The ultimate hypertrophy workout for your chest

medinews October 24, 2022

78 3 minutes read

If you want to build muscle, it’s best to stick to tried-and-true methods—and hypertrophy training is one of them. Simply put, it’s a workout to make muscles bigger, and the hypertrophy chest workouts below will help you build bigger chests.

Hypertrophy 101

Any hypertrophy routine requires three key factors to generate gains:

Volume: This refers to the total number of sets (and cumulative reps) of work the muscle is subjected to in one workout or across multiple workouts.
Intensity: The amount of stress a muscle absorbs.
Mechanical tension: This refers to the muscle that spends time under tension throughout its functional range of motion. To do this, you need to look closely at the muscle’s action in the body and prioritize exercises that challenge the muscle as much as possible in its range of motion.

For lifters who have a solid fitness foundation, the best way to achieve hypertrophy benefits is to focus on different body regions in one workout at a time, better known as isolation training. Using isolation training methods allows you to spend all your time in the gym giving one muscle group the pump of a lifetime. Done right – and supplemented with a healthy, high-protein diet with a calorie surplus – your body will respond by growing muscle.

The hypertrophy chest workout outlined below uses this method to help you make big gains in your pecs.

Chest Hypertrophy Training

A Flat Barbell Pin Press x 5 (three sets): To perform a pinback, place a bench in a squat cage with the safety pins positioned about three to four inches higher than chest height. Place the loaded barbell over the pins and stand under the bar so you’re ready to push the weight up from the bottom. Pull up and propel the weight up until your arms are fully extended. Pause for a moment, then in a controlled motion, lower the bar and let it rest on the pins (don’t be afraid of a loud crash). Pause again, then do your next rep. Rest two minutes between sets.
Beginning with the pin press, the muscles and nervous system are exposed to heavy weightlifting, which is perfect if you’re fresh to start the workout. It’s also a great way to release key hormones to support muscle growth.
B1 Incline Press x 10
B2. Incline Cable Flye x 12
Do B1 and B2 together as a compound sentence. Rest 90 seconds between sets and do a total of 4 sets.
These two moves, performed back to back, form a compound set. You double the fatigue with higher rep ranges and no rest until the end of the second exercise. They also hit the chest in two ways: as upper-arm adductors (presses) and as long-lever adductions from a fully extended position (flye).
Speaking of flies, the decision to use cables instead of dumbbells is crucial. Cables optimize the mechanical tension of your chest muscles because the force constantly counteracts the direction of the muscle fibers. This means that the pecs are under stress at both the beginning and end of the flye pattern – this doesn’t happen with dumbbells.
C1. Bodyweight Dips x Max Reps
C2. Push-ups with feet elevated x max reps
After compound sets B1-B2, your pecs will be fried. Then it’s time to hit them with bodyweight. What’s great about the C1-C2 compound set is that it focuses on fatigue of both sections of the pectoralis muscles: the dips hit the sternal pectoralis (the “lower” part of the chest) and the feet-up push-ups hit the collarbone (the “upper” part of the chest). Doing as many reps as possible will pump blood to the chest and cause target muscles to fail under the safest of circumstances.

After training: food

Remember, if you want to grow you need to help your muscles fully recover by using the right nutrients. Your food choices and frequency of feeding are important. In conjunction with this workout, focus on eating high-protein foods and going into calorie surplus (ie, consuming more calories than you burn) and you’ll put yourself on the right track to making gains.