The best exercises for the lower chest. How to pump up the lower pectoral muscles: effective exercises, examples of training programs, advice from experienced trainers. Exercises for home

Everyone who plays sports wants to have sculpted and beautiful breasts. However, for many, fully pumping up the lower part is a big problem. We will talk about the structure of the chest and how to develop its lower part.

The structure of the pectoral muscles

The following muscles are located on the human chest:

  • Pectoralis major muscle. She is the largest on the chest. It is fan-shaped and flat. Responsible for lowering the arm and turning it towards the body. It's the easiest to pump up.
  • Pectoralis minor muscle. This triangular muscle is located under the pectoralis major and is attached in three places to the ribs and in one to the shoulder blade. Responsible for moving the scapula forward, as well as raising the ribs.
  • Subclavius ​​muscle. It is located between the upper rib and the collarbone and is responsible for its movement down and inward.
  • Serratus anterior muscle. It is flat and is located on the sides of the remaining pectoral muscles, overlapping them. Pulls the scapula forward and outward, and is also responsible for its rotation and elevation of the arm.
  • Subcostal muscles. From their name it is easy to understand that they are located inside the chest, under the ribs, and are responsible for breathing, raising and lowering it.
  • Diaphragm. It's not really a muscle; it's partly made up of connective tissue. It separates the abdominal cavity from the chest and is involved in the breathing process.

General principles of training

If you have just started training, then it is too early to think about developing the lower chest. First you need to pump up other muscle groups. And only when they are sufficiently trained, you can start training the lower chest.

To make it easier to pump up your lower chest, follow these principles:

  • Use several exercises at once. It is necessary that the load be distributed between all areas of the muscles located at the bottom of the chest. This cannot be achieved using just one exercise.
  • Start your workout with exercises to develop the lower chest. If you do them in the middle or end of your class, you won't be able to give it your all because you'll be tired by then.
  • Train your chest as intensely as possible and devote more effort to this than to other exercises.
  • Dedicate the training day after rest to training. It is much easier for the recovered body to invest in a certain muscle group, so the result will be much better. You can devote the rest of your training days to other muscles.

Targeted exercises

In order to pump up the lower chest, the following exercises are used:

  • . If you want to train your lower chest, during the exercise you need to place your elbows out to the sides and round your back. If you take this position, the load will be placed on this particular muscle group. It is optimal to do 3-4 approaches of 10-15 times. You can do push-ups on parallel bars with weights. Then you need to reduce the number of approaches to two, and the number of repetitions in them to 7-8.
  • . For the exercise you will need an incline bench, barbell or dumbbells. We lie down on a bench with our head down and perform the exercise. The weight and number of approaches depend on your individual capabilities. The higher the angle of the bench, the greater the load on the lower chest, the more difficult it is to perform the exercise. It is better to select the angle of inclination experimentally, choosing the golden mean, when the load is not too strong, but not too weak.
  • . When performing the exercise, you need to spread your arms, grab the handles with an overhand grip and bend your back slightly, bending your torso forward and slightly down to load your chest. After this we bring our hands together. The point of their contact should not be higher than the groin, otherwise there will be no proper load on the pectoral muscles. The optimal number of repetitions is 10. You can do 2-3 approaches. We determine the appropriate weight ourselves based on our capabilities.
  • . We lie down on a bench and ask your partner to give you a dumbbell. We grasp the dumbbell by the end with both palms so that they are directed towards the ceiling. We raise the projectile above ourselves, gradually straightening our arms. Let's exhale. We begin to lower the dumbbell behind our head, intensely drawing in air through our chest. Move the apparatus in a semicircle until you feel that your pectoral and back muscles are well stretched. At the bottom point, hold your breath for 1.5-2 seconds and smoothly return the dumbbell to its original position, maintaining tension in your elbows and exhaling powerfully.

Exercises for home

The exercises we talked about above are good for the gym. But what to do when it is not possible to visit him?

Greetings readers! Every girl will probably agree with me that a man’s pumped up chest is a sign of strength and masculinity. There is no need to talk about attractiveness to the opposite sex at all. From our male point of view, pumping up the chest is the primary task set before starting the training process.

