BUILD A BIG CHEST

Follow our expert three-step guide to add serious muscle size to your chest – and transform how you look with your shirt off

1 START STRONG by establishing your one-rep max (1RM)

Why Your 1RM is the maximum weight you can successfully bench press for one rep. It’s associated with strength training, but you need to know yours to start building muscle. How After a good warm-up do three reps of about 50% of what you think your maximum lift is. Add 10-20kg to the bar and repeat until you get to about 85% of your maximum. Then add 5kg at a time and do one rep until you fail.

2 GET THE GAINS by lifting 70% of your 1RM

Why Your last successful lift is your 1RM and once you know this number, you can work out what weight you need to be lifting in your workouts to maximise growth. How Research shows the best way to stimulate muscle mass growth is to lift between 70-80% of your 1RM for sets of around eight to 12 reps. Start at 70% and gradually increase the weight as your sets become easier over time.

3 SHAKE IT UP by increasing your training volume

What Volume is the amount of work you make your muscles do. One of the best ways to shock your chest into growth is to ramp up volume by doing more sets and reps. How When you follow a high-volume approach of more sets and reps, like the ten sets of ten reps in Charles Poliquin’s GVT protocol, you need to reduce the weight to about 60% of your 1RM. Keep form strict and watch your chest grow!