Perfecting Chest Day: Chest Warm-up

The chest is an important part of our body. The pectoral muscles are responsible for a variety of essential movements in our everyday lives.

Pushing open a heavy door, carrying heavy bags, and using a screwdriver are only some of the activities the chest muscles help us do. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that so many athletes have a push day in their workout split, where they exclusively train the chest and triceps.

Before the chest day, however, comes the chest warm-up session. What's a chest warm-up stretch? Why is it important? How can I warm my chest muscles up? If you find yourself asking these questions, keep reading the article to find your answers!

Different Types of Stretches

Before we can discuss chest warm-up, we need to know what exactly we’re talking about. We have two types of stretches: dynamic and static. Dynamic stretches involve stretching your muscles while moving your body parts. More specifically, dynamic stretching includes active movements that mimic the range of motion you'll use in your workout. Static stretches are the opposite of that. They require extending the muscles to their full length and then holding that position for a few seconds.

It’s usually recommended to perform dynamic stretches before a workout as a warm-up. Additionally, static stretches should be done after a workout to cool the muscles down. Research shows that pre-exercise static stretching can decrease strength, power, and performance. So, performing static stretches before lifting will make you weaker and more likely to get hurt.

Why Should You Do Chest Warm-up Exercises?

For many people, warming up is one of the most boring parts of a workout, especially if you’re an experienced lifter and especially on chest day. How much weight a person can bench press has long been seen as a measure of their masculinity and strength. So, it’s pretty normal for you to want to skip the warm-up and jump on to the exciting part where you can actually see results. But you should never do that, and here’s why:

It Increases the Range of Motion

Range of motion (ROM) is the distance and direction a muscle can move between its flexed and extended positions. In resistance training, it means how much and in what direction a muscle should move to complete a movement.

Some exercises, like squats or deadlifts, require that you perform them with a complete range of motion. These are called full range of motion (ROM) exercises. Other exercises involve a limited range of motion to target specific muscles. This is called specific ROM training. An example of specific ROM training is the rack pull, a variation of the deadlift that starts at knee height and zeroes in on the upper back and traps.

Back to the warm-up: You need to complete the range of motion required for each exercise to see the best results. Warming up increases your range of motion by reducing the stiffness of the muscles.

A study investigating the effects of dynamic stretching on range of motion found that muscles’ range of motion increased immediately after dynamic stretching by 7%-10% and lasted for more than 90 minutes—so there you go!

It Improves Performance

It’s chest day and you want to hit your PR in bench press, but there's something you have to do before that: You should prepare both your muscles and mind with a warm-up. Think of a warm-up as a backstage whisper to your muscles, a heads-up for the performance that's about to unfold.

According to a study published in the Journal of Sports Medicine, dynamic stretching improves performance in activities that require force, power, sprinting, and jumping. How?

• It increases your body temperature. Increased heat throughout your muscles improves muscle elasticity.
• It promotes blood flow to your muscles. This brings more oxygen and nutrients to the muscles.
• It primes your neuromuscular system for the action. It makes your nervous system recruit muscle fibers more efficiently.

There are so many research papers that tell us warming up has a positive effect on performance. So, let’s just consider it as a valid point.

It Prevents Injury

It sounds like a no-brainer, but warming up before workouts lowers the chance of injury. This is especially beneficial if the warm-up session is done within 15 minutes before working out.

Injury prevention can be considered a positive side effect of the other benefits of warm-ups. Warming your muscles up helps you complete your range of motion. This means that you’ll be able to perform exercises with the correct form, thus decreasing the chance of injury. Plus, it improves your performance and prepares your muscles for the action. Stronger muscles make it less likely to tear and fail when you’re lifting weights.

Chest Warm-up Exercises

You have two options for a chest warm-up—or any warm-up for that matter. First, you can do some dynamic stretches that will prepare your muscles for the workout. You can also perform the same exercises in your workout with lighter weight or lower intensity.

When lifting weights, the goal is to train to failure in every single set. It doesn’t mean that you have to black out at the end of each set (although sometimes that happens). Rather, it means that you should pick a weight heavy enough so that when your set ends, you won’t be able to perform the movement with proper form for more reps. If you don’t reach failure, it counts as a warm-up set.

The chest warm-up movements that we’re going to introduce are a combination of both.

