A well-defined chest is a goal for many fitness enthusiasts. That said, it takes time, patience and the right coaching to get done. Having a toned chest can improve how your clothes fall on you, and your upper-body strength and is good for your overall health.
When building your lower pecs, you want to go with exercises that have you move your arm straight forward, and work your chest muscles pretty evenly. Other than this, moving your arms forward at a slight downward angle, also focuses on your lower chest fibers.
Workouts For Lower Chest
Your lower chest refers to your pectoralis which is made of two muscles. The major pectoralis and the pectoralis minor. The major pectoralis is a fan-shaped muscle from the chest and collarbone to the upper arm bone. The pectoralis minor, on the other hand, is under the pectoralis major. The pectoralis is triangular and runs from the ribcage to the shoulder.
People can do workouts that work the whole chest area to build up their pecs. By doing modified pulls, you can focus on specific areas in your lower chest.
Can You Train the Lower Part of Your Chest?
The short answer to that question is “yes”, but working out your lower chest isn’t as easy as working out your arms.
You won’t find an exercise that works just that part of the muscle group, the way curls work your arms. The muscles in your chest as a whole make your lower chest different.
When you do Workouts for lower chest, the whole muscle group is used, so you’ll also be working out the other parts of your pectorals even though you’re trying to work on the lower leg.
10 Best Workouts For Lower Chest
Let’s look at ten great Workouts for lower chest, and how to create lower chest workouts.
1. Bar Dips
People sometimes call the bar dip “the squat of the upper body” because it works many of your upper body’s major muscle groups, including your lower chest.
When you do a bar dip, you press at a downward angle, which works your lower pecs very well. You also work your middle muscles and biceps.
An additional advantage of the bar dip is that your muscles get the most pressure when stretched, which helps your lower chest muscles grow.
If you want to build up your chest muscles, the dip variation above is the best way to do dips. It is sometimes called “chest dips” instead of “bench dips,” which focus more on the biceps.
Benefits
Lower Chest Development:
Bar dips workouts for lower chest, primarily engage the lower pectoralis major muscles, also known as the lower chest. By performing dips, you can specifically target and develop these muscles, leading to increased size, strength, and definition in the lower chest area.
Compound Movement:
Bar dips are a compound exercise that involves multiple joints and muscle groups working together. In addition to the lower chest, dips also engage the triceps, anterior deltoids, and stabilizing muscles in the shoulders, back, and core. This comprehensive activation of various muscle groups can promote overall upper body strength and muscular balance.
Functional Strength:
Bar dip workouts for lower chest simulate movements that mimic real-life activities, such as pushing yourself up from a surface or lifting your body weight. By regularly performing dips, you can enhance your upper body’s functional strength, making it easier to perform daily tasks or sports-related activities that involve pushing or lifting movements.
Triceps Engagement:
Although the primary focus of bar dips is the lower chest, they also heavily involve the triceps muscles. The triceps, located at the back of the upper arm, play a significant role in pushing movements. Including dips in your workout routine can help strengthen and develop the triceps, resulting in well-rounded upper arm development.
Scalable Difficulty:
Bar dips can be modified to suit various fitness levels. If you’re a beginner, you can start with assisted dips using a machine or resistance bands. As you progress, you can gradually increase the challenge by performing unassisted dips or adding weight through a dipping belt or weighted vest. This scalability allows you to continually challenge yourself and adapt the exercise to your strength level.
Equipment Versatility:
Bar dips can be performed on various equipment options, such as parallel bars, dip stations, or even sturdy furniture like chairs or countertops. This versatility makes them accessible to a wide range of individuals, whether you have access to a fully equipped gym or prefer working out at home.
2. Jackhammer Pushdown
Standard pushdowns work the biceps the most, but you can change this exercise to work your lower chest.
The jackhammer pushdown targets your lower chest muscles and uses less of your triceps. You move your arms outward and tilt your torso forward.
Ultimately, this makes the jackhammer pulldown a good exercise for the lower chest. The cables’ steady tension makes it one of the best exercises for building the lower chest.
Here’s how to do this lower chest exercise:
- Attach the short straight bar handle to the cable pulley machine on a high setting as if you were doing a normal triceps pushdown.
- Face the machine and stand about a foot back.
- While keeping your legs straight and firmly planted, bend slightly at the hips so your torso leans toward the wire.
- Grab the handle with your hands facing down and elbows spreading to the sides. Note: When you do a regular triceps pushdown, your elbows are in a different position.
