A toned chest: A complete chest workout for women at the gym

The Muscles: An Overview

Because women's breasts are made up mostly of Adipose (fatty) tissue, and contain no muscle, exercise alone will not change their size or shape directly. However by working the muscles in the chest you can help support the breasts and give them a natural lift.

Your chest muscles are composed of the pectoralis major and minor. The pectoralis major is the bigger chest muscle and travels from the collarbone to the sternum, attaching to the upper arm. The purpose of this muscle is flexion and adduction of the shoulder as well as inward shoulder rotation. The pectoralis minor is a small triangular muscle located under the pectoralis major and also helps with shoulder flexion, adduction and rotation.

The Workout

Working out with a trainer is your best bet to ensure you train all the muscles of your chest and in the most challenging and beneficial way. However, sometimes a personal training session is impossible so when you find yourself in that position, pick up this sheet and let it help guide to getting a great workout.


Warm Up

Before you start your strength-training workout be sure to warm up. Warm muscles respond better to exercise and a warm up will also help prevent any injuries. Spend about 5-10 minutes on a stationary bike, Stairmaster, elliptical or treadmill.

Now that you’re warm, let’s get started

While your chest is comprised of large muscles, you can use fairly heavy weights, but since you probably aren’t looking to build bulk, but rather shape and strengthen, use light weights and do more reps. Aim for 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps each.

Barbell Pullover

• Lie flat on your back on a flat bench.

• Grab barbell (an EZ Curl bar, with the bend is ideal), hold the bar above your chest with your elbows slightly bent.

• Slowly lower the barbell back so as to stretch your arms (and the barbell) back behind your head as far as you can reach. Your arms and the barbell will actually go behind/above your head and will drop down below the bench- this will really give you a great stretch! Be sure to keep your abs tight.

• Return the bar to the start position slowly, focusing on keeping your elbows locked in the slightly bent position.

• Don’t rush the movement and exhale on the exertion.

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

Incline Bench Cable Fly

• Place a free standing incline bench in between a cable pulley machine that has pulleys on two sides. Position yourself with your back lying on the incline bench.

• Grab a pulley in each hand (you may need a friend to help get you set up). Be sure your arms are stretched out wide to your sides with your elbows slightly bent and your palms facing inward, toward one another.

• Slowly lift the pulleys up together; at the peak of the movement, really squeeze your pecs together and hold for a few seconds.

• Slowly lower the pulleys in a slow and controlled fashion.

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

Decline Barbell Bench Press

• Position yourself on a free weight decline bench press machine.

• Grab the barbell above you with a grip that is slightly beyond shoulder width apart.

• Lift the barbell off of the rack and slowly lower it to your chest and then press the bar back to the start position. Because of the angle of this exercise, touching the bar to your chest is actually ok with this exercise as doing so does not cause unneeded stress on your shoulders nor does it take the emphasis away from having your pecs do the work.

• Be sure that when you are lowering the bar that you do so in a slow and controlled fashion. Conversely, when you press the bar upward, you want to do so in an explosive fashion.

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

NOTE: USING A SPOTTER FOR THIS EXERCISE CAN BE HELPFUL SINCE YOU ARE LYING UPSIDE DOWN AND MAY HAVE TROUBLE MAINTAINING CONTROL ONCE YOU ARE FATIGUED.

Dumbbell Chest Press

Doing a chest press with dumbbells instead of a barbell can add a different element to your chest exercises since both arms now have to work independently from one another. This is great for working both sides of the body and the dumbbell chest press makes a nice compliment to the barbell exercise.

• Lie down on a bench, step, ball or the floor and begin with the weights in each hand straight up over the chest, palms face out.

• Bend the elbows and lower the arms down until they're just below the chest (arms should look like goal posts).

• Press the weights back up without locking the elbows and bring them close together.

• Continue doing reps until fatigued (you cannot perform a full repetition with good form).

Work towards completing 2-3 sets of 10-12 reps of each exercise. Don’t rush through the movements; make sure you are doing them with good form. Remember, speed doesn’t count, form does! Once you can easily complete 1-2 sets, do more reps per set.

Stretching

After you’ve worked your muscles, it’s important to stretch them. Stretching after strength training is imperative to help prevent injury and for the muscles to recover quicker. Plus, it feels good.

• Sit on the edge of a chair or stand up. Bring your arms behind your back, elbows straight, interlock your fingers with palms facing up, and straighten your posture.

• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and extend your arms (reach further behind yourself).

• Contract your abdominal muscles slightly, just to avoid overarching your back - for this stretch a small bit of back extension is helpful.

• Hold the position for 10 seconds.

• Relax your shoulders; maintain the same position with your arms.

• Repeat the stretch again, but this time bend forward allowing your back to curl and your arms to extend further. Hold 10 seconds.

• Return to the starting position with a gentle unwinding curl.

By doing these exercises on a regular basis with at least 24 hours of rest time in between workouts, you will help to shape your chest and give your breasts a little lift without ever having to go under the knife.

Remember to consistently improve muscle strength and the impact of your workouts, you need to keep things fresh: frequently add some variety to your routine and don’t be afraid to shake things up by trying new things. One of the easiest ways to do that is to change the order of your routine. That simple modification can make a big difference in your results.