barbell chest exercise applies very little resistance to the pecs. This is why you can hold heavy dumbbells or a bar in an extended position for a long period of time, but will struggle in the bottom position. The resistance is very low at the top, but very high at the bottom. Whereas cables pulling outwards will apply resistance through the entire range of motion.

This is not to say dumbbells and barbells have no place in chest training. I would still rank bar and dumbbell chest presses with internally rotated shoulders very highly. 

In fact, this was a common exercise among the golden age bodybuilders. Vince Gironda, the legendary coach and author who trained Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lou Ferrigno, and Frank Zane was a big proponent of what he called “The Neck Press.” Sometimes also referred to as the Guillotine Press. The more I learn about exercise selection, the more Vince Gironda looks like a genius who was far ahead of his time. 

Here are my top 5 chest exercises:

1. Internally Rotated Cable Chest Press

2. Internally Rotated Cable Chest Fly

3. Internally Rotated Cable Chest Crossover

4. Barbell/Dumbbell Guillotine Bench Press

5. Internally Rotated Incline Chest Fly‍

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‍Putting It All Together

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Beginner Lifter

Monday: 

• Dumbbell Guillotine Bench Press 3x8

Thursday

• Internally Rotated Cable Chest Fly (Focus on feeling a stretch in your pecs at the back of the exercise) 3x12

Advanced Lifter

Monday: 

• Dumbbell Guillotine Bench Press 4x8

Wednesday

• Internally Rotated Cable Chest Fly (Focus on feeling a stretch in your pecs at the back of the exercise) 3x12

Friday

• Internally Rotated Seated Incline Cable Fly 3x12

Track and follow these Chest routines and more on the MuscleWiki app! Available on: iOs, Android

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Studies and References:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30663816/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28943236/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20512064/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25799093/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4590897/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9356931/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4120482/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16795030/

https://ignorelimits.com/the-vince-gironda-neck-press/