Developing your chest muscles is not an easy task, but the trick is to learn how to work each section, rather than only working out one section over and over. To achieve the "chiseled" look, you will have to develop both your upper and your lower chest, rather than one or the other.
Your lower chest muscles are referred to as the “sternal head,” and they make up most of your pectorals. However, your upper chest has another separate muscle section called the “clavicular pectoralis," which is often neglected when working out. The best chest workouts will place equal emphasis on both sections of your pectoral muscles in order to reach optimal strength, mass, and aesthetics.
Building Mass
The pectorals are a rather large muscle group that need to be trained with heavy resistance and progressive overload in order to build mass. This means that heavy lifting with three to eight reps for all chest exercises is necessary for stimulating maximum growth and hypertrophy.
This type of workout should include bench pressing a weight that is close to your one rep maximum. A good rule of thumb is to choose a weight that is about 70% to 80% of your one rep maximum and practice compound movements to achieve the best results.
Strengthening
While many people will focus on pec dec machines to try to build strength in their chest muscles, this is probably not going to get you very far if you are trying to build muscle. Instead of using fancy machines, stick to the proven basic workouts that will actually work.
There are three main workouts that are the best at strengthening your chest muscles. These include: barbell and dumbbell bench presses, barbell and dumbbell incline presses, and heavy dips. Stick to these simple exercises in order to get the most strength out of your chest workout routine.
Full Development
Most people focus 90% to 95% of their chest workout on their lower-mid pectoral muscles without even realizing it. However, you should actually be focusing an equal amount of your attention on your upper chest muscles if you wish to have a chest that is fully developed. Even though your upper chest muscles are much smaller than the lower chest muscles, they are the most stubborn for growth, which is why they need just as much attention.
If you are looking to increase your bench press maximum but seem to be stuck at the same limit for a while, you may need to focus on your upper chest muscles in order to achieve the breakthrough you are looking for.
Workouts that focus more on your upper chest muscles include movements that spread your arms out to your sides, rather than straight up and down. Additionally, compound movements will also help to work your chest muscles. These involve using more than one joint when bench pressing, which will apply more pressure to the workout and make it more effective.