On the one hand, everything seems simple: basic exercises with a barbell, dumbbells, add protein - and the muscles we need develop and increase. However, it very often happens later that this development and growth occurs unevenly throughout the entire thoracic region, and in the very center of it, with pumped muscles, a kind of depression is formed.

And then a completely logical question arises: why is this and how to pump up the inner part of the pectoral muscles?

Preparation for class

Surely you yourself have already noticed that the pectoral muscles, having several conventional sections: upper, lower, middle, in fact, do not have any separate muscle bundles that we could work on in isolation.
However, while pumping up the chest, we nevertheless select separate exercises for the upper part, for the lower part, etc. If it had the same anatomical structure as, for example, the delta, it would be simpler and clearer: there are isolation trainings for each beam, not to mention basic exercises.

Therefore, if someone tells you or shows you something with which you can supposedly pump up the inner part of the pectoral muscle “in isolation”, do not believe it. Any professional bodybuilder will confirm my words to you - there are no such exercises. In any workout where the chest muscles are involved in one way or another, they are fully tensed. But which department, or part of them, will receive more load depends on the angle of the torso when performing the exercises, the width of the arms and the direction of their movement - nothing more.

Therefore, as you probably already guessed, today our training will consist, for the most part, of exercises that are well known to you. Just to pump up the inner part of the chest, or to make a “cut”, as they also call it in the gym, we will adjust them a little. And, by the way, you can do most of them perfectly at home, without specialized equipment.

Exercises in the gym

But let’s be the first to pay attention to those who have already paid for their training time in the gym. I think you will agree that this will be fair.

The first basic exercise that can and should be done in order to pump up the inner part of the pectoral muscles is with a barbell, bench press. Only the grip here should be extremely narrow.

Considering that the barbell is still a heavy thing, and a narrow grip is not at all conducive to its balance, the support of a partner will be necessary here. However, do not expect much progress from such training: most of the load will fall on the triceps, and you will feel it yourself, leaving only “leftovers” for the inner chest.

The second basic one is . By the way, you can use a barbell or dumbbells.

Those who regularly attend our training sessions were probably present at the one where we discussed this exercise in detail. And I’ll tell you that for “trimming” you need exactly the breathing version of the pullover.

For those who are at a loss, not understanding what we are talking about, I will describe it in more detail. So, a breathing pullover or a pullover with straight arms.

Lie down on a bench, bend your knees and place it there. Your weight, either a dumbbell or a barbell, is on straight arms above your head. Slowly lower your hands behind your head: the lowest point is a single line with the body, if stretching allows, then you can go a little lower. No jerking. And I strongly recommend that before you begin, read our publication about this training, its technique and features.

This completes the basic exercises for the inner part of the chest. Let's move on to the so-called isolated ones, although it would be more correct to call them accented here.

And the first here will be the best thing that you can do in principle in the gym, taking into account our goal - a crossover on blocks. This training is specifically aimed at the inside of the chest! How to do it? Yes, as you wish! Standing, sitting, lying down, with one or two hands. The main thing is to try to pause for a couple of seconds at the moment of maximum load, that is, at the lowest point, thereby prolonging the peak. This is exactly how you need to act if you want to act effectively!

The second “emphasis” we will make is with dumbbells - lying on a bench. I am sure that there is no need to explain to you how to perform this exercise correctly. Let me just say that the stretch it provides is just right. There are no jerks during the execution – we work smoothly and carefully. At the lowest point we also fix for 2 seconds.

But even if you are an avid visitor to gyms, you should pay attention to those exercises that can be perfectly performed at home, without the help of exercise equipment and equipment.

Workouts at home

Let's start with one that you can actually do without leaving your home - push-ups. You probably know that the pectoral muscles in general are perfectly pumped. But how to direct the load on their interior? My answer is: do narrow push-ups, and the narrower they are, the better for you. The most effective option is when your hands stand in such a way that one palm rests on the other. By the way, it is even practiced that both palms are placed on some kind of support, such as a metal mug or something like that.

