5 Lower Chest Exercises You Should Be Doing For Bigger Pecs

In as much as you are working on the upper chest, you should as well work on the lower chest so as to get well-rounded lower pecs. This article will provide reasons why it is important to execute the lower chest workout and how to.

Talking about your chest muscles, the chest muscles is divided into three different sections of which you can choose to focus on any, they are, the upper chest workout, mid chest and the lower chest workout. The chest muscles are identified below the collarbone. The regular chest workouts people engage in works on the entire chest muscle workout. But when it comes to beauty, working on the lower chest is essential. The lower chest muscles give the pectorals a defined, well-rounded, and an appealing look. If the lower chest is not properly worked on, your chest will not be so attractive and it will not have the shape you really desire.

The lower pecs workout doesn’t have the heads (i.e. clavicular head and the sternal head) associated to it. This does not mean you should neglect the lower chest workout. If you are focused on working out the lower chest, it will help accomplish the development of the pectorals. When you train the pectoralis muscles, you will be able to move your arms and execute workouts perfectly. When the pectoralis is constantly engaged, it will help you move your arms anyhow you want it as well as strengthen your shoulders and providing balance to it.

TYPES OF LOWER CHEST WORKOUT

Here are some Cable crossover lower chest workout that you can do:

1. CHEST DIPS:  to begin, you should hold your body above the bar with your arms locked and then lean forward. Extend your feet over and bend your knees at 90 degrees to achieve balance. Breathe in, and gradually lower your body by bending your arms ,stay put until you feel a small stretch in your chest.
2. CABLE CROSSOVER: place the pullies above your head. Take a step forward and pull your arms together and take it down as well while moving your shoulder. Allow the pulley bring your arms back.
3. DECLINE DUMBBELL PRESS: This exercise is done on the decline bench. Sit on the decline bench as you place your weights on your thighs. Lay down on the bench and twist the dumbbell while it is high above the chest level.
4. SEATED MACHINE FLYES: On the dit, make sure your feet are flat on the ground, grip the machine tightly at your shoulder level. You can adjust the seat if there is the need. Make sure you maintain a good posture, and your elbows should be slightly bent while you push the machine handles together.
5. DUMBBELL PULL-OVER: Grip one side of the dumbbell with your two hands. Place your feet on the ground and lay down on the bench in a perpendicular way. Take your arms backward over your head gradually while your elbows are slightly bent.
6. DECLINE DUMBBELL FLYES: while on the decline bench, sit well with your weight on your thigh. Lay on the bench, and put the dumbbells on the chest position with your elbows slightly bent. Open your arms slowly until your hands reach the shoulder levels.
7. DECLINE BENCH PRESS: put your two legs on your decline bench, make sure they are locked, and take the barbell to the shoulder level. Bring the barbell down slowly and then take it up back. Keep doing it; maintain the movement vertically above the ground.
8. SEATED CHEST PRESS: sit on the machine and put the handles at the mid-chest level. Make sure to press the handles forward and bring it back slowly towards you.

SOME TRAINING TIPS TO HELP BUILD THE LOWER CHEST

These are some strategies that can be put in place to ensure you have your lower chest built up. The following tips aims at that shallow lower pecs:

• You should train your lower chest first: when you place more priority on a particular chest area, make sure you begin with exercises that are aimed at that chest area and do them when you are still very much active and when you have enough energy. Here, do a lower-pec move like decline barbells press right off the bat. If you start doing declines first, you will notice that you have become stronger, especially if you usually do them later. The idea is for you to work on the target area and make it do heavy weights it hasn’t done before, don’t be afraid. If you usually do declines for sets of 10 reps, increase the weight and do 6-8 sets.
• Add another lower- pec movement later on in your workout: try so much to add more exercises when doing your lower chest workout, don’t limit yourself to only one exercise per workout. It is good to use different angles like starting with the flat bench to incline and then to decline in order to hit all the muscle fibers. The lower pec fibers can be worked in different ways for better results.

You can use your decline bench set in a different angle from the first decline exercise you did, you can also use a completely different decline machine. Make sure you avoid doing exercises that are almost the same, for instance, the decline barbell press and the smith machine decline press are done on a bench at the same angle. You should device means to have different exercises in your workout. Apart from adding another exercise from a different angle, you could work on your muscles in a different rep range. You can do a much lighter weight for 10-12 sets if you had done a heavy weight at first.

