Over time, traditional bench presses, incline bench presses, and cable crossovers have made up the majority of athletes' chest training. They've been moving away from weight training and unilateral presses in favor of heavier exercises. There's a good reason for this. Heavy weights build muscle and strength.
But lifting heavy weights for years and years can also hurt your shoulders, leaving you in pain and possibly even sidelined. So to avoid injury and allow you to build tons of muscle, try mixing it up a bit.
Below are five new exercises that you should implement into your current chest workout routine. These exercises are great for shoulder health, increase time under tension to build more muscle, and help prevent muscle imbalances.
But don't let yourself be lulled into a false sense of comfort - just because you won't be loading an iron bar doesn't mean these moves won't be challenging.
Ring chest fly
The Pros: Rings offer a number of benefits that heavy presses don’t. First, because you’re not lying on a bench, they allow your shoulder blades to move through a natural, unimpeded range of motion. The press locks your shoulder blades in place, which can lead to shoulder imbalance and injury over time. You can also vary the intensity by changing your elevation and foot placement, giving you a variety of options for challenging your chest muscles.
Additionally, the intense contraction of the abdominals, necessary to stabilize your body, helps increase core strength.
Directions: If you don't have rings, you can also use a set of TRX straps (www.trxtraining.com). Simply set up the rings according to your strength level. The higher the strap, the easier it is to use. Get into a push-up position with your hands on the rings. Perform a chest fly while lying down. Be sure to maintain continuous tension on the muscles at all times and keep your core tight.
Slide disc
The Benefits: This exercise has very similar benefits to the ring fly. If you've never seen or used them before, the Valslide (www.valslide.com) consists of small "sliders" that you place under your hands to help you move smoothly across a flat surface.
The biggest difference between the Valslide and the Ring Flye is the tension placed on the pectoral muscles. In order to move the Valslides closer and further apart in the movement, you are forced to have continuous tension on the chest in order to perform the full range of motion.
Think this is for female guys? Think again. I've seen muscular guys struggle with this for three sets of 8-12 reps. This exercise will definitely humble you, while also giving you soreness the next day that will make you grow.
How to: Start by getting into a push-up position and placing each hand on a Valslide. Try to imagine yourself pushing your body away from the ground while giving someone a big hug. Repeat for reps.
One-arm bench press
The Pros: This is perhaps the most underused exercise out there. Most people are used to grabbing a pair of dumbbells. By using just one dumbbell, you have no counterbalance. This forces the "free" side of your body to work extra hard to stabilize your torso on the bench without falling over. The side with the dumbbell also has to work harder, putting a lot of strain on your chest muscles. The more the muscle is engaged, the longer the time spent under tension, the more muscle growth you will see.
Studies show that you generate about 20% more force with your working side when you train unilaterally.
How to: This is done like a traditional dumbbell bench press. Instead of grabbing two dumbbells, just grab one. Avoid using your "free" hand to hold onto the bench to stabilize yourself. Instead, use a weight that will allow you to complete 6-12 reps without falling over. Make sure to tuck your feet in, squeezing your glutes and the opposite side of your body. Use slower, more controlled reps at first—eliminating momentum will help you be more balanced while increasing your total time under tension.
Yoga pumps
The Benefits: We all know how much pressure can be on our shoulders, but that doesn't stop us from getting back on the bench. There's just something about the bench press that makes a man feel like a man in the weight room. Instead of ditching the bench like many experts recommend, take care of your shoulders by taking a break, getting a massage, and doing complementary exercises to the bench press, like the yoga push-up.
This exercise doesn't build a ton of strength and muscle, but it does help your shoulders and scapula move in the opposite direction of the bench press. The scapula moves much more freely with the emphasis on rotation and upward pull of the scapula. This exercise is a great complementary movement that helps balance your pressing movements and avoid injury.
One arm push-ups
The Pros: I love watching people lift heavy weights. But nothing impresses me more than someone doing a one-arm push-up. The amount of upper body and core strength required to perform multiple reps of this exercise is astonishing.
By practicing one-arm push-ups, you help your upper body and core muscles become stronger and much more symmetrical. It will also show you which side of your body needs a little more attention, so you can improve the overall symmetry of your pecs.
How to: This exercise can be quite demanding, so jumping into the standard push-up position and performing a one-arm push-up may not be achievable right away. Below is a sample progression chart to follow for one-arm push-ups.
Once you can do 5-10 reps of one progression, move on to the next one.
Progression 1: Smith machine bar or wall at chest height
Progression 2: Smith machine bar or bench at waist height
Progression 3: Smith machine bar or bench at knee height
Progression 4: Bench or box at the height of your shins
Progression 5: On the ground, feet wider than shoulder width apart
Progression 6: On the floor, feet shoulder-width apart
Progression 7: On the floor, feet together