Striated Pecs Workout

Striated Pecs Workout

For this article, we will present to you a workout, suitable for people who are on a cutting diet, which is expressed through a caloric deficit.

If you are looking for muscle hypertrophy (size), check out our Massive Chest Workout, which is more suitable for a bulking period, unlike this workout, focused on isolation and high repetitions.

This workout includes 1 exercise for each sector of the chest musculature.

The workout

The workout begins with a proper full body warm up, starting from the wrists and moving on to the elbows, shoulders, neck, lower back, hips, knees and ankles.

Afterwards, you can proceed to doing 5 minutes of light cardio to elevate the heart rate and improve the blood flow.

Body PartExerciseSetsRepetitions
Upper chest portionIncline dumbbell bench press515,12,10,10,10
Middle chest portionDumbbell chest flys312
Lower chest portionParallel bar dips312
Inner chest portionCable crossovers315

Exercises

Incline dumbbell bench press

Incline dumbbell bench press

Starting off with a compound movement, which emphasizes on an often neglected and lacking part of the chest musculature- The upper portion.

Execution

  • Grab the dumbbells and sit down on the bench
  • Place the dumbbells on your legs
  • Keep your back straight
  • Lie back and push the dumbbells, with your elbows slightly bent- No lockout is observed
  • Let the dumbbells down until they are by the sides of the upper chest portion
  • Push the dumbbells up explosively, contracting the pecs with no elbow lockout

Dumbbell chest fly

Dumbbell chest fly

The second exercise targets the middle and inner portion of the chest, as it revolves around stretching and squeezing the pecs, more than loading them with heavy weight.

Execution

  • Grab the dumbbells and lie down on the bench comfortably
  • Lift the dumbbells above your chest, so that their sides are pointing forward (Dumbbells don’t touch, keep them an inch away from one another)
  • Keep the elbows bent and lift your chest up
  • Open up your arms, letting the dumbbells go down slowly, with the elbow remaining static
  • After stretching out the chest at the bottom, lift your arms back up to the original position
  • Contract the chest musculature at the top, without letting the dumbbells touch

Parallel bar dips

Parallel bar dips

Execution

  • Get up on the parallel bar and keep your feet together and elbows slightly bent (no lockout)
  • Keep your torso straight
  • Look down
  • Dip down slowly
  • Push up explosively, without locking out the elbows

Cable crossover

cable-crossovers

The workout is then finished off with an isolated cable movement, which primarily targets the inner and outer portion of the chest musculature, by contracting and stretching them out optimally.

Execution

  • Grab both pulleys, stand in the middle between them and step forward with one leg for balance
  • Keep your body straight and elbows slightly bent
  • Push the pulleys down, contracting the chest
  • Let the pulleys back up to stretch out the chest
  • Proceed to the next repetition

Rest times between sets and exercises

Due to the fact this is a workout which will be most effective for shredding purposes (Dieting down to cut weight), the rest times between sets and exercises, are reduced to 30 and 50 seconds, respectively.

This program will grant density and massive pumps, achieved through mostly stretching and contracting oriented exercises, done with high repetitions and moderate intensity. If the diet is on point, achieving visible striations on your chest will inevitably happen.

Rest times between workouts

This workout is suitable for people who are doing 3 or 4-day splits, as you are going to need at least 72 hours between each chest workout, in order to perform optimally, e.g.- If you do chest on Monday, it would be best to train chest again on Thursday or Friday.