How many chest workout routines per exercise do you have to do?
Search that query and also you’ll discover dozens of conflicting solutions. Some say one or two. Others insist on six or extra.
And issues solely get murkier when you begin questioning how many chest exercises to do per week, what number of units per exercise, and the way a lot is an excessive amount of.
Right here’s the easy reply:
Whereas there’s no “excellent” quantity for everybody, doing 3-to-4 chest workout routines per exercise normally works greatest if you happen to prepare chest as soon as per week.
In case you prepare chest extra continuously, you’ll doubtless get higher outcomes by doing fewer workout routines per session and spreading your units throughout a number of exercises.
On this article, you’ll be taught precisely how many chest workout routines and units to do per exercise—and per week—primarily based in your targets and expertise stage.
Need to know precisely how you must prepare to succeed in your health targets? Take our free 60-second training quiz and discover out now.
Key Takeaways
- Doing 3-to-4 chest workout routines per exercise is right if you happen to prepare chest as soon as per week. This offers you sufficient train selection to coach your pecs in numerous methods and keep away from overuse accidents.
- In case you prepare chest greater than as soon as per week, doing 2-to-3 workout routines per exercise is usually sufficient. Because you’re spreading your quantity throughout a number of classes, you don’t must cram as a lot into every one.
- Most individuals get the very best outcomes by doing 6-to-10 exhausting units for chest per exercise, and 10-to-20 complete units per week. Doing greater than that hardly ever results in extra progress and sometimes simply will increase fatigue.
- One of the best rep vary for chest progress is 4-to-10 reps per set utilizing 70-to-80% of your one-rep max. It’s splendid for gaining measurement and energy while not having to coach to failure.
- To make each set depend, prepare to inside 1-to-3 reps of failure and purpose to step by step enhance the load or reps over time.
- To get essentially the most out of your chest coaching, think about using a high-quality protein powder that can assist you attain your every day protein goal, creatine to help restoration and muscle progress, and a pre-workout to reinforce vitality, focus, and efficiency.
How Many Chest Workout routines per Exercise Is Optimum?
Doing 3-to-4 chest workout routines per exercise is normally sufficient to maximise progress. However to know why that works, you first must understand how a lot complete work—also called “coaching quantity”—you must do every week.
How Many Units for Chest per Week Is Optimum?
Most research shows that 10-to-20 units per main muscle group every week maximizes muscle progress.
The place you fall in that vary depends upon your expertise. Usually talking, learners ought to purpose for the decrease finish (10-to-15 units), whereas extra superior weightlifters normally see higher outcomes with extra quantity (15-to-20 units).
In some circumstances, doing greater than 20 units can produce larger good points. However for most individuals, progress diminishes so shortly past this level that the additional effort isn’t price it.
Excessive-volume coaching has sensible downsides, too. It’s time-consuming, and until your restoration (sleep, food regimen, and so on.) is flawless, it’s exhausting to maintain.
That’s why 10-to-20 weekly units is a brilliant, sustainable quantity goal for chest coaching.
How Many Units for Chest per Exercise is Optimum?
An unpublished meta-analysis suggests there’s a cap on what number of units you are able to do for a muscle group in a single exercise earlier than good points stall—and even reverse.
Because the graph above reveals, muscle progress improves as you do extra units—up to some extent. When you exceed six units for a muscle group in a single session, the advantages plateau. Push nearer to 14 units, and you may very well impair progress.
That mentioned, there’s loads of variability within the knowledge, so don’t deal with this as holy writ. If we evaluate it with other research, a great rule of thumb is that most individuals can profit from doing about 6-to-10 exhausting units per main muscle group per exercise earlier than hitting the purpose of diminishing returns.
How Many Chest Workout routines per Exercise Is Optimum?
There’s no “excellent” quantity, however 3-to-4 chest workout routines per exercise works greatest if you happen to prepare your chest as soon as weekly. In case you prepare extra continuously, 2-to-3 chest workout routines per exercise is normally enough.
This is sufficient to prepare your chest by way of completely different ranges of movement and at various angles, which analysis suggests is beneficial for balanced progress.
It’s additionally sufficient selection to maintain your exercises participating—which makes it simpler to remain constant over time—and helps cut back the danger of overuse accidents that may crop up once you repeat the identical actions too usually.
Simply as importantly, doing 3-to-4 chest workout routines per exercise helps you keep throughout the splendid coaching quantity ranges—6-to-10 exhausting units per exercise and 10-to-20 units per week.
As an illustration, if you happen to do 3 workout routines for 3-to-4 units every, that offers you 9-to-12 units in a single session. That’s roughly excellent if you happen to’re coaching chest as soon as per week. In case you’re coaching it twice, you possibly can do 2-to-3 workout routines per exercise for 3-to-4 units every and hit 12-to-16 weekly units.
