Chest is the second largest muscle group, after legs, so you should work it second in your total body routine. Like with most workouts, you need to make sure you focus on keeping your back straight and abs tight, not to mention really focusing on working your chest muscles.

If you have never utilized mental focus in your strength routines, you would be surprised the difference it makes. In exercises that work muscles like your chest, it is important to really focus on using those muscles because if not you could end up working the wrong muscles.

Before jumping into working your chest, there are a few things you should know. First, chest workouts concentrate on three areas: the upper, middle and bottom. Also (especially when focusing on the muscles you are working) you will notice you naturally work out your triceps when working your chest. This is an example of how you utilize your smaller muscles when working your larger ones, and why you need to vertically load your workouts.

Now if you start exercising and do not feel the resistance in the targeted area, try readjusting the anchor point height or your proximity to it.

Finally, really focus on your tempo. Hold your rep at the point of maximum resistance for a few moments before returning back to the starting position.

When picking out which chest exercises to do, make sure you include one press (flat, incline or decline bench). If you want to do more than one, stagger them so you are not doing them one after the other. This will give your pecs a small amount of rest time and enable you to utilize them for the next press.

Come back tomorrow to get a great chest workout.