• Do single-joint exercises: when doing single-joint exercises, use a higher rep range that is slightly different from what you do for the presses. These kinds of exercises are best done at the end of any workout including other isolation moves. The decline bench flies, the high cable cross-over, and cable fly all aim at the lower pecs while excluding support from the triceps.
• Add new lower chest movements: when working out your lower chest muscles, there are just a few new choices, but if you had not done a particular exercise in a while, that particular exercise can count as a new choice different from the traditional exercise you have been used to. For instance, if you usually use the barbell, you can switch to the dumbbells and vice versa. You can also choose to make slight adjustments to the same equipment you have been using instead of having to change the equipment. If you are using the decline bench, set it above or below your usual setting. If it is the Hammer Strength decline machine, you can sit sideways on it, since the machine has independent arms; you can push your body across instead of just sitting straight.
• Create a rest day in your workout schedule: when you set aside a day for rest you tend to have more energy and it will help you store enough glycogen. You should take a day for rest and eat good food as well. Many athletes or bodybuilders use this strategy a lot and they get good results. Make sure you do not work on the delts and triceps the preceding day if you are doing a chest-muscle workout in between your training week, so that your shoulders and arms can be properly rested.
• Chip in advanced techniques for more intensity: you have to make it a habit to train past failure. You can train for 1-2 sets of different exercises, and then you will be able to reach for growth. There are quite a number of techniques you can implement to increase intensity. Some of which are:
• Heavy rest- pause: this is a very good technique, resting in between workouts is very good as it makes you stronger to be able to do more exercises. You can choose to do 6 reps. After this, you can rest for about 20 seconds, then get back to work and do 3 reps. Make it a habit to take a break during workouts, and you have to choose an exercise that is not so strenuous like a machine chest press. You can alternate this workout and rest sequence for five cycles and you will realize that you have done about 15 reps.
• Forced reps: when you begin to feel very lazy or reach muscle failure, you can tell your workout partner to assist you in lifting the weight; the presence of the person will be very helpful so there will be no room for excuses. When you are very weak after lifting a heavy weight, you can rest your arms for a while and then do a few more reps.
• Drop sets: when you notice your muscles are becoming very weak, you should reduce the poundage by 25 percent roughly and continue until you cannot do it anymore. This can be done once more when you hit muscle failure.
• Negatives:  do not end your set even if you reach muscle failure. Tell your partner to help lift the weight and then lower the weight by yourself. Keep doing as many reps as you can until you can no longer hold anymore.
• End the workout session properly: when concluding your workout, do unweighted parallel-bar dips. With your arms extended and not locked, start at the top. Take a full 10 seconds to lower yourself, and count slowly while touching your pecs and your arms. Do not press back up, put your foot on the apparatus and get back to full arm extension, and pushing off the footplate to raise yourself. Do another 10 seconds negative immediately, and walk back to the top once again. It becomes more difficult to control the speed of the descent, once you can no longer do 10reps, your set ends. At this point, you would have gotten your desired lower chest.

LOWER CHEST WORKOUT YOU CAN DO AT HOME

The following are Lower chest workout that you can do at home as they require no equipments. You might just need to do a slight adjustment at home with your furnitures.

1. INCLINE PUSH UP: You use an elevated stable surface, and the body here is in a more vertical position as compared to a standard push up. Research has it that this adjustment will bring about a decrease in the total body mass which will be lifted to 40-50% in comparison to the standard push up which will be lifted to 64% of your total body mass. The incline push up will help to reduce the angle between the upper arm and torso, and this will definitely make it the best exercise for your lower chest.
2. HINDU PUSH UP: This exercise is a 3 in one exercise; it doesn’t target the lower chest alone. It trains the chest, the shoulders and the triceps which makes it very tasking but it is very effective in building a huge and perfect upper body.
3. DIPS: This is usually done on parallel bars, and they are more challenging. It is usually done by leaning slightly forward in order to target the lower chest. Do not lean too forward as it can place more burden on your front, shoulder and middle chest. You can do dips at home by using two stable chairs or any kind of stable elevated surface.
4. SINGLE BAR DIPS: the single bar dips is a little bit more difficult to modify into a home exercise. This exercise has the same principle as the regular dip but it puts some useful twists on it. The hands are faced backward and allow the shoulders to rotate inward and the elbows are flared out, which places tension in the lower chest area.
5. PSEUDO PUSH UP: It is otherwise called planche pushups just because of the position of your hands and body when doing it looks like the full static planche hold. When doing this exercise, your hands need to be very close to the hip that is beneath the lower chest level. This will make your lower chest and your shoulders work extra hard during the exercise.

BENEFITS OF TRAINING YOUR LOWER CHEST FIBERS

Chest exercises that works on the muscles’ lower fibers helps to improve one’s ability to crawl, punch, climb, swing a tennis racquet, swing a bat, a golf club and perform any movement that requires you to draw your upper arm towards and across your body’s midline.