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When people have goals of toning the upper body, there is a tendency to focus on the biceps and triceps. But many people don’t realize all of the benefits that come with strengthening the chest.
Whether you’re looking to improve your posture, increase upper-body strength, or even increase the size of your chest, exercises that target the pectoral muscles can help. Not only do chest exercises focus on the pecs, but they also work the shoulders, arms and armpits. Yes, even helping to eliminate that dreaded armpit flab!
To reap these benefits while building lean muscle, I recommend focusing on bodyweight chest exercises and dumbbell exercises with light weights (no heavier than five pounds). Light weights and higher repetitions build lean and long muscles and will help give you a toned, sleek physique.
Chest muscles anatomy:
The chest is made up of 4 muscles:
- Pectoralis major: The largest of the chest muscles that lies under the breast bone and assists in the bending, straightening and rotation of the arm at the shoulder joint.
- Pectoralis minor: A thin muscle on either side of the upper chest that is involved in the movement and stabilization of the scapula, or shoulder blade.
- Serratus anterior: A muscle that runs down either side of the ribcage. It is sometimes called “boxer’s muscle” since it helps pull the shoulder blade forward, a movement that has to happen in order to throw a punch.
- Subclavius: A short muscle located under each collarbone that helps stabilize the collarbone and shoulder joint.
Here are five strength-training moves that will work the muscles of the chest — and five stretches to open it up.
5 bodyweight and dumbbell chest exercises
The exercises below are a mix of bodyweight and dumbbell exercises. Start with 10 repetitions of each exercise. For a full circuit, repeat for a total of three rounds. You can…
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