Packing on pounds in the chest area could mean putting on weight in your midsection, but no one wants a chubby gut. If you want to make your "girls" appear bustier without gaining weight anywhere else, you'll need to set your sights on building muscle in the pectorals beneath your breasts with strength training exercises. While these exercises won't bump you up to a DD cup, they can give your breasts a natural lift and some perkiness for a bigger appearance. As an added bonus, building lean muscle tissue increases your metabolism and helps to keep weight gain at bay.
Discuss your exercise program with your doctor first for added safety.
Step 1
Adjust your eating habits to fight off fat and promote muscle building. The President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition recommends filling half of your plate with veggies and fruits. Make your other food choices from low-fat dairy, whole grains and low-fat protein. Replace soda, flavored coffee and other sugary beverages with water.
Step 2
Exercise your chest muscles with weight training two to three times a week. Leave at least 48 hours in between each workout so your muscles have time to rest and rebuild. According to MayoClinic.com, you can build up your muscles with 20- to 30-minute long workouts.
Step 3
Use the right-sized weight for each exercise your perform. Your muscles should feel challenged and you should be able to do six to 12 repetitions for each exercise. If you can fly through 12 repetitions in no time, try adding 2 to 5 pounds of weight.
Step 4
Choose three to five exercises for each workout. You can use bodyweight exercises like dips or pushups or you can do all weight-training exercises like the bench press, incline press and chest flyes. Vary the exercises you perform every three to four weeks so your body never gets use to the workout.
Step 5
Exercise your abdominal muscles at least twice a week to keep your stomach lean, strong and sexy. Choose three to five different exercises and work until your muscles fatigue, this could be five repetitions or 15 depending on your strength. Try a variety of exercises like crunches, leg lifts, side bends, flutter kicks, the bicycle, situps on an exercise ball and V-ups that hit all of the muscles in your midsection.
Step 6
End each workout with some form of cardio exercise. Alternate between moderately paced cardio and intense interval training every other day. During moderately paced cardio, you pick an activity like cycling, and work at a constant and challenging pace for 20 to 60 minutes. During interval training you alternate between 20 to 60 seconds of very fast activity like sprinting, and 20 to 60 seconds of slower activity like walking and jogging, for a total of 10 to 20 minutes.
Warnings
References
Resources
Warnings
- Discuss your exercise program with your doctor first for added safety.
Writer Bio
Ashley Farley has been a certified personal trainer since 2008. She is also a writer specializing in healthy living, fitness and nutrition topics. Farley has an Associate of Science in mental health services from the Community College of the Air Force and is pursuing her B.A. in English at Wright State University.