Using dumbbells during your strength-training workouts will increase the size of your chest muscles -- if you work out in the right way. Grab a pair of dumbbells and perform various chest exercises. You'll need to reach a high number of sets and repetitions to see a noticeable jump in the size of your chest.
Chest Dumbbell Exercises
To build up your chest, you’ll need to pick three to five dumbbell exercises that target the chest muscle to include in each one of your workouts. You could incorporate dumbbell chest press, dumbbell incline chest press, dumbbell decline chest press, dumbbell flyes and dumbbell pullover. Chest press, decline chest press, flyes and pullover with dumbbells all primarily hit the larger section of the chest muscle, called the sternal head. Dumbbell incline chest press targets the clavicular head of the muscle, which means it targets the upper area of the chest.
Workouts
Your chest workout is going to be long and of high volume, so be prepared to spend some time with your dumbbells. Incorporate your chest workout into your regimen two days per week, with two days of rest off in between. Each one of the three to five dumbbell chest exercises should be done for three to five sets of eight to 20 repetitions. The most important element for building chest size is that your muscle is fatigued and overloaded at the end of each workout.
Using the Right Weight of Dumbbell
Using dumbbells for your chest building workout is ideal, because each one of your limbs has to work on its own. If you were to be using a barbell or a machine, your dominant arm and the stronger side of your chest muscle, could take on more of the work. Dumbbells force each side of your chest muscle to work independently. The weight of the dumbbell you use for each exercise is likely to vary. You want to pick a weight that causes your chest muscle to get tired after eight repetitions, but before you hit 20 repetitions. Make adjustments as you build strength. If you are unable to complete eight reps, but can do 20 with no problem, your workouts won’t be effective at building chest size.
Increasing Bust Size
Following a chest muscle building workout program and using dumbbells will cause an increase in the size of your chest muscle in about eight weeks. The chest muscle is completely independent of your bust, however. Your breasts are made of fat tissue, not muscle. Therefore, if you’re looking to increase your bust size, which is determined by genetics and your body fat percentage, lifting dumbbells isn’t going to be effective. As you do build up your chest muscle, you might notice a perkier bust line.
References
Writer Bio
Kim Nunley has been screenwriting and working as an online health and fitness writer since 2005. She’s had multiple short screenplays produced and her feature scripts have placed at the Austin Film Festival. Prior to writing full-time, she worked as a strength coach, athletic coach and college instructor. She holds a master's degree in kinesiology from California State University, Fullerton.