Chest training tips

• Warm up your shoulder joints thoroughly. Mobilize your shoulders, rotating them through all planes of motion prior to your first warm-up set.
• Concentrate on incline pressing. This priority training should bring your upper pecs into proportion with the rest of your chest.
• Bench press is essential. It bulks up the entire upper body giving it unparalleled power.
• Feet up and back flat when benching! The center of the chest muscles bears the brunt of the weight. This is in sharp contrast to benching with your feet on the ground, which lets you push more weight.
• Don’t overdo declines. Concentrating on this method causes your lower chest to grow disproportionately to your upper chest. This results in aesthetic sloping breast like development.
• Get a full range of motion. Normally the chest should be trained through a full range of motion. Cutting into your range of motion is reserved only for limited use in very advanced stages of training.
• Maintain a slow, controlled descent. Building a thick powerful chest contingent upon a controlled negative or “eccentric” motion. The lower you go, the slower you go.
• Avoid taking a very wide grip. An excessively wide grip can sacrifice chest development, as it de-emphasizes the chest and over-emphasizes the shoulders. Use a moderate grip (just outside shoulder width).
• Keep your grip tight around the bar. A week or mushy grip prevents your power from being directly translated to the bar. This can hold back development.
• Use free weights over resistance machines. Machines weights are balanced prior to exerting force, making the movement far less challenging. Free weights demand balance control, co-ordination and concentration.

Positive nutrition

• Balance and Variety – Healthy eating is about eating the right quantity and balance of foods as often as you can. That means you can eat everything you like; allow yourself an occasional treat of something you really enjoy
• Eat regularly - Consuming smaller, frequent meals and snacks may help you to feel less hungry. This doesn’t mean you eat more, just more often.
• Snack Smart – Many people snack, it’s part of normal behaviour so whether you snack or not – It’s about what you eat when you snack- choose a piece of fruit rather than a chocolate bar!
• Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables (at least 5 servings a day) – Fresh, frozen, dried, canned of juiced all count so try to have at least 1 portion at mealtimes and 1 for snacks and you will easily make it to 5 or more a day.
• Make a healthy breakfast your daily habit – People who eat tend to be happier and better able to concentrate during the morning.
• Drink plenty of water – Drink several glasses of water (about 1.2 litres), or other fluids everday to help stop you getting dehydrated. When the weather is warm or when you get active, your body will need more than this.
• Choose wholegrain starchy foods whenever you can – Starchy foods such as bread, cereals, rice, pasta and potatoes are a really important part of a healthy diet. Try to Choose wholegrain starchy foods whenever you can- eating wholegrain food also makes you feel fuller so you’ll eat less!