Training & Nutrition - Need advice on building chest muscles...

Here's the deal: I'm trying to build up my chest muscles and I need some advice on what exercises to do. I have little equipment to work with (a pair of dumbells and one bar with maybe 100-150 lbs of weight total) and do not want to join a gym (I don't have a lot of spare time and what spare time I do have I want to spend riding, not inside a gym).

I don't want to get huge, I just want a little bit of definition. Does anyone know any exercises I can do with free weights or no weights that work the chest? Do pushups help at all?

Do pushups help at all?

Yes.
Try and mix it up
work up to doing 10 sets of 25 3x a week the last
You can keep your hands together, working the tri's more and inner chest.
Keep your hands wide to work the outer chest more

Put your feet on a bench to simulate incline press working the upper chest and shoulders.

Put your hands on two chairs spread apart and your feet on a bench to get extra deep on the down movement.

Like I said , mix it up and get a good workout.

You could start doing a ''deck of cards'' workout alternating between pushups and situps. That way, you can keep your heartrate elevated throughout.

Also, I wouldn't do too much pec work without doing back work also. Keeps you from getting that hunched over look.
I would skip the dumbells unless you had a nice weight bench to work with or until pushups become to easy.

How big you want your pecs?

I'm going to also say yes to pushups. It is a great way to define and strengthen the chest and to a lesser degree the triceps. If you have a bench some dumbell flyes laying on your back do a nice job of opening up your ribcage helps for breathing.

Thanks for the advice guys. I don't really want to get big at all. I'm basically going for more of a lean look ideally. I've dropped 39 lbs since January, which has helped quite a bit, but now I want to build a little bit more muscle and definition. The inner chest is where I really need the work, so I think I'll try the pushups with my hands close together.

Also, try doing pushups with your feet elevated on a chair or bench (and your legs straight, naturally), so that when your arms are fully extended, you are pretty much horizontal. This gives the upper pecs more attention...

To work in your core, do the pushups with the dumbells. Do a regular pushup holding onto them (so they prop you up). When you come up, as you reach the top of the pushup, pick up the left dumbell and lift it to your left shoulder (i.e. straight up), then place back on the floor and do another pushup, alternating which dumbell you pick up. It should be one continuous movement, not stop at the top and then pick up the dumbell.

The images in this article should help my poor description (and its exercises are great too): http://www.menshealth.com/cda/article.do?site=MensHealth&channel=fitness&category=workout.plans&conitem=b85a99edbbbd201099edbbbd2010cfe793cd____

Well, if you want to develop muscles on your chest, you probably want to develop the pectoralis muscles (pecs), the shoulder muscles (deltoids), maybe the trapezious muscles (the triangular one on your neck), the lattisimus dorsi (lats), and you might as well work on the biceps, triceps and abdominals.

Pecs - push ups, bench presses and so on. Lots of exercises.
Deltoids - military press, flys and so on.
Trapezious - shrugs.
Lats - well you really want to lat pull down. But using weights and doing one armed rows does work.
abdominals - crunches.

If you are going more for definition than bulk, you probably want to do a bunch of reps rather than emphasizing maximum weight.

I don't really want to get big at all. I'm basically going for more of a lean look ideally.
Some people think if they pick up a barbell Bamm overnight their huge and competing in the Mr. Olympia contest. It takes a lot of working out and heavy weights to put on mass, keep your weights lighter so you can do 15-20 reps and you will be fine.

I'd recommend doing dips in addition to push ups ... it should be easy to find a place to do them and on my body they've been a lot more beneficial

Here's the deal: I'm trying to build up my chest muscles and I need some advice on what exercises to do. I have little equipment to work with (a pair of dumbells and one bar with maybe 100-150 lbs of weight total) and do not want to join a gym (I don't have a lot of spare time and what spare time I do have I want to spend riding, not inside a gym).

I don't want to get huge, I just want a little bit of definition. Does anyone know any exercises I can do with free weights or no weights that work the chest? Do pushups help at all?


Size/hypertrophy = structured resistance training program.

Definition = diet.

I'd suggest pushups, dips (both straight and leaning forward) and some flyes (depending on the weight of your DBs). I think you'll exhaust your weights limit pretty quickly.

Careful though....weight training is as addictive as cycling!! :D

I'd recommend doing dips in addition to push ups ... it should be easy to find a place to do them and on my body they've been a lot more beneficial

Dips would be my choice

Dips would be my choice



After 4 sets of weighted lf dips last night, I wholeheartedly agree!!

If you have the money and the space (more height then anything) I would go with a bowflex x2:-P. I got one and it has done wonders for me. Of course I'm one of those people that never seemed to get much out of pushups, even doing 60 pushups and 30 tri's every day for 6+ months. Got more pain and stress in my wrists then I did muscles