Dummies Guide to Building a Great Chest
The Natural Way
Part 1 —
So you want a thick and full chest that will make you appear like an actual man and not some pencil neck dweeb. Before we get into the technical shit I’m going to tell you straight out the biggest reason for your lack of chest growth.
It’s your diet.
You can’t expect to build muscle, especially in your chest, when your breakfast is fucking frosted flakes or oatmeal. Take your breakfast cereal and throw it out. Instead, eat a pound of red meat or five eggs. If you want sugar so badly go eat some fruit. Why are you eating a highly processed, sugary, bowl of obesity when you can be eating healthy animal fats that also have high amounts of the highest quality protein that you can find on this planet.
“But Kenny, Sam Sulek eats a pound of cinnamon toast crunch right before his workout…” - Dweeb
With a Side of Steroids
Yeah, with a side of 10 trenbologna sandwiches. If you wish to build a great chest THE NATURAL WAY, you need to consume the right foods.
Also, you need to be getting enough protein in. I recommend a gram per pound of your bodyweight. For example, I weigh 186 lbs so I try to always get equal to that or a little over that every single day when it comes to my protein intake.
I accomplish this with only two meals per day so if you’re sitting there telling me that you can’t reach your protein goal for the day, I’m going to say that you’re not trying hard enough.
Maybe hearing my meals will help you out.
Protein and Electrolytes
My first meal is 8 whole eggs, pasture raised. 8oz of grass-fed 85/15 ground beef, 3 tbsp of raw honey, 1 banana, and 2 glasses of raw milk mixed with 100% organic maple syrup.
The total protein count for this is 114 grams. That is more than half of my goal already fulfilled through 1 meal.
The next thing that you’re going to need is electrolytes so that your body can move water around to your cells in order for you to recover and build muscle faster.
And this doesn’t come in the form of fucking gatorade or prime. Throw that shit out and consume natural sources of electrolytes. These come in the form of fruit, raw honey, 100% maple syrup, you name it. It’s not hard to find natural sources of electrolytes, so stop making excuses.
I’ll say this in every damn video I make if I have to. Your recovery stages and everything you do after a workout means a hell of a lot more than the workout itself.
Flat Bench Press
Okay so now we’re ready to dive head first into what workouts you need to be doing. First up, we have the barbell flat bench press. You can also do this with dumbbells, there’s really no difference if you’re performing both of them correctly.
First and foremost, warm-up your entire body. Do some bodyweight push-ups, band circles, bar hangs, even some jump rope. Anything that is going to get your blood flowing so that your body is ready to move some weight.
Form —
Now for correct form, we’re laying back on the bench, retracting our shoulder blades, arching our lower back a little bit, keeping our ass on the bench. Grab the bar with a decently wide grip, but not too wide.
Deep INHALE, bring the bar down nice and easy, don’t bounce the weight off your chest, elbows should follow this direction, don’t have them too tight to your body as this will use your triceps too much and you will lose depth in the contraction of your upper chest. Then, bring the bar all the way up, EXHALE, repeat.
I love doing 3-4 warm-up sets working up to the weight I’ll be burning out with. That’s because I need a lot of warm-up sets, however if you get tired easily I would recommend only a few warm-up sets. And we’re not ego lifting here. Pick a comfortable weight and feel the tension throughout your chest the entire movement.
I only do 2 working sets but they are to failure so make sure your going hard here if you are an experienced lifter, maintain proper form until the last rep.
Dumbbell Incline Press
The form is the same for this workout. However, when it comes to setting up the bench, I prefer doing this with the bench quite low at around 30 degrees, never over 40. This is because we are trying to isolate the upper chest without using our shoulders too much. Also, angle the bench seat up so that you don’t slide off.
I don’t go heavy on this workout. I prefer doing 3-4 sets to failure and I don’t even go all the way up. I’m trying to keep this part of my chest under tension the entire time.
Weighted Bar Dips
Okay, the last workout I do for chest is the bar dip. I use weight when I do these, but I understand not everyone is that advanced. However, you can get some great results by doing this with just your bodyweight.
Form —
Jump-up on the bar, don’t tuck your elbows as you will then be performing a tricep dip, angle your upper body slightly forward, and come down slowly stopping when your arms are parallel with the grip on the bar. Going any lower will increase your risk of injury and we don’t want that.
Frequency
If training to failure like I do, I would only recommend hitting chest once a week. This means 5-7 days off between each chest workout.
“But Kenny, my muscles are going to shrink if I rest that long.” - Dweeb
False.
When you’re natural, and train to failure, AND get your proper nutrition in, your body will actually build more muscle if you’re only training each muscle group once per week.
You will also maintain most of your strength which is something every man should strive for. Leave these other days of the week to workout your other muscle groups. And that is another piece of advice I would like to give. Isolate your large muscle groups. I personally keep my chest and back days separate. If I do something else on a chest day it is shoulders and I do them after every chest workout is completed.
So that is how you build a great, masculine chest the natural way.
Guys, as always, it’s been a pleasure and I will see you sometime next week.
Best,
Kenny