The Fastest Way To Blow Up Your Upper Chest (4 Science-Based Steps) + Sample Program

4 simple strategies to blow up your upper chest as fast as possible!

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Watch my Blow Up Your Bench Press video:

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When it comes to the upper chest, there are 4 things you can start doing right away that will have an immediate impact on your max strength.

First let's cover basic chest prioritization first:

First: hit chest earlier in the workout.
Second: Tally up roughly how many sets of chest you’re hitting per week right now. Once you’ve got the proper techniques handled, then you can start adding one or two sets per week over the next month or two as you assess your progress, working your way up through the 12-20 set “optimal zone”.
Third: Increase frequency. If you’re currently only hitting your chest once per week on Monday, start hitting it twice per week.

Step 1: Modify Your Bench Press Technique

The first modification is to use slightly lighter weights for higher reps. The second way we want to modify our bench technique is by bringing our grip slightly in. Even though you won’t be able to move as much weight this way, if you’re more concerned with developing your upper chest, a closer grip will likely hit the upper fibers better.

Step 2: Add More Incline Presses

The reason I’m using dumbbells over barbells here is that you will be able to get a bit more range of motion with the extra stretch at the bottom: so the short comings of the barbell press are overcome by also including dumbbells. A cue I like to use on the incline press to drive upper chest focus is to keep the elbows moderately tucked and think about pressing the dumbbells up and back toward your face, rather than just straight up.

Step 3: Incorporate more non-traditional exercises

The reverse grip bench press, band press and banded push-ups are the three movements we can consider including. I’m personally a bit more wary of the guillotine press as it just feels too risky to me, so I’d stick with the banded push up and the banded incline press for higher reps in the 15-20 range to see if you feel them working your upper chest.

Step 4: Fill in further volume with isolation work

I like low to high cable flyes. While dumbbell flyes can be effective for really stretching out the pecs at the bottom, they lose tension at the top. When pulling the cables from low to high, you can mimic the exact orientation of the clavicular fibers, which also run low to high. You might feel this in your front delts (and that’s ok) but if you really focus on the mind-muscle connection and actively squeezing your pecs together, you should feel your upper pecs contracting the most.

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SOURCES:

Filmed and edited by Rashaun R and me using Final Cut Pro X and Sony A7R3

Rashaun's YouTube:

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About me: I'm a Canadian natural pro bodybuilder and internationally-qualified powerlifter with a BSc in biochemistry/chemistry and a passion for science. I've been training for 12 years drug-free. I'm 5'5 and fluctuate between 160 lbs (lean) and 180 lbs (bulked).

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Disclaimers: Jeff Nippard is not a doctor or a medical professional. Always consult a physician before starting any exercise program. Use of this information is strictly at your own risk. Jeff Nippard will not assume any liability for direct or indirect losses or damages that may result from the use of information contained in this video including but not limited to economic loss, injury, illness or death.

[JeffNippard]

I had originally planned to do this video on "the fastest way to blow up your squat" BUT I rolled my ankle playing basketball (or was it doing bosu-ball-curls? hmmm...) so I had to delay all lower body stuff on account of me being forced to skip leg day. I'm back to hitting full body workouts now, so will definitely be rolling out the Full Body Science Applied Series (and the new program) next month! I'm also going to extend this series and cover specific techniques for "blowing up your [everything interesting]". Let me know if there's anything in particular you'd like to see. Hope you guys are having a great weekend and enjoy the video! Peace!

[sheikaejulius]

i absolutely love how this man always always always has his sources cited. His highschool teachers would be proud.

[TheAdamk]

Jeff Nippard doesn't use slo-mo on his videos, he's just that good at performing ultra slow controlled reps.

[capoman]

Bench technique: There are cues you can learn to "feel the muscle" on some lifts. For instance on back, we focus on ignoring our hands and feeling like we are pulling from the elbows, and that activates more back... A similar cue for benching, focus not on the bar going up, *focus on squeezing your elbows together, like a fly.* Your hands are locked to the bar, so make it feel like your only way to move is to squeeze the elbows inwards, and the bar will naturally rise.

[Wetsloppytomatoes]

Honestly, I quit doing flat bench for more than a year and only hit incline which I did everything to master it for myself, using my own techniques. A year later my cousin asked me to do first bench with him and I hit 225 for 15 reps easy. I could say incline made my chest stronger.

[bensan]

i trained my upper chest too much and now i cant see over it, Jeff help!

