Has your chest training stalled? Are you not getting the outcomes you would like? One possible reason is you’re not doing enough work within the gym. Or perhaps you’re doing an excessive amount of!
Optimizing your muscle growth relies on finding the right balance of labor and rest, and it’s time you stop guessing what you need to be doing.
We’ll let you know what number of chest exercises per workout you need to be doing and what number of sets of every. In the event you’ve been playing the guessing game within the gym on chest day, read this text to take advantage of your time within the gym and begin putting mass in your chest.
More Or Less Exercises For Muscle Growth?
Knowing one of the best variety of chest exercises to make use of is important for performing the correct amount of labor.
Spend any period of time online, and also you’ll see a wide selection of suggestions. Some minimalists say one set is enough, while maximalists appear to perform dozens of exercises every training session.
What makes this much more confusing is that they each appear to work.
It’s not hard to search out guys who use just 1-2 chest exercises every week and see good results. Then again, the blokes doing three variations of bench press and five variations of chest flys, pushups, dips, and pec-dec in a single session may additionally get some good results.
Due to this fact, we’re on the lookout for the number that may optimize your training.
So, what number of chest exercises per week do it’s worthwhile to get one of the best results without wasting time and energy?
The TLDR for what number of chest exercises per workout to get one of the best results:
- 3-4 exercises per session
- Maximum of 20 working sets weekly
- Two sessions weekly
We’ll breakdown all it’s worthwhile to know regarding the science behind that suggestion.
Let’s get into the main points below.
Optimizing Your Chest Training
Getting the outcomes out of your chest training relies on you altering the proper variables to maximise progressive overload for each hypertrophy and strength.
Although seemingly easy, determining how much stimulus to supply the muscle and the way much rest it must have has been made more complicated than needed.
We’ll fix that.
You would like only settle on the right volume of coaching and the variety of times you’ll train weekly. Ultimately, these two aspects will determine what number of chest exercises you need to use per workout.
The Perfect Training Volume For Your Chest
Researchers still haven’t nailed down the precise mechanisms for muscle growth. Nonetheless, one training variable consistently stands out as a primary driver: training volume.
Training volume is the quantity of labor placed on the muscle, which is the first driver of muscle growth. Training volume could be added up in two ways.
- Adding up the full weight lifted determined by the formula: Volume= Sets x Reps x Load
- Adding up the full amount of working sets.
Generally speaking, it’s easiest just to make use of working sets, assuming those sets are worked to close failure.
That said, quite a few studies have shown a dose-response for volume and muscle growth, which implies that when more volume is placed on a muscle, it grows more.¹
For instance, growth could be seen using just 1 or 2 weekly sets. Nonetheless, performing 6 sets is best, and doing 10 sets is best than 6.
This trend is true, but only until a certain point.
While more could be higher at first, you’ll hit some extent that makes it difficult to your muscles to recuperate. At this point, you’ll start seeing diminished returns. In the event you keep doing more, you can even see a drop in growth.
Take into consideration grilling a steak. You’d grill one side for slightly bit after which flip it. Let the opposite side cook for a bit, after which flip it. This prevents the meat from getting an excessive amount of heat without delay and prevents it from burning.
Now imagine for those who threw some steak on a grill, threw the lid on, and just left. What would occur? It might burn!
This is comparable to the concept of coaching volume. An excessive amount of training will lead to irreparable damage.
This makes it essential to make sure enough training but not an excessive amount of.
Because the number can vary depending on the muscle group and the precise lifter, you need to aim to train your chest with a minimum of 10 working sets weekly. On the upper end, you need to limit your training to twenty working sets. ¹
The Ideal Training Frequency For Your Chest
We saw above that the utmost variety of weekly sets you’ll be able to train your chest is 20. So, do you have to train all 20 sets in in the future or break it up?
That is your training frequency—how often you train your chest weekly.
Just as your chest can only see optimal recovery from a complete set of weekly sets, the identical is true concerning the full sets during a single session.
While total volume is the final word goal, the reality is that for those who were to perform your entire sets in in the future, your muscles would fatigue after some time. Once this happens, you’d simply be performing junk volume.
Even when it weren’t junk volume, you wouldn’t have the energy to take care of high-performance levels. This could ultimately lead to training at a lower intensity and fewer overall volume.
For instance, let’s go together with the max of 20 sets. Here’s how that may look in a single session:
- Bench Press: 4 Sets
- Incline Bench Press: 4 Sets
- Dips: 3 Sets
- Incline Fly: 3 Sets
- Decline Fly: 3 Sets
- Close Grip Pushups: 3 Sets
There’s simply no way you can be training at optimal intensity the entire way through. You’d just be going through the motions.
Because of this, research suggests that splitting your total working volume into two sessions provides one of the best stimulus for muscle growth.²
This permits you to train with the very best intensity while maximizing the remainder your chest gets.
