Below are 5 unique chest-building tips and techniques to get you growing again. No, I am not talking about adding in training volume, performing higher reps, drop sets or other commonly written and practiced techniques. As those do help with progress, they are talked about ad nauseam and easily applied.

These also aren’t one-time fixes that result in little to no benefits to your physique. These will be long-term fixes to give your pecs the real-world boost for results you will actually see. Fixes and protocols that you may never had considered before or were afraid to try. Put a few into practice and see how your chest will expand, change and grow.

Chest Builder #1 - Get fatigue-minded

 First and foremost, get your head on straight and determine once and for all if you are in this for a stronger bench press or more muscle. Each will feed off the other but if you want more muscle mass then fatigue will be your new goal. Don’t worry about numbers, personal records or impressing your friends, it’s time to lay down the law and get focused on fatigue.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t be concerned with progress, however. Progress is still an important factor in resistance training for mass; just don’t be solely driven by maxing out and how much you are benching presently. Recruiting more muscle fiber and fatiguing those fibers should be your goal. Performing sets of triples, doubles and singles will do little to properly fatigue your muscle fibers and grow a muscular chest.

Your concern should focus on proper technique, form, function, stretching and contracting. This is where the old mind-muscle mentality comes into play in a big way. By targeting your muscle instead of worrying about the weight plates over your head you will better learn how to establish that mindset and be successful at building real muscle. I always like to say that you shouldn’t go to the gym to lift weights; you should go to work your muscles. Have complete control of the weight, don’t let it control you.

Chest Builder #2 - High frequency

I have a great friend of mine who sports some pretty massive pecs and triceps. Even to this day, with very little training, those said muscle groups pop out from under his shirt with impressive muscularity. He once told me his “secret” without even knowing it was the real key to his success.

When he was a teenager he would perform hundreds of push-ups and dips every single night. He thought this was going to get him huge since he hadn’t joined a gym yet – in reality, this early training set him up for an advantage later on. Since performing all those sets for his chest and triceps he created an incredible network of efficient nervous system activity for those body parts. His pecs and triceps became easily stimulated because his muscles on a cellular level were being primed all those years. By training them at such a high frequency his body had no choice but to adapt and grow.

Do you ever notice individuals who train their legs often, such as track athletes, have huge thighs? They train them every single day. You too can benefit from this increase of frequency. Training your chest twice or even three times per week (with lower volume per workout, of course) will be unlike any technique you have ever tried. Pumping blood and stimulating your nervous system more often will force your pecs into new growth.

Chest Builder #3 - Bodyweight training

Before you stop reading and write this off as another ineffective full of empty promises article, read on. Bodyweight training has its rightful place in any training program. The ability to manipulate your body in such a way as to add appreciable muscle with a side of strength should be a part everyone’s arsenal. Also, combined with high frequency training, moves such as the push-up are an indispensable tool.

Floor, inclined and feet-elevated push-ups and parallel dips can be challenging and great finishers to your current routine. By taking control of your body instead of a barbell or dumbbells makes the pecs function in a totally different way. Instead of balancing the weight overhead you are required to stabilize your shoulder girdle, midsection, glutes and legs all the while stretching and contracting your pecs properly.

To execute the push-up properly take a position with your hands a few inches wider than your shoulders, your feet several inches apart and your torso straight with your abs flexed and stable. Descend toward the floor with your elbows about 45 degrees from your torso, either touch your chest or stop an inch before, pause and then push off while tensing your pecs by trying to force your hands together. This simple action will focus the stress on your pecs and away from your shoulders.

Chest Builder #4 - Chest ladder

The chest ladder is more a general term with many options to choose from. One of the most effective is the isometric hold ladder. Start with a manageable number of reps such as six and perform six perfect push-up reps: slow descend and then flex the pecs as described above. After six reps, hold the contracted position for six seconds by trying to force your hands together without moving them. This will help flex the pecs for the isometric hold. Immediately after, perform five reps with a five second isometric hold. Then go to four reps, three reps, two reps and finally one rep with a one second hold.

Sounds easy? Wait until you try it. If you are practicing good form and technique and squeezing with everything you have, you will be screaming from the intense burn this will produce. This will also help build that coveted mind-muscle connection I talked about earlier. Either as part of high frequency training or tacked onto your current routine, isometric holds will ramp up any program and create not only a new training stimulus but also add a little variety and challenge.

Chest Builder #5 - Correct set-up

You’ve heard it a million times from me in nearly all my articles: Proper form is a must. This is never more important than when talking chest training. Way too many individuals try to bench too much weight while contorting and convulsing their bodies into Kama Sutra positions risking life and limb (literally) to press the bar up by any means necessary. Locking out the loaded bar becomes priority one.

As mentioned before, when talking about building pectoral muscle having the powerlifter mindset will do little for sculpting your physique. Pressing egotistical weight just for the sake of lifting it off your chest still takes proper technique - not only for better performance but for safety as well.

Wait and see

Some of the above may seem like no-brainer pieces of advice, but take stock of your current routine, be honest with yourself and adjust things the right way without your ego. If more muscle growth is your goal forget the personal records and start training toward your goal instead of trying to impress your buddies. There is no way around hard work so stay patient, consistent and self-disciplined and the results you seek will be yours.