How Many Chest Exercises Ought to I Do per Week?
How usually you prepare chest largely hinges in your weekly quantity. As an illustration, if you happen to’re doing 10 units per week, you’ll be able to doubtless do all these units in a single weekly exercise.
However as soon as your weekly quantity creeps as much as 12-to-20 units, splitting that work throughout at the very least two classes normally results in higher outcomes. It helps you keep efficiency, recuperate extra successfully between exercises, and cut back the danger of burnout.
READ MORE: Your Next Chest Routine for Mass: 7 Must-Do Pec Exercises
What’s the Finest Rep Vary for Chest Progress?
Regardless of what some “specialists” declare, you don’t must crank out units of 20+ reps to construct muscle.
Whereas high-rep coaching can work, research reveals it solely builds muscle successfully if you happen to take units to failure—the purpose the place you’ll be able to’t full one other rep regardless of giving most effort.
That presents two issues:
- Excessive-rep units are depressing. They take longer, really feel tougher, and trigger extra fatigue than heavier, lower-rep units.
- Always coaching to failure increases your threat of harm.
A greater method is to elevate heavier weights in decrease rep ranges. You’ll nonetheless generate a robust muscle-building stimulus—with out pushing your self to the brink each set.
That’s why it is sensible to do most of your chest coaching within the 4-to-10 rep vary, utilizing weights which might be about 70-to-80% of your one-rep max.
READ MORE: Does Training to Failure Help You Build More Muscle? What Science Says
How Onerous Ought to You Prepare Your Chest?
To make your chest exercises as efficient as attainable, take most of your units to inside 1-to-3 reps of failure.
To gauge whether or not you’re reaching this level, ask your self on the finish of every set: “If I needed to, what number of extra reps may I’ve achieved with good kind?”
If the reply is greater than three, enhance the load or reps in your subsequent set to make it tougher.
Depth alone isn’t sufficient, although. To maintain constructing muscle and getting stronger, you additionally want to use progressive overload. That’s, that you must step by step growing the load you elevate or the variety of reps you carry out over time.
Right here’s how:
In case your exercise requires 4-to-6 reps of the bench press and also you full 6 reps in a set, enhance the load by 10 kilos to your subsequent set.
In case you do 3 reps or fewer in subsequent units, cut back the load by 5 kilos to remain within the 4-to-6 rep vary.
Apply this approach to each train and you’ll make every set of chest coaching as efficient as attainable.
Quantity-Optimized Chest Exercise Routines
Right here’s a recap of what usually works greatest for chest coaching, primarily based on analysis:
- 10-to-20 chest units per week
- 1-to-3 chest exercises per week
- 6-to-10 units per chest exercise
- 3-to-4 chest workout routines per session
And right here’s the best way to flip that right into a sensible coaching plan:
Routine #1: One Chest Exercise per Week (4 Workout routines)
This routine contains 10 complete units throughout 4 workout routines—excellent if you happen to prepare chest as soon as per week and need a balanced mixture of compound and isolation work.
Routine #2: One Chest Exercise per Week (3 Workout routines)
If wish to hold issues even less complicated, this routine incorporates the identical quantity of quantity as the primary routine with simply three heavy, compound presses:
- Barbell Bench Press: 4 units | 4-to-6 reps | 3-to-5 min relaxation
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 units | 4-to-6 reps | 3-to-5 min relaxation
- Dip: 3 units | 6-to-8 reps | 2-to-3 min relaxation
Routine #3: Two Chest Exercises per Week
In case you’re doing greater than 10 units to your chest per week, it normally is sensible to unfold them over two exercises.
Fairly than dedicating each classes solely to chest, a extra environment friendly method is to program them as “chest-focussed push exercises”—classes that emphasize your pecs but additionally prepare your shoulders and triceps.
This works since you don’t want two full chest exercises to maximise progress—and attempting to cram that a lot chest coaching into your week usually eats into the time and vitality you possibly can be spending on different muscle groups.
Right here’s the way you may construction two push exercises that embrace 15 complete units for chest:
Push Exercise #1
- Barbell Bench Press: 3 units | 4-to-6 reps | 3-to-5 min relaxation
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 units | 4-to-6 reps | 3-to-5 min relaxation
- Shoulder Press: 3 units | 6-to-8 reps | 2-to-3 min relaxation
- Overhead Triceps Extension: 3 units | 8-to-10 reps | 2-to-3 min relaxation
Push Exercise #2
- Incline Barbell Bench Press: 3 units | 4-to-6 reps | 3-to-5 min relaxation
- Dip: 3 units | 6-to-8 reps | 2-to-3 min relaxation
- Dumbbell Side Lateral Raise: 3 units | 6-to-8 reps | 2-to-3 min relaxation
- Cable Fly: 3 units | 8-to-10 reps | 2-to-3 min relaxation
If you wish to transcend 15 weekly chest units, the only possibility is to stay with this construction and both carry out further units of the chest workout routines you’re already doing, or tack on 3 extra units in one other exercise through the week.