I’ll say one thing: the load here, especially if you’re not used to it, is unrealistic, and the effect is amazing! Try, most importantly, to stretch out as much as possible at the top point, tensing all the pectoral muscles. By the way, the triceps are also pumped here, be healthy!

Now let's get outside, to the nearest sports ground - we will need parallel bars and a horizontal bar.
On the uneven bars, try to do an exercise that, in essence, in its dynamics would be identical to the dumbbell fly. Anything come to mind? Yes, push-ups, but not the usual ones, namely with arms and legs on the apparatus!

Climb with your feet, right arm/leg on one bar and left on the other. The starting position is the same as for push-ups from the floor. Moreover, you need to do push-ups in exactly the same way. Why on uneven bars? Yes, because here the stretching of the pectoral muscles will be maximum, provided, of course, that the lowest point will be much deeper than the “floor” analogue. But will you try?

Another suitable and effective parallel bars exercise for us is reverse grip push-ups. Essentially, you need to approach the bars with your back, grab them with your hands, and start performing. However, you will feel the difference by stretching the pectoral muscles, and specifically their inner part.

We will also have to use a narrow grip to pull ourselves up on the horizontal bar. Why? And you will pull yourself up a couple of times, and you will immediately receive an answer to your question, having felt tension in precisely the area that until recently you considered problematic.

But it turned out to be not so difficult, right? This is the anatomy of our breasts, men.

In conclusion, I suggest watching a video about training the chest muscles. See you.

In this article we will look at how to pump up the lower chest. Since the chest muscles are conventionally divided into three zones, using various exercises in bodybuilding, you can focus the load on one specific zone.

How to pump up your lower pectoral muscles

In general, the lower part of the chest of almost all those involved in bodybuilding grows well. Here it is important to know the fact that without the total mass of the pectoral muscles, there will be no lower part, and there is no point in pumping it separately. If you don’t know how to pump up the lower pectoral muscles, then here’s the answer - focus on training the entire chest, and not individual areas of it. To do this, use exercises such as bench press, dumbbell bench press and incline bench press.

But, if, after all, the lower chest is your weak point and you want to increase this area in volume, then you should begin to focus on training this area.

What exercises to choose for the lower pectorals?

An important point when pumping up the lower chest is choosing the right exercises. The reverse slope of the bench is responsible for the lower chest. Those. An exercise such as the bench press will need to be performed head down on a reverse inclined bench. An excellent exercise would be the head down barbell press. The angle of the bench should be approximately 30-45 degrees. You can also alternate between barbell and dumbbells, performing dumbbell head down presses.

Another great exercise is dips. Perfectly pumps up the lower chest and trims it.

Video: how to choose an exercise for the pectoral muscles

To get detailed work on your lower body, use a dumbbell head-down fly.

How many sets and reps should you do?

Perform exercises in 2-3 working sets of 6-10 repetitions in each, while before working, perform 2-3 warm-up approaches with a gradual increase in weights. In dumbbell flyes, you can perform 10-12 repetitions per set.

Pectoral muscle training

Correct technique in exercises

When performing exercises, try to feel the work of your chest muscles. Lower the bar to the level of your lower chest, at the lowest point your forearms should be perpendicular to the floor. Watch your breathing, exhale forcefully.

Basic mistakes

Many people perform exercises with very heavy weights to the detriment of technique. Always avoid this as there is a risk of injury if done incorrectly.

Do not lower the bar to neck level, as this will create additional stress on the shoulder joints.

By following all these rules, you will certainly achieve good results and the question of how to pump up the lower pectoral muscles will disappear forever.

You should also remember that no matter what you train, you must eat right to gain muscle mass and recover well after training.

How to pump up the lower part of the pectoral muscles? This question should not worry those who have just started bodybuilding, because the primary task at this stage is to strengthen the body and prepare the basis for building muscles. In the first months, there is no need to think about pumping up the lower chest. As you get stronger, you can target specific parts of each muscle to maximize your desired results. Below we provide recommendations for developing the lower chest at home and in the gym.