Train hard. Go home and rest.
Train hard. Go home and rest.
A 2019 study showed this where researchers had two groups of lifters. Each group trained each muscle group with 16 weekly sets. Nonetheless, one group performed all 16 sets for a muscle group in a single session, while the opposite group trained a muscle group with 8 sets twice weekly.³
The group that trained a muscle group twice weekly saw barely greater improvement. While the outcomes weren’t significant, it’s essential to do not forget that the study was only done for 8 weeks. It’s also prone to be of greater significance with the more sets you perform.
Further, we’re speaking about optimizing results.
So, How Many Chest Exercises Per Workout Should You Do?
So now that you’ve your training frequency and volume found out, we will set the right variety of exercises. Well, one other variable may make a slight difference: whether you’re training for strength or hypertrophy.
Training for strength and muscle hypertrophy looks barely different as your goals differ and occur through different physiological processes. Due to this fact, the variety of chest exercises you employ per workout may differ barely.
How Many Chest Exercises Per Workout For Muscle Growth
Training the chest for muscle growth might be centered around increasing training volume and exercise variation.
Research has shown that muscle growth shouldn’t be seen uniformly from a single exercise.⁴
Fairly, the a part of the muscle that experiences essentially the most stress will see more growth. For instance:
- The lower a part of the bicep during preacher curls
- The upper chest during incline bench press
- The lower quadricep during leg extensions.
Due to this fact, to see fuller growth of a muscle, you need to hit it from different angles and use different movement patterns. Studies have shown that a muscle sees fuller growth when trained with three exercises in comparison with one.
To be clear, these different exercises should use different movement patterns. For instance, performing a barbell bench press, dumbbell bench press, and pushups can be redundant as they use similar movement patterns.
Due to this fact, to optimize muscle hypertrophy, 4 exercises per workout can be on the upper end of the body. This enables for primary exercise, 1-2 assistance exercises, and 1-2 isolations—a complete of 10 sets.
For instance:
- Bench Press: 3 Sets
- Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 Sets
- Cable Fly: 2 Sets
- Dumbbell Pullover: 2 Sets
And don’t worry. Two sets with maximal intensity are plenty to induce muscle hypertrophy.
How Many Chest Exercises Per Workout For Strength?
If strength is your primary goal, you can do well with just three exercises. Generally speaking, the first exercise through the strength session might be performed with more sets (4 or 5 sets).
Further, using multiple small exercises is less common, leading to a rather smaller variety of chest exercises you need to use.
Due to this fact, using 3 exercises to coach your chest allows loads of sets to your primary exercise, followed by 2 secondary or assistance exercises. For instance:
- Bench Press: 4 Sets
- Incline Bench Press: 3 Sets
- Dips: 3 Sets
Again, this may be on the idea you’re training 20 sets per week.
How Many Chest Exercises Per Workout? Final Guidelines
To optimize your chest training for maximal growth gains, aim to train it twice per week with a maximum variety of 20 working sets. This could then be done with not more than 3-4 exercises per session.
Now, this is solely a tenet.
In case your split doesn’t allow this many exercises, you’ll just perform nonetheless many you’ll be able to. For instance, you might perform a full-body split and train the chest 3 times per week. On this case, you’ll likely just have the option to coach one or two chest exercises per session.
Still, the full variety of sets is the final word determining think about what number of exercises you employ.
When considering every little thing, for those who train with the correct intensity, these 3 or 4 exercises should bring you to a high state of fatigue, and also you shouldn’t want to do more. If you would like to do more, you’re likely not training hard enough.
Train harder, no more.
Now what number of exercises to do next up is to search out out How Long You Should Rest Between Sets?
References
- Schoenfeld, Brad J, et al. “Dose-Response Relationship between Weekly Resistance Training Volume and Increases in Muscle Mass: A Systematic Review and Meta-Evaluation.” Journal of Sports Sciences, vol. 35, no. 11, 2017, pp. 1073–1082, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27433992, https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2016.1210197.
- Schoenfeld, Brad J., et al. “Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Evaluation.” Sports Medicine, vol. 46, no. 11, 21 Apr. 2016, pp. 1689–1697, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-016-0543-8.
- Brigatto, Felipe A., et al. “Effect of Resistance Training Frequency on Neuromuscular Performance and Muscle Morphology after 8 Weeks in Trained Men.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 33, no. 8, Aug. 2019, pp. 2104–2116, https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000002563.
- Antonio, Jose. “Nonuniform Response of Skeletal Muscle to Heavy Resistance Training: Can Bodybuilders Induce Regional Muscle Hypertrophy?” The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, vol. 14, no. 1, 1 Feb. 2000, pp. 102–113, journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Abstract/2000/02000/Nonuniform_Response_of_Skeletal_Muscle_to_Heavy.18.aspx.
