Complete Chest Training Guide

Build an impressive, powerful chest with this comprehensive, science-based training guide from Dr. Mike Israetel and RP Strength. Learn the optimal volume landmarks, exercise selection, and programming strategies used by professional bodybuilders and strength athletes to maximize pectoral development and create the muscular upper body you're training for.

Understanding Chest Development

The chest is composed of two main areas - the clavicular head (upper chest) and sternal head (lower chest) - that require targeted training for complete development. The pectorals are designed to be stretched under load and respond exceptionally well to full range of motion movements that emphasize the stretched position.

Three Categories of Chest Training

• Horizontal pressing: Targets the whole chest with movements like flat bench press
• Incline pressing: Emphasizes the clavicular (upper) fibers with incline movements
• Isolation movements: Train the chest without heavy tricep involvement using flyes and machine work

Programming principle: Nearly every week of chest training should include horizontal pressing, incline pressing, and isolation movements for complete development.

Dr. Mike Israetel's Complete Chest Training Guide

Here are some helpful tips for your chest training. Please note that these are averages based on our experience working with lots of clients and our own training. The recommendations here should be food for thought or places to start, not dogmatic scriptures to follow to the letter.

If you'd like to learn to build your own programs or just explore, give this whole guide a read. If you like what you see and you want to train with these concepts taken into account automatically, give the RP Hypertrophy App a try!

Chest Training Volume Guidelines

First, a few quick definitions of the Volume Landmarks:

Now, let's look at some common values for these Volume Landmarks. You can use these as helpful places to start thinking about or building your own program.

Important Volume Notes

• These are the landmarks for serious, intermediate lifters. Folks who have been training (mostly) whole body for 3-7 years. If you're a beginner, all your volume landmarks are likely substantially lower, so ease in and focus on improving your technique with low volumes and steady progressions with load. If you're advanced, your volume landmarks will be similar to the intermediate ones listed, especially assuming you've been perfecting your technique on the exercises and finding which exercises and rep ranges work best for you.
• These are averages for many people and it's possible you're significantly higher or lower than these numbers. We recommend starting on the low end and tracking your recovery from week to week in the muscle (you're recovering if every week your muscles heal completely and return to their strongest or beyond by next week). Eventually, you'll have a very good idea of your volume landmarks. Alternatively, you can just have the RP Hypertrophy App do all the work for you!
• If you greatly reduce your total body volume and focus more of your efforts on your target muscles (and perhaps 2-3 other major muscle groups as primary focus, with the rest on secondary focus), they can recover from more and grow bigger than ever. The best way to optimize for such phases is by assigning 3-4 weekly sessions to the target muscle so that you can ramp up to the highest weekly volumes. This is tough to do in just 1-2 weekly sessions, as you are likely to exceed the 8-12 set per muscle per session maximum, beyond which systemic fatigue makes more training within that session very inefficient. You can do such specialization phases multiple times per year, and easily configure them in the RP Hypertrophy App.

Best Chest Exercises

The following exercises are organized by category to ensure complete chest development. Each links to a technique video for proper form:

Exercise Selection and Variation Strategy

When designing any week of chest training, make sure it includes horizontal pressing, incline pressing, and isolation movements. Nearly every week should have at least a couple of sets of all three movement categories.

Weekly Exercise Distribution

Within a training session, we recommend including between 1 and 3 different chest exercises, but no more than that in most cases, as doing more than 3 chest movements in one session is likely just a needless burning of potential exercise variations you can save for later mesocycles. Within a single week (microcycle) of training, we recommend between 2 and 5 different chest exercises.

For example, if you train chest 3x a week, you can do a heavy barbell bench on one day, a lighter barbell bench on the next day, and a flye version on the last day for 2 total exercises in the week. On the other hand, if you train chest 6x per week, you might want to choose as many as 5 different exercises, with only one of them repeated in a heavier/lighter arrangement.

When to Change Exercises

How do you know when it's time to switch out a given exercise from your rotation to another exercise in your list of effective choices? The decision is based on answering just a few questions about the exercise you're currently using:

• Are you still making gains in rep strength on the exercise?
• Is the exercise causing any aches or pains that are connective tissue related? And are these getting worse with each week or several weeks?
• Is there a phasic need for the exercise to change? In other words, is the exercise appropriate for the rep range you're trying to use it for? Example: barbell benches for sets of 25 just tire out your forearms, but machine presses for 25 pump up your chest as intended.
• Are you getting a good mind-muscle connection on the exercise, or is it feeling stale and annoying to do?

