You’re probably thinking you need to lift heavy to build a bigger chest. Lifting weights will definitely help but you can also build mass and size using your own body weight.
How to maximize your muscle growth?
Muscle growth occurs when you tear and break down your muscle fibers during an exercise. Once broken down, then they need to repair. And as they repair with thicker, stronger muscle cells, and fibers. That’s actually called hypertrophy.
In order to maximize your muscle growth, you must provide your body with enough fuel so that it can begin the repairing process. That’s why nutrition plays a big part. Enough protein and sleep will greatly help your repairing process.
How to build muscles when you don’t have any weight?
The reason why weights are very effective for building muscle is because they are effective for breaking down muscle and tearing muscle fibers. Weights will allow your muscles to fatigue sooner.
When you don’t have any weight, the way that you reach fatigue and tear your muscle fibers is by extending the time under tension that your muscles are contracting for. That simply means longer holds and more repetitions of a particular exercise.
The time under tension from the increase in repetitions and holds are gonna cause damage to your internal muscle fibers just like when you’re lifting. Then the muscle repairing process can begin, which will grow and increase the size of your muscle.
This chest workout engaging all the areas of our chest. We’ll even be sharing different techniques that will maximize and increase the results of your chest. Here are 8 exercises to grow your chest with no equipment.
1. REGULAR PUSH-UPS
20 Reps | 3 Sets
The middle chest is probably one of the easiest parts to train.
This exercise hit the majority of the middle chest and a little bit of upper chest.
Keep our body straight from our heel to our shoulder. Hips should be tight and tucked. Go down slightly forward and come back up. Make sure to engage your core and breathe the whole time. Your grip should be slightly wider than your shoulder width.
Do high reps because you want to reach hypertrophy and tear those muscle fibers. This exercise is a warmup for your chest.
2. 90° HOLD
15 Seconds | 3 Sets
This is gonna be an Isometric position. Isometrics are a great way to build muscle as it pumps a lot of blood into your muscles the longer you keep a muscle contracted or maintain that holding position.
If you can’t hold for the full 15 seconds, cumulate that time with the minimum amount of rest possible. For example, try three 90 degree holds for 5 seconds each.
For this exercise, start from a push-up position. Come all the way down, keeping your core tight so that your hands are at your waistline. You wanna hold this position.
3. PUSH-UPS IN A CIRCLE
8 Reps in both directions | 3 Sets
This exercise is really good for your outer and inner chest. And you’re actually gonna be isolating one pec as you go from one push up to the other. Just remember to keep your core tight.
4. ARCHER PUSH-UPS
10 Reps each side | 3 Sets
This exercise is gonna isolate your pec a lot more and with that intense stretch, you’re gonna be tearing deep into those muscle fibers.
Go into a wide push up position. Now, choose one arm you wanna go down on first. And keep that other arm as straight as you can. Do one side first. And then go for the other. Then come back to the top and do one each side to hit the hypertrophy.
5. EXPLOSIVE NEGATIVE PUSH-UPS
10 Reps | 3 Sets
You wanna come down as slow and controlled as you can. And then you wanna explode as hard as you can.
6. INCLINE DIAMOND PUSH-UPS
15 Reps | 3 Sets
We added a technique to “simple diamond push-up” which is called “Incline diamond push-up”. Keep your body straight just like a push up from your heel to your shoulder. Go for at least 15 reps but you really want to create hypertrophy, do as many as you can.
7. ELEVATED PUSH-UPS
20 Reps | 3 Sets
The upper chest is the clavicular head that is very stubborn to grow. Most bodybuilders, most fitness enthusiasts, also struggle to build these muscles. So this exercise is the easiest way.
If you are not fatigued till now, you should definitely be fatigued after doing this.
8. SINGLE PUSH-UP
30 Sec down, 30 Sec up | 3 Sets
The last exercise to really tear those deep muscle fibers and increase that time under tension.
Remember to breathe the whole entire time. And do not break form, no matter what. Engage everything and contract.