How to Get A Bigger Chest?

March 20, 2024
Sam Andreas

Let’s face it. Chest is the most noticed and sought-after muscle in the world of bodybuilding.

It is also the most beloved and fun muscle to workout for almost every lifter beginners and veterans alike.

But getting a bigger and well-developed chest is something that a lot of lifters are struggling to achieve.

So, in this post, I’ll share with you 11 tips to help you accomplish this mission.

We will stick to the basic exercises for building the chest muscles (pectoralis muscle), namely, presses, flyes, and dips.

But I will provide some tips and tweaks in these exercises to help you develop your chest.

11 Tips to Build Bigger Chest

Follow these 11 tips and you will notice a significant difference in your chest development in the next 3 to 6 months.

1 Keep your chest up when performing ALL chest exercises.

Expand your rib cage. This is especially when you perform the bench presses and flyes. If you start to get fatigued, do not cave in as you will put more pressure on your shoulder joints (called acromioclavicular) and become vulnerable to injuries.

To help keep your chest up all the time when performing the exercise, try to keep your sternum elevated and lay your head on the bench.

Do not lift your head off the bench. This will make your chest cave in.

Correct Form. Keep your head on the bench. This will help you stick your chest out and up all the time.

2 Do not bounce the barbell off your chest.

Using much momentum will disengage the chest muscle. Control the weight on your way down when stretching.

3 Keep your elbows at a 45 degree-angle from your body.

Flaring your elbows away from your body will put a lot of pressure on your weak tissues connecting the pectoralis with the front deltoid instead of the inner pectoralis muscle. This might cause serious injuries.

Do not flare your elbows away from your body.

Correct Form. Keep your elbows 45 degrees from your body. Not flared or tucked in.

4 Do not turn the bench press exercise into a powerlifting one.

Lifting your lower back off the bench too high and keeping the legs far back will shorten the range of motion. A shorter range of motion will cause you to have an underdeveloped chest muscle.

This is not powerlifting and your mission is not to lift heavier weights!

Raising your lower back too much off the bench and moving your feet backward, will shorten the range of motion.

Correct Form. Keep a slight arch in your lower back.

5 Increase the range of motion.

Let the barbell touch your chest when stretching. When contracting go 3/4 the way up and don’t lock your arms.

6 On the incline bench, stop 1-2 inches before touching the chest.

When stretching your chest on the incline bench, avoid lowering the barbell too low to touch your chest. Stop at your chin level for a more controlled movement.

7 Incorporate "small angled" decline bench press.

Decline bench presses are great for lower chest development. However, one mistake lifters do is making the decline angel very steep.

It is recommended to set the bench at about 10-20 degrees off the floor.

As a pro tip, use a flat bench, instead of the decline bench machine, and put a plate underneath it from the front end. This is a much better angle to help you engage and develop the lower chest and prevent potential shoulder injuries.

It’s not recommended to use the decline bench machine to perform bench presses as it has a large decline angle and will put pressure on your shoulders.

Correct setup. Use a plate or two underneath one end of the bench to form a small decline angle. This will allow for better lower chest engagement. Photo credit: Alexander Cortes, P.h.D.

8 Lean “slightly” forward when doing the dips, and “slightly” flare your elbows.

The keyword here is “slightly”. Two common mistakes lifters do when doing dips are:

leaning too much forward, which puts pressure on the front deltoid, and
tucking the elbows in, which will turn the exercise into a tricep one.

To help you position your body correctly, keep your feet in front of you and not behind you. Do not keep your elbows tucked in to your body, slightly flare them.