Push-up

Push-ups are great exercises on their own. They target the pecs, triceps, and shoulders. Many people do them as a main part of their workout routine. However, done before a workout, push-ups can be a great chest and triceps warm-up exercise. To perform a push-up:

1. Get on all fours with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Put your legs back until you’re on your hands and toes. Your legs should be hip-width apart. This is the same position as a high plank.
3. Keep your back straight and in line with the rest of your body. Make sure you don’t sag or arch your back throughout the entire movement.
4. Engage your core and take a deep breath.
5. Bend your elbows and bring your whole body down. Make sure to keep a straight back.
6. Come down until you’re just a few inches above the floor.
7. Push up with your hand and extend your arms to bring your body back to the starting position.

If you’re struggling with performing the movement, you can do a modified push-up. It’s the same exercise but you do it with your knees on the floor for more support.

Floor Slide

The Floor slide stretch is a great and easy chest day warm-up exercise. Let’s see how it’s performed:

1. Lie on your back.
2. Bend your knees until your feet are on the ground.
3. Press your lower back to the floor.
4. Open your arms and put them beside your head. Your palms should be upward. It's like making a W with your arms and shoulders.
5. Slide your arms overhead while being attached to the floor.
6. Come back down to the initial position.

Arm Circle

Arm circles are another simple chest warm-up stretch you can do to prepare your muscles for chest day. To perform an arm circle:

1. Stand up straight with your feet shoulder-width apart.
2. Extend your arms and raise them to your sides. Your arms should make a 90° angle with your sides.
3. Rotate your arms in one direction, making circles with them.
4. Keep your speed under control and don’t throw your arms.
5. Do this at least 15 times in one direction.
6. Do the same movement in the opposite direction.

Chest Fly

Chest flyes are usually performed with dumbbells to grow the chest muscles. However, you can do them with lighter weights or no weight at all as a warm-up exercise. Here’s how to do a chest fly:

1. Lie back on a flat or inclined bench.
2. Open your hips and put your feet on the ground.
3. Extend your arms above your chest but don’t lock out your elbows. If you have dumbbells, keep them above your chest while your palms face each other.
4. Slowly bring your hands to the sides. Gradually bend your arms as you come down.
5. Come down until your arms reach your shoulders.
6. Push your arms back up and return to the starting position.
7. When you go back up, rotate your pinkies towards each other.

90-90 Stretch With Arm Sweep

Despite its hard name, the 90-90 stretch with arm sweep is an easy exercise to do before a chest workout. It opens up the chest muscles and improves the mobility and flexibility of the shoulders and chest. To do it:

1. Lie back on the floor.
2. Bend one knee to 90° and cross the other leg over.
3. Roll onto the side of your bent knee and put something soft like a towel or foam below your knee.
4. Extend both your hands in front of you and put your palms together.
5. Keep your lower arm on the ground. Slowly rotate your upper arm and chest and go above your head. Your arm should trace the shape of an incomplete circle.
6. Sweep your arm down until it reaches your hips.
7. Repeat the same movement on the other side.

Cardio vs. Dynamic Stretches for Warm-up

There are two types of people at the gym: those who jump on the treadmill for 10 minutes before a workout and those who do some stretching—there is also a third group, those who don’t warm up; but let’s not talk about them!

Which of these groups is doing the right thing? Well, they’re both wrong and right at the same time. The group that does cardio to warm up their muscles is partly right because,

• They’re increasing their heart rate, which increases blood flow. This prepares the muscles for exercise.
• They’re increasing oxygen delivery to the muscles. This can help their muscles perform better.
• They’re raising their body temperature, thus making muscles more pliable and less prone to injury.

Conversely, the one who does dynamic stretches is also right because,

• They’re activating their muscles by putting them into use. This prepares the muscles for heavy weights.
• They’re improving their range of motion. They perform movements that increase joint mobility.
• They’re enhancing their strength and performance. This helps them lift heavier weights.

So, none of these people are wrong per se. Incorporating the two approaches in a chest day warm-up session could be a better alternative. It is generally recommended to start the warmup session with a few minutes of cardio to get the heart pumping, and then proceed to dynamic stretches.

Final Word

It can be challenging to hit the gym at least three times a week for an adult who has countless other responsibilities. Therefore, they usually get tempted to skip their warm-up and dive straight into their workout. However, that's not a healthy alternative. When you're short on time, we suggest that you cut out the less essential parts of your workout, like those isolation or abs exercises that usually come at the end.

Need to build your dream body in the right, healthy way? Try Flex A.I.! It helps you with your nutrition choices, builds workout plans based on your condition, and tracks your progress to let you know how far you’ve come. Simply download the app and start using it for free.