High Intensity Chest Workout To Pack on Muscle - Part 1

This is Turk again on behalf of ShapeFit.com and we are here at the Xtreme Edge Gym in Beaverton, Oregon. I'm going to introduce to you a couple of friends of mine who will be helping us out with today's high intensity chest workout. The first person who is helping us out is Josh Coleson who is a personal trainer at the Xtreme Edge gym and he is also a men's physique competitor. Along with Josh, we also have Shawna Coleson who is a personal trainer at the Xtreme Edge gym and she is a women's figure competitor. Eric Emms will also be helping us out today with our chest workout and he is the Director of Fitness and a personal trainer at the Xtreme Edge gym.

This chest workout consists of 2 main exercises, which will include the incline barbell bench press and the machine chest press. We will be using two training principles today in our workout. On the first exercise, we will be doing "pauses" which means we will be pausing at the bottom of the exercise for 1-2 seconds and then exploding up into the concentric portion of the movement and pushing the bar back up to the top. On the second exercise, which is the machine chest press, we will be doing "slow reps" which means we will be doing a "4 count" on each rep. This basically means we will be going down in 4 seconds and then back up in another 4 seconds. These are super slow reps which will allow you to really place maximum tension on the chest muscles and work the pecs big time! Since we are going from one exercise to the next with no rest in between, this is also considered a "compound set". This means we are working with 3 training principles in one set and that is where the intensity factor comes in at and that is why we are able to do less and get more out of this workout.

High Intensity Chest Workout - 1st Exercise (Set #1):

Exercise:
Incline Barbell Bench Press

Workout Advice:
Your repetition range is determined by the weight you will be using. In this giant set workout routine, you will be going from one exercise to the next with very little rest between movements. On this exercise, we are doing the training principle called "pauses" so make sure to focus on pausing at the bottom of this movement for 1-2 seconds before pushing the bar back up to the top.

High Intensity Chest Workout - 2nd Exercise (Set #1):

Exercise:
Machine Chest Press

Workout Advice:
Your repetition range is determined by the weight you will be using. In this giant set workout routine, you will be going from one exercise to the next with very little rest between movements. On this exercise, we are doing the "slow reps" training principle so make sure to focus on going down in 4 seconds and then back up in another 4 seconds.

Notice the alignment of Shawna's wrists and elbows on the machine chest press. They are all moving along the same line and this is what you want. Try to avoid bending your wrists and avoid raising or lowering your elbows in this exercise to avoid possible injuries and to place maximum tension on your chest muscles. Always make sure to use proper exercise technique at all times when training.

Both of these exercises are super high intensity, so we will be taking each set to failure and once we are finished with the first exercise (incline barbell bench press) , we will move directly over to the next exercise (machine chest press) without any rest between the two. Our goal is to totally overload the chest muscles and completely blast the pecs, so make sure you push yourself to absolute failure with the supervision of a spotter to help assist you.

By Turk Fickling