Working out the lower chest at home

We will practice at home and in any yard where there are low horizontal bars and parallel bars. First, we'll tell you how to pump up your lower chest with push-ups. This is the most successful option, as it does not require a special body position in which your head is lower than your legs. Many people recommend special supports for push-ups - we agree with them, because the option with books is not the best idea.

Push-ups on books

This option is convenient because we can change the height of the stands. And it’s (very) inconvenient because books can fly out from under your hands. As a result, we fall face down on the floor. From the outside it’s funny, but from the first person it’s often painful. Let's get back to technology:

  1. We put a couple of books and rest our hands on them. The legs are straight and stand at a distance of 10–15 cm from each other. The palms are oriented with the fingers forward and inward. Hands shoulder width apart.
  2. We sink as low as possible (this is why we need books, so as not to rest our faces on the floor when we can sink even lower).
  3. At the lowest point, you can stop and freeze for 2-3 seconds for maximum load on the chest.
  4. We do 3-4 sets of 15 repetitions without weight and 6-8 repetitions with weights.

We do not recommend doing push-ups on books with weights - it will hurt to fall.

Why are books needed? It is necessary that at the final lower point above the body is higher than the legs. With this arrangement, the chest begins to be loaded from below.

Push-ups on special supports

This is done in exactly the same way as on books. The huge advantage is that you won't fall. The technique is the same.

Push-ups from a bench or cabinet

This is the best option to work the lower chest. It's both convenient and safe.

We rest our hands on the bench (fingers pointing inward and forward), legs slightly apart. We do push-ups until our torso touches the bench. Here you can also use a weight in the form of a backpack with weight.

Dips

  1. Place your arms wide apart. If the bars are not sliding, then we place our elbows to the sides. We don't make any "boats" here. We slouch a little to round our back and begin an even up-and-down movement. There is no need to fully extend your elbows.
  2. We do 10-12 repetitions in 3 sets without weights or 6-8 repetitions with weight.

On the horizontal bar

A very interesting and complex exercise that helps in practicing the “exit with force on two arms” element. If you are good at pulling yourself up, you can do it on a regular horizontal bar. If not yet, it is better to choose a low horizontal bar so that it is at the level of your head:

  1. We grab the horizontal bar with a straight grip, hands at a distance of 20–25 cm from each other.
  2. We jump and stand on the horizontal bar with straight arms. The pelvis rests against the crossbar.
  3. We lean forward a little and begin to lower ourselves, spreading our elbows to the sides. We go down as low as possible, after which we return to the starting point.
  4. We repeat the exercise 6–8 times.

We pump up the lower chest in the gym

We have the following exercises at our disposal:

  • Bent-over dumbbell press (legs above head);
  • Bent-over barbell press (legs above head);
  • bringing your arms together in a crossover (arms below your chest);
  • bars again.

Bent over dumbbell and barbell press

Let's be honest, the dumbbell press is performed exactly the same as the barbell press, so we'll look at both exercises here. We will need a wall bars and an inclined bench that can be mounted on this wall at any angle. We hang the bench 30 degrees down.

  1. We take dumbbells (we start with a warm-up) weighing 5 kg, leave them on the sides of the edge of the bottom of the bench.
  2. We lie down on the bench with our feet up (we attach them to special bolsters that should be on the bench). Now you are hanging upside down. Take dumbbells and place them in front of you so that there is a right angle between your hands and the floor.
  3. Unfold the dumbbells as if you were holding a barbell. Lower the weight onto your chest, spreading your elbows to the sides.
  4. We lift as we exhale. Don't hold your breath!

Then we take working weights and work out. If you find it difficult to lift the weight yourself, ask a trainer or partner. Usually you pick up one dumbbell yourself, and the second one is handed to you by your partner.

If you are working out with a barbell, your partner must remove and deliver the barbell. He also insures you during the exercise.

The lower your head, the more load the desired part of the chest receives. You can lower the bench either 45 degrees or 60.

