It says so much about how good Arnold Schwarzenegger looked in his heyday that even now, 50 years later, we’re still looking at how he trained and built muscle. His pecs were particularly gigantic, and according to the man himself, there was one exercise he preferred to do to make them look so gigantic. The same pectoral exercise that I just can’t stop doing (although my chest isn’t as big as Arnie’s).
Before continuing, it’s worth noting that Arnie was a professional bodybuilder and exercised vigorously almost every day. The Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Plan for Mass workout plan involves doing countless reps of heavy exercises that include your famous arnold pressas well as the pectoral exercise that we will discuss today. Don’t expect pecs like breastplates after a workout.
According to Arnie, best pectoral exercise To build a huge chest is the dumbbell push-up fly. But not just any old pectoral flies, but brutally low pectoral fly that opens the chest and stretches the muscles to make them wider. At least this is what Arnie and his contemporaries thought. And looking at the golden age bodybuilders of the 70s, they were probably not wrong …
Pecs Fly From Arnold Schwarzengger: How To Grow Chest Like A Pro
From a team point of view, Arnie’s pec fly is not that different from your everyday dumbbell fly. All you need is a decent weight bench and a couple of heavy enough dumbbells. You can use adjustable dumbbells, also, if you are exercising at home. Some might prefer multi gyms and cable machines in the gym to do this exercise; Whatever suits you.
As you can see in the video above, the key to growing your pecs like Arnie is to use the full range of motion Arnold and the professional bodybuilders of the time, such as Franco Columbu, used this deep movement to put pressure on the muscles and therefore make them grow faster.
By not going that deep, you miss some of the most important parts of the exercise; it’s like doing lats lifting by raising just your arms up to 45 degrees.
However, you will need to stretch before training in order to open your chest to that degree. Not to mention, using heavier weights and performing this exercise without proper form can also compromise your shoulders; proper warm-up is crucial.
We recommend using lighter weights for the first set and always slowing down the first rep to prepare your muscles and joints for whatever comes your way. By performing the first rep more slowly, you can also get the benefit of slow eccentric movement, an essential technique for building muscle quickly.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Build Big Pecs With Compound Exercises
One sure way to enlarge your pecs is to do compound exercises like the bench press or push-ups. (Here it is how to bench press Y how to do push-ups). Compound exercises work a variety of muscles at the same time, allowing you to build muscle mass and strength faster.
The bench press is one of the most essential exercises to grow your pecs. It is true that you will need a barbell and something bumper plates to perform in your home gym, but if you don’t bother to store them in your living room, you can always visit a gym or do it there or use dumbbells instead of the ones at home.
There are many variations and it is recommended that you do not just do the standard flat bench barbell bench press all the time; Mixing up your exercise routine with narrow grip presses and incline presses will help stimulate your muscles more, leading to faster muscle growth. Try this bench press trick for even more stimulation.
Push-ups are an inexpensive alternative to the bench press and according to science, builds pecs just as well as the bench press. Again, you’d like to make sure you don’t just do the basic version and include different varieties of push-ups in your workouts (here are a few push-up variations).