There’s no inflexible rule about the place to place them—simply select no matter matches greatest together with your schedule and restoration.
The Advantages of Chest Coaching
When individuals ask how many chest workout routines per exercise they need to do, they’re normally targeted on one factor: rising their pecs.
However the advantages of chest coaching go far past pec measurement.
Higher Physique Muscle Progress
Coaching your pecs with compound workout routines builds higher physique mass in two methods.
First, the pecs are among the many largest muscular tissues in your higher physique, so creating them provides noticeable measurement throughout your torso.
Second, compound chest workout routines additionally prepare close by muscular tissues—particularly the shoulders and triceps—which suggests you’re constructing total higher physique mass, not simply your chest.
Enhanced Athletic Efficiency
Urgent workout routines, just like the flat or incline bench press, are exceptionally vital for gaining higher physique energy and energy, making them splendid for athletes who must throw, punch, jostle, or shortly rise up off the bottom of their sport.
What’s extra, chest workout routines just like the dip or push-up are closed-kinetic-chain workout routines—actions the place you repair your fingers or ft on a stationary object (e.g., dip bars or the ground).
That is important as a result of closed-kinetic-chain workout routines assist boost athletic efficiency in 3 ways:
- They improve balance and stability by participating a number of muscle teams concurrently.
- They mimic the actions utilized in sports activities, the place you generate pressure together with your complete physique whereas your ft or fingers stay planted and unsupported by gear like benches or machines.
- They activate extra stabilizer muscular tissues, serving to you construct larger full-body energy and coordination.
Improved Posture
Tight pecs may cause your shoulders to spherical and your higher again to hunch. Chest workout routines that deeply stretch your pecs help loosen these muscular tissues, which might cut back tightness and assist you to keep a extra upright posture.
The Finest Dietary supplements for Maximizing Your Chest Exercise Outcomes
Realizing what number of workout routines to do for chest per exercise—and following a routine that hits that vary—goes a good distance towards constructing a powerful chest. However if you wish to get much more out of your coaching, the best dietary supplements can provide you an edge.
Listed here are three price contemplating:
- Protein powder: Protein powder, similar to whey or casein, supplies your physique with the vitamins needed to construct muscle tissue and recuperate from exercises. For a clear and scrumptious protein powder, strive Whey+ or Casein+.
- Creatine: Creatine boosts muscle and energy achieve, improves anaerobic endurance, and reduces muscle harm and soreness out of your exercises. For a pure supply of creatine, strive our creatine monohydrate, creatine gummies, or Recharge.
- Pre-workout: A high-quality pre-workout enhances vitality, temper, and focus, will increase energy and endurance, and reduces fatigue. For a top-tier pre-workout containing clinically efficient doses of 6 science-backed components, strive Pulse with caffeine or without.
(In case you’d like much more particular recommendation about which dietary supplements you must take to succeed in your well being and health targets, take the Legion Supplement Finder Quiz, and in lower than a minute, you’ll know precisely what dietary supplements are best for you.)
FAQ #1: How many chest exercises per week for energy?
In case your purpose is to get stronger, particularly on the bench press, coaching your chest 2-to-3 occasions per week normally works greatest.
Power has a big talent element, and practising the bench press extra usually helps you get higher on the motion.
Power exercises usually revolve round low-rep, heavy bench urgent, with few (if any) isolation workout routines. You may also embrace variations that strengthen your weak factors, like close-grip bench if in case you have a weak lockout or paused bench if you happen to wrestle off your chest.
READ MORE: Increase Your Bench Press Max With 16 Science-Backed Techniques
FAQ #2: How many chest workout routines per week if you happen to prepare at house?
In case you’re coaching at house with no gear, your chest train choices are restricted—however that doesn’t imply you’ll be able to’t make progress.
For most individuals, doing 2-to-3 push-up variations (e.g., common push-ups, feet-elevated push-ups, diamond and push-ups) 2-to-3 occasions per week works nicely.
READ MORE: How to Do the Push-up: Form, Variations, and Workouts
FAQ #3: How lengthy ought to a chest exercise be?
A well-rounded chest exercise usually lasts round 45-to-60 minutes. That is sufficient time to finish your units whereas additionally permitting for loads of relaxation between units.
READ MORE: How Long Should You Rest Between Sets to Gain Muscle and Strength?
Scientific References +
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