If you are still hitting PRs on the exercise, it's not causing any undue pains, you're getting a good mind-muscle connection, and there's no other need to change it, then don't change it! If this means you keep an exercise around for up to a year or more, so be it!

Range of Motion and Technique

The chest is designed to be stretched under load and gets quite a bit of its growth stimulus from such motions. If you're training your chest and not taking presses as low as they can go (to the chest for barbells and deeper than the chest by going outside of your shoulders for dumbbells), you're missing out on chest growth.

Critical technique points:

• Barbell pressing: Touch the chest on every rep
• Dumbbell pressing: Go deeper than chest level by allowing dumbbells to travel outside shoulder width
• Flye movements: Emphasize the stretch at the bottom position
• Machine work: Use the fullest range of motion the machine allows

By lifting heavier weights than needed when avoiding full ROM, you tax the shoulder and elbow joints MORE and get hurt more often for the tradeoff of even less pec growth than usual!

Optimal Loading and Rep Ranges

In general, like all muscles, the muscles of the chest benefit from weights in the 30%-85% 1RM range, which in many people roughly translates to a weight that results in between 5 and 30 reps on a first set taken to failure. We can split this range into heavy (5-10,) moderate (10-20), and light (20-30) categories, as there are tradeoffs to make between all of them.

Rep Range Distribution Strategy

The first point on loading is that the chest, like most muscles, seems to benefit from some training in all three of the rep ranges listed above. Because the moderate (10-20 rep) range often offers the best tradeoff between stimulus, fatigue, injury risk, and slow/fast fiber specificity, and mind-muscle connection, an argument can be made that a first-time program design could have most weekly working sets for the chest in this range, perhaps up to about 50% of them. The other 50% can perhaps be split evenly between the heavy (5-10) and light (20-30) rep ranges, as loading range diversity has been shown to be a potential benefit in its own right.

Exercise-Specific Rep Range Considerations

Weekly Training Sequence

When constructing a weekly training plan, it's probably a good idea to train the heavy ranges before the lighter ranges. Because both types of training cause fatigue, they all interfere with each other to some extent. However, the muscle and connective tissue damage from heavier training is likely more substantial and presents a higher risk of injury if some damage already exists from earlier training.

Sample Weekly Arrangement

Based on your personal responses to each of the main rep ranges, you can adjust how much volume you perform in any of them. For example, if you notice that you get a better stimulus (pumps, soreness, mind-muscle connection, etc.) and lower fatigue (joint stress, systemic fatigue, joint soreness, etc.) in some of the ranges vs. others, you can do more sets in those ranges and a bit less in others.

Rest Times Between Sets

When determining how long to rest between any two sets in training, our goal is for enough rest to be taken such that the next set is at least close to maximally productive. How can we ensure this? By answering 4 basic questions about our recovery status:

1. Has the target muscle locally recovered to do at least 5 reps on the next set?
2. Has the nervous system recovered enough to remove it as a limiting factor to target muscle performance?
3. Has the cardiorespiratory system recovered enough to remove it as a limiting factor to target muscle performance?
4. Have synergist muscles in the exercise being performed recovered enough to remove them as a limiting factors to target muscle performance?

It might take only 1-2 minutes to recover very well (let's say, 90%) on all of those factors, but because set to set recovery is asymptotic in nature, it might take another 3 minutes to get to 95% recovery and another 10 minutes more to get to 99% recovery. Since you only have so much time to spend in the gym, 10 "90% recovered sets" in 45 minutes of training is a much more anabolic stimulus than only 3 "99% recovered" sets in that same amount of time.

Practical Rest Time Assessment

Here's an example of what can be considered "very good" recovery between sets of chest training. Before you do another set of barbell bench presses, ask yourself:

1. Is my chest still burning from the last set, or does it feel ok again?
2. Do I feel like I can push hard with my chest again, and I am mentally ready for another hard set, or do I need more time to rest?
3. Is my breathing more or less back to normal, or is it still very heavy?
4. Are my front delts and triceps still very fatigued, or are they ready to support my chest in the upcoming set of barbell bench presses?