Bringing hands together in crossover

We will deal with the upper blocks. We hang handles on the cables that are easy to grip with one hand. We warm up with 2–4 kg to understand the essence of the exercise and the technique of movements:

  1. We spread our arms to the sides and grab the handles with a direct grip, palms down. We slouch a little to tighten our pectoral muscles. At this moment, you look like an eagle during the landing, when it slows down with its wings (usually, such a comparison immediately clarifies all the points).
  2. We move one leg back for stability. We tilt the body forward and slightly down. The lower back is arched, the pelvis is laid back.
  3. We begin to bring our hands together, the crossing point will be at the level of the groin or lower. This position ensures pumping of the lower pectoral muscles.
  4. We do 10 repetitions. Then we hang the working weight and perform 3 sets of 10–12 repetitions.

Bars in the gym

If you do 15-20 push-ups, there is no point in working without weight:

  1. Ask the trainer on duty for a special weight belt.
  2. Do 15 push-ups as a warm-up.
  3. Do 5-8 push-ups without weight (if you have enough strength and can do many push-ups without weight, 10-15 times will do for a warm-up).
  4. We hang the pancake on our belt. We carry out the working approach using the technique described above.

Let's go as low as possible. For greater effectiveness, it is recommended to stretch on the parallel bars before doing push-ups. To do this, grab the handles in the same way as when doing the exercise, then gradually lower yourself down, supporting your body with your legs. This will allow you to go deeper during the push-ups themselves.

Combinations of exercises

How to pump up your lower chest when there are so many exercises? It's simple - we'll combine them.

Home option 1:

  1. Push-ups from a chair, bench, bedside table, sofa.
  2. Push-ups on parallel bars (yes, you read that right, it’s on parallel bars – you’ll have to go out into the yard or buy parallel bars for your home).
  3. Push-ups from supports or books for stretching.

Home option 2:

  1. Push-ups from any support.
  2. Push-ups from the horizontal bar (let's go into the yard again, you want beautiful and powerful breasts?).
  3. 1 approach on uneven bars.

Gym option:

  1. Press the barbell upside down.
  2. Weighted bars.
  3. Crossover.

Typically, the beginning of a chest workout is a bench press. If you have it, then you can get by with push-ups and finish working on your chest in a crossover.

Problems and errors

Often we simply don’t know the correct technique, so when doing a chest workout, we work more on our triceps. And when we start training them, it turns out that there is no strength left. The same is true for the lower pectoral muscles.

You need to follow the technique exactly. And remember, every body is individual. Over time, you will learn to feel what works for you and what doesn't. And you can experimentally achieve the performance that is most useful for your case.

When training upside down, some difficulties may arise:

  • darkens in the eyes;
  • there is noise in the ears;
  • intracranial and blood pressure increases.

This is very undesirable for people over 30 years old. Therefore, you should not lower the bench below 30 degrees. Why do you need such extreme conditions? It is better to work on uneven bars and crossover.

It’s easy to check whether you can do bench presses like this or not. Just lie in this position for 30 seconds. Then stand up sharply. If there are ripples in the eyes, noise in the ears, dizziness, it is dangerous for you to train in this position.

Learn how to add volume to your lower bust area and make your breasts appear more defined and defined. Read 8 important rules and apply them in training!

In most cases, during training, the middle and upper sections of the pectoral muscles are worked out, while the lower one remains unattended and if you train, then with the thought - a couple of times a year is enough, and so it works hard.

Although the lower part of the pectoral muscles is the first to stand out both on the beach and in a T-shirt, it is the most massive part of the pecs, which gives an attractive view of the torso from the front and emphasizes the strength and health of its owner. Read on to find out how to close the gap in this problem area.

1. Train the lower area first

Usually on the day of training the pectoral muscles, visitors, having completed and, go to, then go head up and rarely the third exercise upside down, only dumbbells can also be used. Working in this sequence, devoting only the third exercise to the lower chest, you will spend a lot of energy and will be greatly reduced.


In the same way, having crossed the threshold of the gym and keeping in mind the goal - how to pump up the lower part of the chest, you should immediately go to the barbell press upside down, making it the first exercise.

This is the only way you can work out your muscles well when you are full of energy and strength, engaging the most dormant muscle areas in the work, do not be afraid to take the weight for 6-8 repetitions, but use the help of a spotter, due to the inconvenience of performing the exercise, it may fall on your neck, oh the consequences of thinking do not need to be said.

