The Best Lower Chest Workout That Delivers Results. Period.
Having a large chest with perfect shape and proportion is the main goal of pretty much every guy that sets foot in a gym.
In order to achieve a well-developed chest you must train all three sections of this muscle.
As you may already know, the fibers of the chest extend horizontally from the shoulder joint to the sternum. This allows you to focus your chest training in one of three areas, namely, the upper, lower and middle chest.
Let’s get into the three most effective exercises to develop the lower pectorals. Read about the specifics of each exercise below. A routine that you can follow is listed at the end.
The Best Exercises For A Legendary Lower Chest Workout
Parallel Bars
We’ll start with an exercise that you probably didn’t expect to find here. Parallel bars are usually associated with triceps training, but depending on the trunk inclination you can turn this exercise into one of the best for the lower pecs.
The key is to tilt the body forward while performing the exercise. With this you will reduce the amount of work that the triceps have to do which will translate to developing a great lower chest.
Perform four sets of this exercise. If you can perform 10 to 12 repetitions for all sets, it’s time to start using a weight belt and adding plates.
Decline Barbell Press
The decline press is the king of lower chest exercises. Among all its variations I recommend using a barbell which is easier to handle than the dumbbell variation.
If your gym doesn’t have a specific bench for decline presses you can resort to placing a declined bench at a Smith machine. In this exercise you will be able to use a lot of weight but don’t forget to maintain strict technique in order to avoid injury.
Cable Crossovers
There are many benefits of doing this great exercise but doing it with a pair of dumbbells lying on your back carries some risk so for that reason we will use a cable station to eliminate those risks and increase the results.
If you put the pulley in the highest position and complete the movement at waist height, you will be able to focus the work on the lower fibers of the muscle.
Cable crossovers help to give size to the muscle and achieve a higher level of contraction than the barbell or dumbbell press in the final part of the ROM (range of motion).
How To Design Your Routine
Just because you want to enhance your lower pecs doesn’t mean you should only be doing exercises that target this area of the chest.
The recommended route to take is to incorporate more exercises that focus on this section than we would in a normal training but continue to train all areas of the chest regularly as you should.
I highly suggest that with any chest routine you always start with the bench press to get maximum hypertrophy. This exercise allows you to handle the most weight and it is best to do it at the beginning of your training session when you are feeling fresh and strong.
Following this you should perform the parallel bar exercise because this exercise demands a lot from your muscles and endurance.
After these two heavy exercises you’ll continue with a superior chest exercise in which your priority is focusing on your technique rather than weight.
When doing the incline dumbbell press, maintain a constant tension in your muscles and perform slow repetitions, leaving the heavy loads for the final exercises.
After a brief rest you return to attack the fibers of the lower pectoral with the decline press. Unlike the previous exercises, this one must be done with heavy weights.
Finally, you’ll finish your training with the cable crossovers. This exercise is very dynamic and it’s easy to have incorrect technique and possibly injure yourself.
Please make sure you are using the correct amount of weight and that you complete your repetitions in a controlled manner.
Here is the breakdown of the entire lower chest routine with the required number of reps and sets.
Bench Press – Perform 4 sets of 8-10 reps
Parallel Bars – Perform 4 sets of 8-12 reps
Incline Dumbbell Press – Perform 4 sets of 8-10 reps
Decline Bench Press – Perform 4 sets of 8-10 reps
Cable Crossovers – Perform 4 sets of 12-14 reps
If you follow this lower chest workout routine and enjoy the results you get from it, make sure to check out the other recommended reading for each muscle group you want to focus on.