- As you push down and stretch your arms, let your elbows come toward your body.
- Stop when your elbows are fully locked at the bottom of the hold. Try to squeeze the fibers of your lower pec muscles.
- Slowly move back to the starting position, keeping the weight stack from falling off the line while letting your elbows flare back out.
Benefits
Triceps Development:
Cable Pushdown workouts for lower chest primarily target the triceps muscles, which are located on the back of the upper arms. By performing this exercise, you can effectively isolate and engage the triceps, leading to increased strength, size, and definition in these muscles.
Arm Stability:
Cable Pushdown exercises require stabilizing the upper arms and shoulders, which can improve overall arm stability. This stability can contribute to better performance in other exercises and daily activities that involve pushing or lifting movements.
Stronger Pushing Movements:
The triceps muscles play a crucial role in various pushing movements, such as bench presses, overhead presses, and push-ups. By strengthening the triceps through Cable Pushdowns, you can enhance your ability to generate force during these exercises, resulting in improved performance and increased strength in pushing movements.
Variety in Training:
Cable Pushdowns provide a different stimulus for the triceps compared to other triceps exercises like dips or close-grip bench presses. Including Cable Pushdowns in your workout routine can add variety and help prevent training plateaus by challenging your muscles in different ways.
Focus on Mind-Muscle Connection:
Cable Pushdown exercises allow you to focus on the mind-muscle connection with your triceps. By consciously contracting and squeezing the triceps during the exercise, you can enhance the activation and recruitment of the targeted muscles, which can contribute to better muscle development and overall training effectiveness.
Adjustable Resistance:
Cable machines typically allow you to adjust the weight or resistance, making Cable Pushdowns suitable for individuals of different fitness levels. As you progress, you can incrementally increase the weight to continue challenging and stimulating your triceps.
3. Chest Press with Dumbbells
The flat dumbbell chest press is like the bench press, which works all of your pecs, including the lower part of your chest.
To get the most out of this exercise, you should use weights that are heavy enough to feel your pecs moving. The dumbbell chest press is good because you can work each side separately. This can help you find and fix muscle and power imbalances on each side.
Getting a pair of big dumbbells into the correct starting position can be challenging. The best thing to do is to ask someone you train with for help, but you can also try putting the dumbbells on your thighs, then moving them up into place.
Benefits
Lower Chest Emphasis:
Dumbbell chest presses allow for a greater range of motion compared to barbell presses, enabling you to bring the weights lower toward your chest. This extended range of motion helps target the lower chest muscles more effectively, promoting their development and enhancing overall lower chest definition.
Muscle Activation:
Dumbbell chest presses engage not only the pectoralis major (chest) muscles but also the anterior deltoids (front shoulders) and triceps to a significant extent. By incorporating multiple muscle groups, dumbbell chest presses offer a compound movement that promotes overall upper body strength and muscle balance.
Stabilizer Muscle Activation:
Dumbbell chest presses require you to stabilize the weights individually, as opposed to a barbell where both arms move together. This aspect of dumbbell training forces the activation of stabilizer muscles, including the muscles of the rotator cuff and the muscles of the core. These muscles help maintain proper form, stability, and balance during the exercise, leading to improved overall upper body strength and stability.
Variability and Customization:
Dumbbell chest presses provide the advantage of customizable resistance. You can select the weight that suits your current strength level and gradually increase it as you progress. Moreover, the ability to perform different variations of dumbbell presses, such as incline or decline presses, further allows you to target specific areas of the chest, including the lower chest.
Muscle Symmetry and Balance:
By performing dumbbell chest presses, you can address any muscle imbalances or asymmetry in the chest region. Dumbbells force each side of your body to work independently, ensuring that both the right and left sides develop evenly. This can help create a more symmetrical and balanced appearance in your chest muscles.
Improved Core Engagement:
During dumbbell chest presses, your core muscles play a crucial role in stabilizing your torso and maintaining proper form. As a result, these exercises indirectly engage and strengthen the core muscles, contributing to improved core stability and overall functional strength.
4. Flyes with a Cable
Cables are an excellent tool for weightlifting because they let you load your muscles from angles that would be hard to do with free weights.
There is also an exercise called the cable crossover, which is a standing cable chest fly. You do the exercise from high to low to work your lower pecs properly. The constant tension makes it easy to get good muscle contact.
This is an excellent supplement to your lower chest workouts because it has a different angle and force curve than many free weight or bodyweight workouts.
