The importance of doing regular exercise cannot be overemphasized. Workout helps us in many ways; it improves our brain function, reduces the risk of heart diseases, keeps us in shape, etc.
While there are different exercises for different parts of the body, there’s this one body part many women seem to ignore- the chest region or pectorals. A general misconception encourages women to downplay the need for chest workouts. Many believe that since women have breasts, they don’t need to build their chest or pectoral muscles. Some see it as a waste of time.
But it’s completely untrue! Both men and women need to do these exercises. Chest workouts help build upper body strength and form posture in women.
With new and improved Velocity-based training (VBT) technology, chest workouts have got a lot easier. Now, it’s possible to quantify and apply metrics that were once deemed hard to measure to improve your exercises.
We’ll discuss five easy chest workouts for women and why you should adopt VBT into your workout program. But first, let’s take an in-depth look at some of the reasons women should do chest workouts:
Benefits of Chest Workouts for Women
1. Daily Activities
Women do a lot of daily activities that involve the chest muscles. Chest or pectoral muscles help us raise and move our arms and turn them inwards.
Almost every upper body movement involves our chest muscles. It means we use them every time we pick, push or grab an object. Chest workouts mimic these activities, especially the ones that involve pushing an object; a door, a baby stroller, et cetera.
Lack of chest exercises can make your pecs weak. You may find it difficult to do even the simplest activities like carrying a handbag. More so, doing these activities with weak pecs muscles can lead to injuries in the long run.
For most women, their shoulder muscles step in when the chest muscles are weak. The danger, however, is that the shoulders become weak and may decapitate if caution isn’t taken.
2. Posture
A strong chest guarantees a good posture. The muscles in your chest area are significant in maintaining stability and body posture.
Your chest muscles are attached to your shoulder blades, and they offer support. If you do too many tasking activities without exercising your pecs, they pull down your shoulder blades leading to a bad posture.
Your ribs are not left out. The pectoralis minor and serratus anterior muscles connect to your ribs; the more reason you should exercise them.
3. Your Breathing
If you have a good posture, your chest remains upright and open, making it easier to take deep breaths.
4. Building Other Arm Muscles
Do you want your arms toned? Weightlifting chest exercises are an excellent way to go about it.
Although the exercises we’ll be looking at target your chest muscles, other muscle groups, such as your biceps, back, and shoulders.
For women, chest exercises can help protrude the breast tissue in the forward and upward direction. If you want to make your breasts look more upright, chest exercises can help you achieve this.
Recommended Chest Exercises for Women
Ps: Remember to connect your VTB devices to your dumbbells
We recommend these chest workouts for women:
Push-Ups
Push-ups target the muscles in the following areas; chest, abs, core, shoulders, triceps, and back.
Why Should Women Do Push Up Exercises?
Without a doubt, push-ups are one of the best and most popular exercises that promote fat loss for women and are an effective workout for building chest muscles and overall upper body strength.
Procedure
- Assume a starting position (plank).
- Your bodyweight should be evenly distributed among all your fingers. If your wrist hurts, you can place your hands on weights (recommended).
- Pull your kneecaps close to your tummy.
- Don’t leave your feet too close to each other. Keep a hip-width distance between them.
- Remain in this position. Your body should be in a straight-line position.
- Lower your chest towards the floor. Don’t rush; do this slowly. As you lower your chest, your elbows should fall backward towards your hip area, not sideways.
- Breathe out as you push yourself back up to the starting position.
- Do these steps over again.
You can modify this procedure by dropping to your knees or placing your hands on an elevated platform.
Dumbbell Bench Press
This exercise targets the muscles in the chest, triceps, and deltoids (triangular muscles in the shoulder)
Why Should Women Do the Dumbbell Bench Press?
This exercise is an effective workout that helps strengthen the pectoralis major (a large muscle that covers your chest and ribs). You get faster results if you carry out this exercise with heavyweights.
Procedure:
- Lay your back on a flat surface (could be the floor or a bench)
- Your feet should be flat on the surface and your knees bent.
- Carry one dumbbell in each hand. Let your palms face your knees.
- Bend your elbows at a 90° angle.
- Push both dumbbells forward at the same time. Breathe each time you do so.
- Your wrists and your shoulders must be positioned in line with each other.
- Bring the dumbbells down towards your pecs. Repeat this movement.
Narrow Chest Press
This exercise targets the following muscles; pecs and upper arm (shoulder and triceps).
Why Should Women Do the Narrow Chest Press?
When pressing the dumbbells above your head, this exercise helps to activate your chest muscles. It’s particularly helpful for upper body movements that involve pushing or pressing. A narrow chest press helps to increase your push strength.
Procedure
- Lay your back on a flat surface (could be the floor or a bench)
- Hold the dumbbells (your palms should face each other). Position the dumbbells firmly at the middle of your chest and ensure to pin your elbows at your sides.
- Your feet should be placed firmly on the ground. Maintain this position throughout the exercise (don’t raise your feet).
- Press the dumbbells upward and in a straight path, and exhale each time you do this. Each press should end with your arms straight over your head and your wrists stacked over your shoulders.
- Lower your arms back to the starting position.
- Repeat these steps.
VBT and Its Benefits
Trainers typically design training programs by manipulating different metrics, such as volume, speed, rest, frequency, to name a few. It’s easy to measure most of the variables, but metrics such as intensity are difficult to determine. That’s where Velocity Based Training (VBT) comes in.
VBT is a form of intense training that depends on the speed of movement of a load as it’s being lifted. This method of training is said to be the most effective for strength training.
Thanks to VBT technological devices, coaches and trainees can determine and adjust the intensity of a weightlifting exercise. Innovative tools like Vitruve offer objective feedback, allowing coaches to manipulate different metrics based on an athlete’s performance. With that being said, VBT can help you determine and adjust the intensity of your chest workouts, making it easier for you to know what works best for you.
VBT is different from Percentage Based Training (PBT)- a traditionally adopted training method used to dictate load based on a person’s estimated one-rep max. Both training modalities help eliminate the guesswork of exercises. However, the flaw in PBT is that it doesn’t account for the differences among athletes; they respond differently to stimuli. But with VBT, trainers can track an athlete’s unique performance status and adopt feedback to training.
Nicholas Gonzales
