Top 5 Chest Training Mistakes
I love chest because unlike abs, you can show it off even if you are wearing a shirt (a really tight one though).
Chest can be the easiest and the hardest muscle to build in your body. It can be the easiest because you can work it by doing push-ups, which can be done almost anywhere. But it can also be the hardest, since by overtraining it or doing other mistakes, you will be hindering your gains. Today we are going to talk about the top 5 mistakes people make when trying to build a bigger chest.
Mistake #1. Push-ups at home will do all the work
Push-ups will significantly increase your chest size, especially if you are new to them. But if you do push-ups very often and in the same way, your body eventually gets adapted to your body weight, and you don’t gain more muscle size. That’s why you see people out there who can do an infinite number of push-ups, but aren’t big at all.
Mistake #2. The heavier I bench press—the bigger my chest is going to be
Just because bench press lets you add more weight, doesn’t mean that the more weight you can lift— the bigger your chest is going to be. Time under tension is what you are looking to increase here. You can achieve that by lifting slowly, and most importantly, in the proper form. Remember that powerlifters can lift much more than bodybuilders, but their bodies don't look nearly as good.
8-12 reps is ideal for muscle hypertrophy. More than that you’ll be doing endurance training, and less than that, you’ll be doing strength training.
Mistake #3. All it matters is how I train
If your goal is to build a bigger chest, you also have to eat well. That means you need a calorie surplus. Cutting and bulking difference stands more in the way you eat, than in the way you train. If you are constantly keeping the same body weight, add 500 daily calories to your current diet. Remember that if you overeat, you’ll also be gaining a lot of fat, together with your muscle. That’s not recommended, considering that you will then have to lose all that fat. Don’t fall into the trap of eating everything you can, just to get “bigger.” You are aiming for muscle here.
Mistake #4. A spotter helps me lift more, so I always need one
Spotters are great to help you lift more and avoid injury, but make sure that they aren’t the ones who are doing most of the lifting. Even if they only use one finger, they can significantly help you in bench pressing more weight. So yes—you’ll be lifting more, but you’ll be gaining less muscle. A good spotter will only help you if it’s clear that you can’t finish the repetition yourself anymore. Remember that it’s when you struggle to lift the weight, that gains actually happen.
Mistake #5. The more often I train chest, the better
This mistake is more often made by people who do push-ups at home every day. The muscle growth happens while that muscle is recovering, and a muscle needs 48 hours to fully recover from an intense workout. If you aren’t giving your chest enough time to recover, it won’t grow. The solution: don’t train chest two days in a row!
I hope that now that you know what you shouldn't do, you'll be more clear as of what you should do. Any kind of workout you do for your chest will benefit you, but the point of this blog is to make you struggle less while trying to achieve your goals. Please subscribe to my website for more!
For my full chest day routine, watch the video below.
Thank you!
—Bruno
