When trying to build pecs, every guy should know that there are four separate parts of your chest that need to be worked. You have your upper chest, lower chest, inner chest, and outer chest. Undoubtedly every guy in the gym utilizes the flat bench barbell press, commonly known as the bench press. This is the most fundamental and effective lift you can do to build pecs. As effective as this may be, you need to have a range of exercises to target all four areas of your chest. If you stick with only a few simple chest exercises, certain areas of your chest may begin to lack definition.

To ensure that you’re working all areas of your chest, you need to know what exercises target each area. Exercises that build pecs often hit more than one area at a time, so you don’t have to spend four separate days on your chest. I recommend you set your regimen to focus on your chest three days out of the week.

To target your upper chest you need to perform incline exercises. These can include incline bench press, incline dumbbell press, incline flyes, or incline machine press. Incline workouts are extremely beneficial to building pecs because they allow for a wider range of motion and force you to stretch your upper chest.

If incline targets your upper chest I’m sure you can imagine that decline workouts target your lower chest. Decline exercises include decline dumbbell press, decline bench press, decline flyes, and dips. I believe this to be the most important area to focus on when building pecs because they round out the bottom of your chest and give you the definition you are looking for.

Inner chest workouts are what give you the dip in between your two pecs. To work out your inner chest you can perform cable crossovers, flat bench flyes, and close grip bench press. The inner chest is the hardest area to target because the range of motion of the exercises seems to be difficult for a lot of guys. If at first you don’t feel you are performing the exercises correctly or up to standard, focus on your technique with lighter weight until you are comfortable. Most would see this as working backwards, but in fact it is an amazing way to build your pecs, technique is everything!

Outer chest workouts are often the most painful because they stretch your pecs the furthest. To build pecs you need to push yourself when doing these exercises. Outer chest workouts include flyes, dips, wide grip bench press, and flat bench dumbbell presses. The range of motion of these exercises is far wider than the rest, so take your time and work your way up.

Building pecs may seem like it is the most fundamental and easy thing to do in the gym, but it’s not. As long you target all four areas and stay consistent you will build your pecs in no time at all.