[DrSwole]

Goal is to be able to balance a cup on the upper chest in the side chest pose 😂

[reinerheiner]

Jeff, I think the main reason the reverse grip bench press activates more of the upper pecs is that it forces the elbows to be in a smaller angle towards the chest. Therefore anatomically, the upper pec is more suited to producing force because of its anatomy becsuse the force is now coming much more from below instead of coming from the side.
If you simply incline bench press but use the same elbow angle (irrespective of using a pronated grip ) you will likely see the same or even more activation of the upper pecs, certainly more activation than how you performed incline bench press at the beginning of the video.

[faffywaffletv]

'The fastest way to blow up your upper chest'
Strap some C4 to it.

[jamesbtri]

I appreciate these video's so much. I tore my pec in February and was told not to touch a weight and movement that involved chest . I spent hours researching and your technique aided me so much in my recovery. I am 10 months in and I am pressing 410 x 5 and almost back to my normal weight. Not only is my chest fuller, but the technique and theory have made this a pain free journey. Sir my hat is off to you and look forward to future video's.

[jeongless]

Even though I have relatively big chest but my upper chest was lagging.. thanks for such a trustworthy info Jeff!!!

[xXlSkULFaClXx]

I’m not even kidding, I was looking for this video last Tuesday when I was getting chest, unfortunately you didn’t have an upper chest video that I could find, but I have chest day today and you posted this just before I was going to the gym. How perfect

[jojotheweirdone]

Skinny dude here who is slowly starting to see good results all thanks to Jeff’s YouTube videos. I’ve been trying to gain mass for years now and these videos have helped so much (:

[angelosorio]

Make a No Nut November science explained

We’re almost there guys

[edwarda]

As a chiropractic student, I can tell you I've seen a ton of people with wrist problems, especially with the capitate. I attribute this partly to excessive bench pressing (due to the fixed wrist position).
Though the reverse grip bench may add variety to your chest activation, I have my concerns of the effect it will have on the wrist (just looking at the position of the wrist).

[NutritionLibrary]

You literally have the most killer content.

[BigUriel]

Nothing wrong with targeting a part of the body that is lagging but before people go crazy doing all incline chest workouts they should do two things:


1) Ask themselves if they only need to grow their upper pecs, or if their pecs would look better just being bigger overall
2) Consider that flat pressing activates the upper chest at worst almost as well as incline pressing, but in many studies it's really shown to be just as good, but incline pressing significantly reduces mid/lower chest activation, so incline pressing doesn't train your upper chest more as much as it just trains your mid/lower chest less. Also some exercises like dips have at times even been shown to recruit the upper chest more than any incline press (while also heavily recruiting the rest of the pecs).


Don't waste your time trying to grow a specific area of a body part that you think is lagging if weigh 150lbs, because your whole body is lagging and you should be focusing on building as much muscle all over as possible.

[nickc]

Interesting episode, thank you. 6:18 a few other factors I would like to introduce in terms of the benefits of bands and machines over free weights:

1. I’m training in recovery from a major injury - complete tear of a bicep tendon. Free weights are much more likely to “jerk” if you lose control which has a much higher chance of injury again. Bands decrease force on the return part, free weights increase force. Machines ‘“catch” the weight themselves as they bottom out. Free weights therefore have by far the highest injury potential.

2. Bands tend to introduce “stability” challenges in that you have to brace your frame to isolate the muscle group. This means you train static strength in your core and legs at the same time as training dynamic strength in the chest or arms. Training static strength in stabilisation muscles helps build joint stability which further reduces injury potential.

3. Travel. If you travel for work, packing bands is MUCH easier than packing weights or a machine …. So developing a workout program that is primarily body weight + bands means that when you travel you do not alter your training program and you know you will be able to do it. This is a great time saver and a way to not let travel interrupt training or recovery.

There are plenty of times where free weights (particularly) dumb bells are the best option for strength and growth but at the expense of injury risk and portability. On an 80/20 principle where you are training for general fitness, sport, or recovery - bands and body weight are hard to argue against.

[cmenomore]

A very nice put together video, with good sources and no unnecessary filler. Nice work Jeff.

[BIGMIKEC]

Im currently doing a "block" of chest and delts, training both chest and delts three times per week. Increasing the volume every week for a total of four weeks, then backing of to let the muscles recover with low volume for about 6-8 weeks, then hitting them again three times per week. Works great for me since my chest is my strongest bodypart.