It was a joy to return to the gym today for a full-length (hour and a half) workout.
Today my focus was on chest exercises. I'm certainly no expert, but I think most lifters would agree that there are least 3 things you should do if you want to build a bigger chest.
1. Focus on keeping your chest and your ribcage lifted up and your shoulder blades back through each chest movement. This will keep more tension on your pecs and less on your rotator cuffs and your shoulders. When I first started lifting, I failed to do this and injured my right shoulder.
2. Prevent locking at the top of each movement. Not locking out your arms will help keep tension in your pecs and thus help break down the muscle tissues.
3. Incorporate a lot of variety into your chest exercises. Today I mixed things up between an incline dumbbell bench press and a flat bench barbell curl. Not only are these two exercises great for building an overall bigger chest, but they are the two exercises that will cover the upper chest, the lower chest, and the overall pecs fully. You should at least start with these two exercises to build the foundation of your chest growth.
I would only add here that if you want to do cardio on the same day that you do your gym workout, it's best to do that after you have completed your strength exercises. It is simply not a good idea to try and rotate between exercises designed to increase your strength while attacking your body with cardio exercises as well. Today I went from the gym to the High Bridge Trail in Farmville.
During the one and a half hour drive there my body was able to recover from my weight training session. I then ran for a few miles on this beautiful trail on a day when the weather was absolutely perfect for running.
Thanks for reading!