Page 82 - Muscle & Fitness (December 2019)

BUILD BIGGER PECS

E LOVE THE
barbell bench
press as much
as you do, but
just because
you’ve been

doing it every
Monday night
since high 1
school doesn’t mean you can’t
change it up every once in a while.
Pressing with dumbbells is safer
for your shoulders and activates
more pectoral muscle, which
means more focused training di-
rectly on your chest. Plus, at times
when a home or hotel gym is all
you have access to, dumbbells are
the best weapon you’ve got. Follow
this routine for four weeks, and we
bet you’ll add as much as another
quarter-inch to your chest.

HOW IT WORKS

Q Dumbbells don’t let you go as
heavy as barbells, so don’t fight
it—instead, follow this workout,
which focuses on higher reps
and keeping the muscles under
constant tension so they work to

exhaustion. Dumbbells also let you
train your muscles through a larger
range of motion—pressing with a
barbell cuts you off a few inches
short—and they correct strength
imbalances between sides. If you
find yourself in a gym so bare-
bones that the dumbbells you have
still aren’t heavy enough to provide
enough challenge, simply perform
your reps more slowly. In your race
for bigger gains, slow and steady
sometimes is the fastest path.

DIRECTIONS

Perform the workout once a week,
resting at least a day before and after
any shoulder training. Exercises marked
A, B, and C are done in sequence, so
you’ll perform 1 set of each without rest
in between.

8 0 M U S C L E & F I T N E S S / D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9