Getting to know your body will take you further in your training by leaps and bounds.
For example, if you know that you have less energy in the morning than the afternoon, plan your workouts accordingly and save your heavy training days to the afternoon or evening when you have more energy.
The same is true with anatomy. If you know how your muscles work, then this will help you train more efficiently, as you can visualize the muscular movement when perform your exercises.
So, let’s get to know the muscles in the chest a little better. Every muscle has an origin and insertion point. The origin is a fixed point, usually a bone, that anchors the muscle. The insertion point attaches to the movable bone. So when you contract a muscle, it moves from the insertion to the origin. The chest is made up of the pectoralis major and minor – affectionately known as the pecs. The major pec originates at the breast bone or sternum and fans out across the chest to insert at the humerus (upper arm) close to the shoulder joint. Its primary function is to move the arm across the body in various directions.
The minor pec lies under the major pec and originates at the middle ribs, inserting at the coracoids process of the scapula (shoulder blade) – what I like to call your angel wing nubs. Its primary function is to move the shoulder forward like you would if you were shrugging your shoulders forward.
Alright, so that’s that for the anatomy lesson. Let’s move onto the fun stuff. How to build a killer chest with supersets. Supersets are when you stack exercises right after the other with no rest in between and usually occur in pairs. Supersets are super-demanding and should be done at the beginning of your workout when you have the most energy. They should also be used sparingly so that you avoid overtraining.
Killer Chest Supersets
Superset #1
- Incline Dumbbell Press
- Dumbbell Flys (palms up)
Superset #2
- Dumbbell Press (from the hip)
- Dumbbell Flys (thumbs up)
Superset #3
- Incline Flys
- Knuckle Push-Ups (arms wide)
Superset #4
- Knuckle Push-Ups (arms wide)
- Dumbbell Flys (bring dumbbells parallel to meet in the center)
- Dumbbell Press
Perform about 10 reps for each exercise (or to failure) and repeat each circuit 3 times and watch that chest grow and deepen.
