How to Get a Big Chest Without Going to The Gym

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(Newswire.net — April 10, 2020) — With everyone forced to spend all day indoors right now, how can you keep hitting your fitness goals when you can’t make it to the gym?

Specifically, how can you make sure you don’t lose the size and definition in your chest muscles as you hunker down in these challenging times?

Luckily, bodyweight exercises are highly effective. Research shows that no-load resistance training can still deliver muscle growth as long as you’re also eating right.

Before we walk you through an easy route to bulging pecs, a few words about the correct cadence to use when you’re exercising.

Two training concepts are especially valuable when you’re working out using your own body weight:

  • Time under tension
  • Explosive power

Translated into plain English, when you’re lowering yourself – the negative portion – you can increase your time under tension by taking 3 to 4 seconds on the descent. With a push-up, for example, lower yourself slowly to the floor taking several seconds. On the positive or lifting portion of the movement, push your body explosively upward. Using the same example of a push-up, you would burst back up to the starting position.

OK, with that simple groundwork laid, what exercises work well for chest-building if you can’t get to the gym?

6 Routes To Great Pecs During Lockdown

  1. Push-Ups with a Twist 5 Ways

  2. Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups

  3. Chest Dips

  4. Planks

  5. Sliding Chest Flys

  6. Sit-Ups

1) Push-Ups with a Twist 5 Ways

Pretty much every major athlete uses push-ups as part of their exercise regime.

They will target your chest along with your arms and core time devoted to push-ups is time very well spent.

Here are some handy ways to step things up and make push-ups even more challenging…

  • Clapping: Try clapping explosively at the peak of your push-up. This will help you develop more people while packing on some size.
  • Diamond Grip: Position your index fingers and thumbs so they form a diamond. This narrow and inverted grip really ramps up the intensity of a workaday push-up.
  • Feet Elevated: Use a box or a bench to pick your feet up. The higher you raise them, the more effort you’ll need to put in.
  • “T” Push-Up: A truly audacious slant on the push-up, you’ll give your whole body a workout. This variant targets the shoulders, core, and back, not just the chest.
  • Wide Grip: This very simple tweak in your stance gives the chest an extra burn. Just place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart so your chest picks up more of the strain than your triceps and shoulders.

You can perform a push-up with almost infinite small tweaks like the above but those 5 mods should get your started and give you the perfect lockdown chest warm up.

Ready for something even more challenging?

2) Pull-Ups and Chin-Ups

Pull-ups are not for the fainthearted and you will require a bar that supports your whole body weight.

If you’re game, pull-ups represent one of the finest mass-building exercises at your disposal.

While you might hear the words pull-up and chin-up used interchangeably, there’s a key difference between these exercises…

With pull-ups, you position your hands facing away from you. When your hands are facing toward you, you’re performing chin-ups rather than pull-ups.

Start very slowly since you can very easily strain yourself. 

Feel no shame at all if you can only do a single proper pull-up when you get started. Work your way up to full sets. There’s no rush.

3) Chest Dips

Chest dips are a superb way to get the most from your calisthenics workout.

Dip stations at the gym are purpose-built but you can easily carry out some chest dips between a couple of chairs or anything else that will support your body weight and allow you to hold yourself up.

When you’re dipping, keep your head neutral and remain tilted very slightly forward.

If you’re specifically targeting your chest, don’t lock right out at the top of your movement. This will keep your pecs taut.

Use a wide grip if you want to strengthen your chest and narrow the grip if you want to give your triceps a quick blast.

Although dips look simple, they can get tough to rep out.

4) Planks

The iconic plank puts your chest through its paces with almost no movement required.

How can you plank, then?

  • Adopt a standard push-up position then take your whole body weight using your forearms
  • Remain in this position for as long as you feel comfortable

Putting great demands on your chest, legs, and core, planks can be assimilated into any workout and performed with absolutely no equipment at any time.

5) Sliding Chest Flys

A chest fly focuses on the eccentric contraction of the chest. This is the stretching part.

With flys, you’ll also manage to target your inner chest. This helps to guarantee you great symmetry with the development of your inner and outer chest.

The sliding version is simple yet highly effective. 

You’ll need to find a hard floor that’s slippery enough for a little movement.

Here’s what you do:

  • Start in a push-up position with your arms shoulder-width apart and your hands on the floor. Place a T-shirt or cloth under each hand.
  • Rather than dropping your body weight like with a push-up, slide both hands away from your body until your chest is always touching the ground.
  • Slide back squeezing your chest hard throughout the motion.

6) Sit-Ups

This last exercise might surprise you in a list devoted to your chest.

Well, sit-ups obviously strengthen your core. This is relevant for two reasons:

  1. An improvement in core strength allows you to lift heavier weights and to better employ both upper and lower body muscles.

  2. You’ll become more flexible and develop improved posture.

Here’s how to roll some standard sit-ups into your chest-based routine:

  • Lie flat on your back, ideally on a mat
  • Keep your knees bent with your feet on the floor
  • Interlock your fingers with your hands at the bottom of your head right above your neck
  • Raise your body until you’re almost in a seated position
  • Slowly lower yourself back to the starting point
  • Repeat through as many reps as you can

Final Thoughts

Well, incorporate the above routines into your workouts at home and you might not bother renewing your gym membership when this isolation period is over.

Eat well, keep working out hard, and there’s no reason to watch those hard-won gains slip away just because you can’t get to the gym for a few weeks.