If you can get the green light on all of these, you're probably ready to do another set, and waiting much longer will almost certainly not be of benefit.

Expected rest times: You'll notice that depending on the exercise and on the lifter, very different rest times will be generated by this questionnaire. For example, pec deck flyes might not even have synergist muscles, so question 4 doesn't even apply and rest times can be less than 45 seconds, whereas barbell bench presses might need 3 minutes between sets just to regain normal breathing. While average rest times between sets of chest training will be between 1 and 3 minutes, the most important consideration is to take the rest time you need.

Training Frequency Optimization

There are two main considerations for determining training frequency. The first is the duration of the increase in muscle growth seen after a bout of training between MEV and MRV. If such an increase in muscle growth lasts 7 days, then perhaps a once a week frequency is optimal. If such an increase lasts only a day, then perhaps 6 days a week for the same muscle group is much better. While direct research on muscle growth timecourses is very limited, it seems that typical training might cause a reliable 24-48 hour increase in muscle growth. This would mean that if muscle growth elevation was the only variable of concern with regards to frequency, we should train every muscle 3-6 times per week.

Finding Your Optimal Frequency

How do you determine what training frequency is appropriate for you? You can start by training your chest at per-session MEV volumes. After each session, you note when soreness has abated and when you feel recovered enough psychologically to attempt another overloading workout. When you're ready, and no later, go back to the gym and train chest again, with volumes just a bit higher than MEV (using the RP Set Progression Algorithm).

Starting expectations: Just so that you have some expectation of where to start, most individuals can recover from chest training at a timecourse that allows for 2-4 sessions of chest per week at MEV-MRV volumes. However, only through direct experimentation on yourself can you tell where in this range is best for you and if maybe you're even outside of this range.

Exercise rotation for frequency: To improve your training frequency, you can alternate exercise selections between successive chest workouts. For example, if you do barbell incline presses on one day, you might do dumbbell incline presses or flat machine presses the next day, and so on. This rotation of slightly different exercises and movement patterns can take repeated stress off of very small and specific parts of your muscles and connective tissues, which might reduce chronic injury risk exposure.

Periodization and Long-Term Programming

There are a few relevant timescales in periodization:

• The repetition (1-9 seconds)
• The set (5-30 repetitions)
• The exercise (1-5 sets)
• The session (2-6 exercises)
• The day (0-2 sessions)
• The microcycle (usually 1 week of training)
• The mesocycle (3-12 weeks)
• The block (1-4 mesoscycles)
• The macrocycle (1-4 blocks)

Mesocycle Structure

A mesocycle is composed of two phases: the accumulation phase and the deload phase. The accumulation phase lasts as long as it takes to hit systemic MRV, which, because fatigue accumulates in MEV+ training, has to happen at some point. For beginners with very high recovery abilities, it can take up to 12 weeks of increasingly more demanding training for systemic MRV to be reached and a deload to be required. For very advanced lifters that have very strong, large, and volume-resistant muscles, it can take only 3-4 weeks of accumulation training to reach systemic MRV and need to deload.

Weekly Progression Strategy

When you begin a mesocycle of training, you should probably begin at or close to your MEV for all the muscle groups you'd like to improve during that mesocycle, for reasons described extensively in our book on the subject of training volume. Week to week, you can manipulate working sets by using the Set Progression algorithm from the Training Volume Landmarks for Muscle Growth article. You should seek to keep reps stable from week to week while letting your RIR decline from a 3 or 4 RIR start until it gets down to 0 (for exercises that don't threaten the bar falling on you) or 1 (for those that do) in the last week of training.

Weight and Rep Progression

The way you keep the reps stable as RIR falls is by adding weight to the exercises you're using. How much weight to add is a matter of an educated guess on your part. You want to add enough weight to get your target RIR with the same reps as last week. For example, if you did 100lbs last week for 10 reps on your first set of an exercise at 2 RIR, how much should you do next week to get 10 reps again but at 1 RIR? Well, you might think that adding 2.5lbs would be too easy, and you could honestly get 11 reps with that next week at 1 RIR, but adding 10lbs might require you to push to 0 RIR to get 10 reps, so you would just add 5lbs and that will probably take you where you need to be.

If you can't realistically add weight, you can add reps. This might happen when, for example, you are using the 25lb dumbbells one week and then having to do the 30lbers next week, wildly slashing your reps. Just remember to stay within your general rep range and not leave it in any given meso.

