A chest workout for men looking to build masculine "Square" pecs

If you want to create a great chest workout, it’s important to define your goals. In this article, I am focusing on a chest routine with the goal of developing a chest along the lines of what a Calvin Klein model might have. If you’re looking for pure bench press strength, you’ll obviously want to use a different workout. This routine will build some strength, but it’s not the main focus of the workout.

What should a “male chest” look like?

A male chest should look square and angular, not round and smooth. Traditional chest training focuses on the basic bench press. While the bench press is great for building size and power, it can over-develop your lower chest. A chest workout focused on the bench press develops the lower pecs so much that they can begin to resemble breasts. The part of the chest that is underdeveloped in most men is the upper chest. If your chest training focuses on the upper chest and not so much on the mid to lower chest, then you will develop square pecs.

How to build upper pecs.

To complete the upper pecs, you need to include a variety of incline pressing movements in your chest workout. You want to make sure that your chest routine starts with some type of incline press. I recommend starting your chest workout with incline dumbbell presses on an adjustable bench. I like dumbbells as you can really work that inner part of your upper pecs that is hard to hit. If you develop this part of your chest, you’ll get that “line” from the middle of your chest to your collarbone.

Here’s a great chest workout that targets hard-to-build areas.

1) Incline Dumbbell Press: Set the bench about 20-30 degrees above the flat setting. Choose a weight that you can press 10 to 12 times. Click on the bench to the next highest angle setting. With the same weight, try to do 8 to 10 reps. Click the bench to a steeper angle and try to get 6-8 reps. Keep clicking at a higher angle until you’re close to upright or until you can’t get more than 5 reps. I like to start my chest workout with this exercise, because it hits every part of the upper chest.

2) Inclined Smith Machine Presses: Then I take this same adjustable bench and take it to the Smith machine. I set the bench so the bar hits my collarbone at the bottom of the lift. I will choose an angle of 20 to 45 degrees. I put on fairly light weight and my main goal is higher reps to really fatigue the muscle. This is more of a finishing move. The Smith machine ensures that I keep all the stress on the upper pecs. I find that if I use a regular incline bench press in my chest workout then I can cheat and take the stress off my upper pecs. Include the incline Smith press in your chest workout if you have access to this equipment.

3) Cable crossings: You need to include cable crossovers in your chest training if you want to develop the line that defines the middle of your chest. You can also get a similar effect using auto flies. Dumbbell flyes are a great mass movement, but you won’t get enough tension in the core of your chest. When doing machine flyes or cable crossovers, be sure to flex your mid-chest strongly when your hands meet at the end of the movement.

Avoid all flat bench movements in your chest workout for a while.

If you’re like most guys in the gym, your upper pecs probably need to catch up with your mid and lower pecs. You should consider removing all flat bench movements from your chest training for a while. I stopped all flat bench exercises for over two years and the appearance of my chest improved dramatically. Another nice benefit of incline moves is that your shoulders will look better too.

Keep the main points in mind when setting up your chest workout.

By setting up your chest workout, you can be flexible with the exercises you use. Just make sure you focus on the square, angular look. Having great pecs is less about size and more about proper proportion and definition.