f you want to stop messing up your chest training then consider this video as a roadmap to making sure you get your chest exercises right every single time.

It starts with understanding the anatomy of the chest, and for that, we break out the muscle markers here to help us.

When it comes to the pecs there are 3 separate heads:

– Upper Chest (clavicular head)
– Middle Chest (sternal head)
– Lower Chest (abdominal head)

The most important element of the different heads of the pecs is the orientation of the muscle fibers that run through this portion of the muscle.

For example, when you look at the lower or abdominal head of the pecs you see that the fibers travel high to low. In order to best hit these fibers you would then want to perform exercises that allowed your humerus to travel from a high to low position. This would not only align the fibers best mechanically for the direction of travel but it would also help you to subject them to the greatest stretch at the end range of motion of the exercise.

When it comes to the lower chest we are talking about exercises like dips, decline bench press, and incline pushups (along with of course the crossover performed from a high to low position). Make sure to include at least one of these exercises into your chest workout if you want to have a balanced chest without a saggy lower chest line.

The next area of the chest to focus on is the largest area and that is the sternal head.

Here the fibers run more horizontally from the sternum to their attachment on the humerus. Given their straight east to west alignment you will find that in order to hit this area the most you will want to perform exercises that allow your humerus to move in this direction.

The obvious ones like crossovers and banded saws are those that drag the arm not only to midline but across the body at the same time for a complete chest contraction. Adduction of the arm across the chest is key if you want to see your greatest chest growth. That said, any movement where the arm travels between 45 and 90 degrees of abduction at the shoulder in relation to the torso is going to do a good job of helping you to grow this area of your pecs.

Think of the basics like heavy bench pressing and dumbbell bench press variations.

Finally, the upper chest fibers or clavicular fibers run from a low to high position. They originate from the clavicle and travel down again to the common attachment point on the humerus. That said, if you are going to follow the fibers and train this area most effectively then you are going to need to perform exercises that allow your arms to travel from a position low and away to up and across your body.

This includes things like decline pushups, incline dumbbell bench press or incline barbell bench press as well as crossovers that run from low to high.

When you follow the fibers (muscle markers not needed) it makes it so much easier to apply chest training science to your training. When this happens, you ability to grow a bigger chest becomes almost automatic. Start following this advice today and I promise your chest will start growing and your chest exercise selection will become second nature.

For more workouts to build a bigger chest be sure to stay tuned to this channel and remember to subscribe so you never miss another video from a physical therapist with a pro sports background as a PT and strength coach.

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For complete step-by-step workout programs, head on over to athleanx.com and make sure to use the program selector to find the training plan that is best suited to your personal goals.

Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS served as both the head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Jeff earned his Masters of Physical Therapy and Bachelor’s of Physioneurobiology from the College of Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

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