Start this exercise slowly, do medium to high reps, and continue until you feel a pump.
Benefits
Targeted Chest Activation:
Cable flyes workouts for lower chest primarily target the pectoralis major muscles, commonly known as the chest muscles. By using a cable machine, you can isolate and effectively engage the chest muscles throughout the entire range of motion, particularly in the mid and outer chest regions.
Increased Range of Motion:
Cable flyes allow for a greater range of motion compared to dumbbell flyes or barbell bench presses. The adjustable pulleys on the cable machine enable you to move your arms in a wider arc, providing a deep stretch in the chest muscles and achieving a more pronounced contraction during the exercise.
Constant Tension:
Cable flyes provide constant tension on the chest muscles throughout the entire range of motion. Unlike other exercises where the resistance decreases at certain points, the cable’s consistent tension places a continuous demand on the chest muscles, leading to enhanced muscle fiber recruitment and stimulation.
Stabilizer Muscle Engagement:
Cable flyes workouts for lower chest require you to stabilize your body and control the movement, engaging several stabilizer muscles. Muscles in the shoulders, back, and core are activated to maintain proper form and balance. This not only strengthens these stabilizer muscles but also improves overall upper body stability and control.
Versatility and Adjustability:
Cable machines offer a wide variety of height and angle adjustments, allowing you to target different areas of the chest and adjust the exercise to your specific needs and preferences. You can perform variations such as high cable flyes, low cable flyes, or incline cable flyes, which target different parts of the chest, including the upper, lower, and inner regions.
5. Machine Chest Press
The machine chest press combines the bench press and dumbbell press, but you use a machine instead of free weights. It works your pecs, front delts, and triceps.
Machines can be helpful in many cases, for people just starting out, or for older people who have trouble keeping their balance. Machines give bodybuilders a safe way to work out without worrying about balancing large weights.
Benefits
Targeted Chest Development:
Machine chest presses workouts for lower chest specifically target the pectoralis major muscles, commonly referred to as the chest muscles. The guided and controlled movement of the machine ensures that the chest muscles are effectively engaged throughout the exercise, promoting their development, strength, and size.
Stability and Ease of Use:
Machine chest presses workouts for lower chest provide a stable and controlled environment for performing the exercise. The guided movement pattern reduces the need for balancing weight, making it suitable for beginners or individuals who may have difficulty with free weight exercises. This stability allows you to focus more on muscle contraction and less on balancing the weights.
Increased Safety:
The use of a machine in chest presses can enhance safety during the exercise. Machines often come with adjustable safety stops or levers, which can prevent the weights from falling or dropping in case of fatigue or muscle failure. This added safety feature can provide peace of mind and reduce the risk of injury.
Adjustable Resistance:
Machine chest presses typically have adjustable weight stacks or weight plates, allowing you to select the resistance that suits your current strength level. This adaptability makes it suitable for individuals of various fitness levels, from beginners to advanced lifters. Gradually increasing the weight over time ensures progressive overload, leading to continued muscle growth and strength gains.
Isolation of the Chest Muscles:
Machine chest presses workouts for lower chest isolate the chest muscles and minimize the involvement of secondary muscle groups. While free weight exercises like a barbell or dumbbell presses may recruit stabilizer muscles or require more coordination, machine chest presses primarily focus on the chest muscles, enabling better muscle targeting and isolation.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What are the benefits of incorporating lower chest workouts into my routine?
Incorporating workouts for lower chest into your routine can help develop and strengthen the lower pectoralis major muscles, leading to increased size, strength, and definition in the lower chest region.
2. How often should I perform lower chest workouts to see noticeable results?
For noticeable results, aim to perform lower chest workouts at least 2-3 times per week, allowing for sufficient rest and recovery between sessions.
3. What other muscle groups are involved in workouts for lower chest?
In lower chest workouts, the primary muscle group targeted is the lower pectoralis major (lower chest). However, other muscle groups that are involved to varying degrees include the triceps, anterior deltoids (front shoulders), and stabilizer muscles in the shoulders, back, and core.
Final Takeaways
Including workouts for lower chest in your exercise program is an excellent approach to developing a robust and well-defined chest. You may successfully target and improve the lower area of your chest muscles with the help of the top 10 workouts for lower chest.
By performing these exercises regularly, you should notice considerable changes in your chest endurance, size, and general well-being. Maintain perfect form at all times and progressively increase weights and reps as your body adapts. You may attain your chest objectives and reach greater heights in your journey toward fitness with focus and effort.
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