Special thanks to model – Wes Paugh for his images!

This week I tried something unusual for me. ?I added a second chest day to my routine. And let me tell you, it kicked my butt!

It was so good that I thought I would write about it here to let you all know about it and to also bring up the question: “Why is it that so many guys want big pecs?”

Given, everybody wants big arms. And quads and glutes are incredibly impressive. But for my money, if you ask most guys what body part they’d really want to be able to have huge, I say the most popular answer you are going to get is pecs.
Now why is that? The obvious answer is that they are right up front and center and basically what you encounter physically first when you meet a guy. Big arms can be dominant but nothing makes a statement like a big chest on a guy especially when its size shows through his clothes.

For a man, a big chest comes ?with a different sense of power. A muscled chest on a guy is like a breastplate on a suit of armour and we respond to it viscerally.

We want it. We want to be it. We
want it to want us. It speaks to us primarily more than any other visible and prominent part of the body. ?Get as basic as the old Tarzan movies and Superman comics. ?Superman had the big “S” not on his arm or his leg but on his chest. As a culture we have a romance with the male chest that is powerful for us.

And while I believe it was Groucho Marx who said he would never go to a movie where the man’s breasts were bigger than the woman’s, on this point he just may have missed the boat.

With all that said, let’s get to the workout.

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CHEST PUMP WORKOUT:

While I may not be the guy with the biggest pecs on the planet, I must be doing OK because I get a lot of compliments and positive reactions about my chest so I must be doing something right.

The usual routine is pretty standard. Flat Bench Barbell sets, Incline Dumbbells, Dumbell Chest Flyes and either Decline or Incline Barbells. ?Maybe a seated flye machine

This week’s added second CHEST PUMP DAY was totally different, aggressive and very effective.

Starting off with a you pick your favorite Chest Machine (Hammer Strength or other) (rep count: 20; 4 sets).

Followed by Cable Flyes (preferable in the middle of the Main cables installation over a cable station machine to hit the pecs at a more effective angle): (4 sets; reps: 15/12/10/8).

Supersetted with Dumbbell Pullovers (4 sets; 15-12-10-8).

Dips (4 sets; 20 reps each).

Supersetted with Push-Ups (do the push-ups using dumbells as stands so the you can drop down lower for a deeper pec stretch at the bottom). (4 sets, 25 reps per).

In a perfect world, no rest between Supersets and only 60 seconds rest in between normal sets. I am usually not a fan of Supersets not because they are not effective but in a crowded busy gym sometimes it’s just not practical. Today, this worked perfectly because it was the weekend and the gym was beautifully empty. ?A big part of what makes this seemingly simple Chest Pump routine is the timing and the very limited rest periods and pauses throughout.

Now if you can execute this workout all the way through completing all of these rep counts fully you are a better man than me.

If you can’t complete the count of a given set, pause for a rest and cont to ten then continue til you bang out the rest. No matter how many times you have to do it until the count is completed.

By the end of the last set of Push-Ups, I had to pause 4 times and still only made it to 20 reps before my arms and my body just gave out.

I had nothing left and no abs were gonna get worked this day.

I was totally impressed and convinced that adding a second chest day like this one can be an excellent idea if that big chest is one of your goals. I am going to lobby to keep this in our program as a mainstay.

Think about whether something like this might work for you!