Training Block Periodization

The training block is a sequence of mesoscycles strung together for one unifying purpose. For example, a muscle gain block may be 3 mesocycles of 6 weeks each, one after another, with weight gain the goal for all 18 of those total weeks.

Advanced Training Modalities

Straight Sets

Straight sets are sets performed to 0-4 RIR, with enough rest time to recover all 4 limiting factors (see the rest time section above for details). Straight sets are excellent for the chest. They allow a ton of control and are easy for performance tracking. They should form the basis of most chest training.

Down Sets

Down sets are straight sets, but with less weight (usually 10-20% less) than the previous straight sets. By lowering the weight, you can keep reps over 5 per set, and/or keep the mind-muscle connection high and keep technique excellent to continue to have a high stimulus to fatigue ratio in every set of that exercise. Down sets are definitely an option for chest, but many people report that heavier training actually lets them have a higher mind-muscle connection than lighter training for the chest.

Controlled Eccentrics and Pauses

Concentric, eccentric, and isometric phases of each exercise can be between half a second and 3 seconds long and still confer near-optimal effects on hypertrophy. In some cases, slowing down eccentrics and extending pauses can enhance technique, mind-muscle connection, and safety of the exercise. Pausing at the bottom of presses and flyes is very likely quite preventative of major injury to the chest, as is controlling both the eccentric and the concentric.

Giant Sets

Giant sets give you a certain weight to lift, an RIR range to hit (usually 0-4 RIR), and a goal of total reps over as many sets as it takes. An example is aiming to do 100lbs for however many sets it takes to get 60 total reps, while taking normal rest between each set. The chest often gives better mind-muscle feedback the more fatigued it gets and the lower the reps are, so giant sets aren't as useful for the chest as they are for many other muscles. That being said, sometimes flyes and dumbbell presses can be tough to do technically perfectly when you're too focused on just getting the reps, so giant sets can come in very handy in such cases.

Myoreps

Myoreps are just like straight sets in that they must check all 4 recovery boxes before doing another set. However, they are different in two ways. First, while the first set is usually between 10-20 reps (0-2 RIR), the next multiple sets only rest long enough to get between 5 and 10 reps each. Myoreps can work great for chest flyes of various sorts, as well as machine presses, especially when the chest is already pre-exhausted relative to the synergists (triceps, front delts, etc.). However, because free weight presses are usually quite systemically fatiguing, myoreps are not usually appropriate for them.

Drop Sets

Drop sets are exactly like myoreps, but with even shorter rest times because weight is reduced by 10-20% on average between each set. Drop sets can be a nice change of pace, mostly for chest flyes. However, chests tend to respond a bit better to heavier work, and dropping too much weight can lead to a "going through the motions" effect you might not like. If you want to get away from straight sets for chest, we recommend exploring myoreps before you explore drop sets in most cases.

Pre-Exhaust Supersets

These supersets begin with an isolation exercise for a given muscle group, and with no rest after taking it to 0-2 RIR, end with a compound exercise to which the target muscle is a big contributor. Because there are so many brutally effective chest isolations and compounds, most people will struggle much more with chest recovery than with getting enough chest stimulus. However, some people have harder times with mind-muscle connections on their chest, and compounds see their front delts and triceps as much more limiting factors. In such cases, supersetting a flye variant with a pressing variant (especially wider grip) can be an excellent approach.

Lengthened Partials

Direct experimentation has shown multiple times that loading the muscles when they are at their longest lengths is an extra boost to muscle growth. Thus, doing some bottom ½ or bottom 1/3 partials can be an effective training modality, especially when the bottom end is loaded heavily in the exercise in question. You can do entire sets of just lengthened partials, or do a normal ROM set and then finish the set with a superset of lengthened partials.

Sample Programming

The following sample programs demonstrate practical application of the principles outlined in this guide, showing how to progress volume, intensity, and exercise selection across multiple mesocycles for optimal chest development.

Putting It All Together

This comprehensive guide provides everything you need to develop an impressive chest through science-based training. Remember these key principles:

For those wanting to implement these principles without the complexity of manual programming, the RP Hypertrophy App automates all of these calculations and adjustments based on your individual responses.

Want to explore training for other muscle groups? Check out our Complete Hypertrophy Training Guide which covers evidence-based training for every major muscle group.