Slayer's Den

[01dragonslayer]

If you are on the quest to building a bigger chest, chances are you’ve been putting in a lot of work but not getting enough progress.

This eight-week program is going to tear those chesticles down with familiar moves. Maintaining proper form is going to be needed, so small tweaks can mean big changes in your progress.

In order for you to get the most out of this workout, there’s going to be a few nutritional things we need to cover. The saying “muscles are made in the kitchen” is true, and I’m going to show you why.

Along with nutrition, we will cover the most common training mistakes and how to fix them. Paying close attention to workout volume and intensity is going to be a must for proper chest development.

Weeks one and two are going to be focused on overall chest development. Weeks three and four, five and six, and then seven and eight will focus on the middle, lower, and upper pecs, respectively.

Nutrition​

It doesn’t matter how hard you work in the gym, if you aren’t eating right, the gains won’t come. You need to start logging your food so you know exactly what’s going in your mouth.

Being able to pinpoint exactly how many calories you are eating will help you figure out if you need to eat more or less. It takes the guesswork out of reaching your goals.

Go over to our TDEE calculator and input your stats. You can now use this as a starting point for your calories needed. If you need to lose fat, eat fewer calories than your TDEE. If you need to gain muscle, eat more calories than your TDEE.

Where you get your calories counts, too.

I’m not saying you have to completely change your diet, but you will need to start getting more nutritious foods into your diet. A good rule of thumb is to strive to cook all of your meals using fresh ingredients.

The 80/20 rule works well here. That is, 80% of your calories should come from nutritious sources, while the other 20% can come from whatever you’d like. This means if you have a 2,000 calorie diet, 400 calories can come from whatever you’d like.

It works well as long as you log your food and refrain from lying to yourself about how many calories you’ve eaten.

You’re going to need to learn how to cook. It’s not that hard, but you need to take the time and learn.

While you’re at it, here are the top carb, protein, and fat sources I would recommend you try out.

Top Carb Sources​

• Old-fashioned or steel cut oatmeal
• Yams
• Brown rice
• Sweet potatoes
• White Potatoes
• 100% whole wheat pasta
• 100% whole wheat bread
• Beans
• Lentils
• Quinoa
• Couscous
• Butternut squash

Top Protein Sources​

• Eggs
• Whey protein
• Chicken breast
• Salmon
• Turkey breast
• Canned tuna
• Nuts
• Flank steak
• Codfish
• Greek yogurt
• Bacon
• Beef

Top Fat Sources​

• Avocado
• Almonds
• Olive oil
• Flaxseed
• Walnuts
• Salmon
• Peanuts
• Clarified butter
• Cashews
• Dark chocolate

Intensity Techniques to Build Your Chest​

Throughout this workout, there will be some exercises that you can perform your choice of intensity technique — these exercises will be labeled with a * (asterisk).

These intensity boosters work best when you perform proper form and have great technique. Choose one intensity booster per starred workout.

Choose one of these intensity techniques and utilize it on your last working set.

Forced Reps

Have your partner help you with the last few reps at the end of your set. This is going to push you past muscular failure, so your partner should only help lift with the force necessary to keep from getting stuck.

They shouldn’t be doing the reps for you.

Partial Reps

Perform reps over a partial range of motion. You could use this technique at the top or bottom of the movement.

Drop Sets

After you complete your working set, quickly strip off some weight from the bar or select lighter dumbbells. Perform reps until failure, and strip off more weight to do more reps.

Rest-Pause

Take a short rest period during your set to squeeze out more reps. Find a weight you can do for two to three reps, rest for 20 seconds, and try for another two to three reps.

Repeat for as long as you can handle.

Negatives

Training the negative means you are resisting the downward motion of a heavy weight. On the bench press, you would slowly drop the weight down to your chest and have your partner assist you on the positive portion of the rep.

8 Week Chest Workout​

Week 1 & 2: Overall Chest Development​

• Barbell Bench Press - three sets of 15 reps
• * Barbell Bench Press - three sets of eight reps
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press - three sets of 10 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Flye - three sets of 15 reps
• Decline Dumbbell Bench Press - three sets of 12 reps
• Push Ups - three sets for as many reps as possible

Week 2 & 4: Middle Chest Development​

• Barbell Bench Press - three sets of 20 reps
• Dumbbell Bench Press - three sets of 12 reps
• Bent-Over Cable Crossover* - three sets of 8 reps
• Dumbbell Pullover - three sets of 12 reps
• Decline Barbell Bench Press* - three sets of 12 reps
• Push Ups - three sets for as many reps as possible

Week 5 & 6: Upper Chest Development​

• Incline Barbell Bench Press - three sets of 15 reps
• Incline Barbell Bench Press* - three sets of six reps
• Dumbbell Bench Press - three sets of 12 reps
• Pec Dec* - three sets of 15 reps
• Incline Dumbbell Flye - three sets of 20 reps
• Decline Push Ups - two sets for as many reps as possible

Week 7 & 8: Lower Chest Development​

• Decline Barbell Bench Press - three sets of 15 reps
• Decline Dumbbell Bench Press* - two sets of eight
• Cable Crossovers* - three sets of 10 reps
• Barbell Bench Press - two sets of 12 reps
• Dips - three sets for as many reps as possible