2. More exercises for the lower chest

This is the first rule that should immediately come to mind when it comes to pumping up the lower chest.

To do this, you need to pay attention to different exercises from different angles in order to include more muscles in the work and work them from all sides. To do this, use a different angle of negative inclination, set each new exercise at different angles, preventing their repetition.

An example of basic exercises is as follows:

  1. Dumbbell head down press
  2. Smith machine press with negative incline
  3. Angled push-ups (torso at a 30-degree angle pointing upward)

3. Add isolation exercises

After completing the main basic exercises, activating muscle growth, finish off tired muscles by pumping them up
blood into specific areas for a more expressive, detailed appearance of the breasts.

For this task, the best solution would be the following exercises:

  1. Removing hands from the lower block in a crossover on a bench upside down
  2. Placing dumbbells on a bench upside down

4. Train your chest after a full day off.

This method is used by fitness and bodybuilding professionals, a full day off allows muscles to improve and reduces the risk of . Moreover, do not train the anterior section and at least 1 day before the chest, otherwise you will tire them out and you will not be able to work the chest well.

5. Incorporate new exercises

Of course, the arsenal of exercises for targeted pumping of the lower chest is not large, but this should not confuse you with the solution to the question of how to pump up the lower chest. If you have been working in a machine, it’s time to change it to dumbbells and barbells, change it every time, change the angles of the gymnastic bench and the back of the exercise equipment, introduce innovations and variety.

All this will allow the muscles not to get used to the load and cause them to always experience stress, which means they grow.

6. Push-ups on the uneven bars with emphasis on the chest

Regular parallel bars work great on the chest and triceps, the main thing is to know the correct technique, then you can direct a more targeted load specifically to the lower area, namely:

You need to do push-ups with your body tilted forward, at about an angle of 30-45 degrees; for the first time, you can ask your partner to slightly raise your legs up, which will make it easier to keep your body at an angle.

During the movement, the elbows should diverge to the sides, and not press against the body, the angle between the body and the elbows is about 45 degrees, this will allow the load to be taken from the triceps and sent to the chest.

When doing push-ups, do not straighten your elbows completely at the top point; this will allow you to maintain the load in the chest muscles and achieve faster results.

7. Train effectively

Don’t forget that there are many, don’t forget about them, but actively implement them:

When you can no longer lift the barbell or press the levers on the machine, ask your partner to help you push the weight almost completely up, while lowering the weight yourself. Perform it in the last 1-2 sets of the exercise.

Breaks the usual approach into smaller ones. For example, you have 8 in your plan repetitions, you did 3 repetitions, returned the bar to the racks and rested for 20 seconds, then again 3 repetitions and rested for 20 seconds, and so on until you pressed at least 2 times.

– an excellent way to increase muscle volume for a short time; after completing the required number of repetitions, you can quickly reduce
weight by 25% and again perform the same number of repetitions as in the first case and so on, reduce the weight, reach the empty bar without rest, your chest will fill up and at least for a while you will feel like Hercules.

Training is performing an exercise when in the last repetition you feel that the apparatus will simply fall out of your hands due to complete physical and emotional fatigue.

– involve the help of a partner who slightly helps lift the weight, while the weight is lowered independently without help.

The main thing is to know that these methods cannot be used constantly, only from time to time, otherwise the muscles will go into plateau(stagnation), which means a complete stop in muscle growth.

8. Negatives on the uneven bars at the end of the workout

The basic rules for push-ups are described in paragraph 6, and here you perform a regular push-up.

To do this, lower yourself on the uneven bars for 10 seconds, and immediately, without resting, use your legs to rise up and down again. Do this until you can’t lower yourself for at least 5 seconds, this will put a huge load on your lower chest.

You can use another method: warm up slightly on the uneven bars, put the weight on your belt and only lower your body down, the weight should be decent. You need to lower at a normal pace for 1-2 seconds, but be careful, any incorrect movement can injure the shoulder joint, so this type is only for gym experts.

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