The Best Exercise for Building Your Chest
If you are a man, you are, without a doubt, daydreaming about having that defined well-rounded chunk of muscle below your neck and above your abdomen. It’s every man’s dream to have a rock-solid chest. Everyone can have a bulked-up chest. You just need to know the right exercise for it.
Everyone knows what a chest press is. And everybody does it. It’s one of the staples of gym-goers and a must. You can do it with a barbell, dumbells, or a Smith machine. Every variation of a chest press is effective. But one is the most effective and that one is the Smith machine press.
Now, let me explain why it is the best option to grow an Arnold-like chest.
First of all, it’s a chest press, which you can’t skip if you want to make that muscle. A function of the chest is to push forward and you emulate this movement on a Smith machine chest press, as in any other type of chest press. But the difference here is that it eliminates the need for balance because it is attached to a rail, so you can put all your focus on just pushing it up. That attachment also provides more safety. And if you want to go to failure and beyond, you can do it without a spot on a Smith machine if there’s no one around (though, I recommend if you’re lifting heavy to make use of a spot even on the Smith machine, just to make sure). Now why should it be inclined (30 degrees) and not flat? Because it activates more of your upper chest, which, If we’ll-developed, gives your chest a solid appearance, even when covered by your shirt. Although, it doesn’t mean that the inclined press is not going to build your middle and lower chest; it just involves more of the upper section of the chest.
There is one point though: as I mentioned earlier, it doesn’t activate stabilizing muscles, which is a good thing for developing your primary chest muscles, but it’s important to do some free bar chest press as well to also strengthen the stabilizers and benefit even more.
And don’t forget to properly adjust the bench under the bar to remove any discomfort and awkward movement of your shoulder, since joint health is also important. You could load the bar light and perform the movement with different bench positions (maybe put the bench a little more front or more toward the outside of the machine) and find the best position with the most activation and least discomfort for your joint. By doing it several times, you will eventually find the sweet spot and make your muscular tissues sexier than ever.
