Best way to work on pecs (man boobs)

oldscoil

Hi Folks.

I’m wondering if you can help me out.

I have a treadmill, rowing machine, small weights and Bodylastics http://www.bodylastics.com/ at my deposal at home. (don’t asked how I acquired all these)

What’s the best combo of these to tone up and especially build up my pecs and shoulders?

Thanks in advance folks.

Frogdog

By "tone up" I presume you mean you want to have less bodyfat and more muscle?

Well if you have excess bodyfat around your chest area and you want to get rid of it then your diet is key. All the exercise in the world won't make a difference to you if you're consuming more calories than you need.

Can you post up a sample list of what your daily diet looks like (breakfast, lunch, dinner, all snacks and what you drink)???

If you want to build muscle then you're going to have to use heavy weights, not small weights. It's possible though that you could see some improvements/results from push ups. And you're going to have to eat more calories than you need.

Exercises to focus on (if you have access to a gym/heavy weights) would be the bench press (and all it's variants) and the overhead press (and all it's variants), and push ups and dips if you don't.

So if you want to lose bodyfat, eat less, if you want to gain muscle, eat more.

J Winston

Diet Well And Lift Heavy ...:)

BossArky

What is your typical daily diet?

What is your typical workout? How many times per week?

Do you drink much?

Dumbbell Military Press and Bench Press will help put a bit of muscle on your upper body on your shoulders & pec.

WalterMitty

Hormonal effects can make man boobs appear. Lift heavy on squat , deads and bench to increase testosterone which should help. Eat healthily too as endless cardio is not very sustainable way of staying in shape for most people.

Transform

oldscoil wrote: »

Hi Folks.

I’m wondering if you can help me out.

I have a treadmill, rowing machine, small weights and Bodylastics http://www.bodylastics.com/ at my deposal at home. (don’t asked how I acquired all these)

What’s the best combo of these to tone up and especially build up my pecs and shoulders?

Thanks in advance folks.

press ups and chin ups - get really really good at both.

Ohh and sort your diet out - look at the stickies

Pace2008

WalterMitty wrote: »

Hormonal effects can make man boobs appear. Lift heavy on squat , deads and bench to increase testosterone which should help. Eat healthily too as endless cardio is not very sustainable way of staying in shape for most people.

I don't think he was suggesting he had gyno or even flabby manboobs - I think he's just looking for a big chest.

Transform wrote: »

press ups and chin ups - get really really good at both.

Ohh and sort your diet out - look at the stickies

I love my pull ups and chin ups more than any other exercise, but do they really do much for your chest?

Transform

Pace2008 wrote: »

I don't think he was suggesting he had gyno or even flabby manboobs - I think he's just looking for a big chest.

I love my pull ups and chin ups more than any other exercise, but do they really do much for your chest?

yes they do - i have never seen a guy that can bang through reps of press ups, dips, chin ups (full range) that had anything flabby.

Master your own body weight, chuck a kettlebell about, run/sprint a bit, stretch, foam roll and eat mainly unprocessed foods and you can go places.

Mellor

Pace2008 wrote: »

I love my pull ups and chin ups more than any other exercise, but do they really do much for your chest?

I don't know anyone that can do a handstand press-up that doesn't have pretty strong shoulders.
I don't know anyone who can do high number of reps of pull-ups that doesn't have a decent back. Ditto for weighted pull-ups with decent % of BW added.
It's reletively easier to press-ups so volume wll be higher even for begineers, but the same applies

Pace2008

I actually misread the post to which I replied - I saw it as "pulls ups and chin ups," rather than "press ups and chin ups," hence my surprise as chin ups are primarily a back/biceps exercise.

I got some decent newbie gains in the first month or two before I started structuring some workouts just by dicking about with push ups and pull ups in a fairly laissez-faire manner. I reckon a lot of blokes could get the upper body they want with good bodyweight exercises alone - would definitely beat doing machine circuits and lifting the same dumbbells every week like I did back in my school days!

For push ups that emphasise the chest, Google wide push ups and hip push ups. The latter will probably be pretty hard if you're not used to the standard variety.

petroltimer

Pace2008 wrote: »

I actually misread the post to which I replied - I saw it as "pulls ups and chin ups," rather than "press ups and chin ups," hence my surprise as chin ups are primarily a back/biceps exercise.

I got some decent newbie gains in the first month or two before I started structuring some workouts just by dicking about with push ups and pull ups in a fairly laissez-faire manner. I reckon a lot of blokes could get the upper body they want with good bodyweight exercises alone - would definitely beat doing machine circuits and lifting the same dumbbells every week like I did back in my school days!

For push ups that emphasise the chest, Google wide push ups and hip push ups. The latter will probably be pretty hard if you're not used to the standard variety.

I think pullups are more an indicator of how fit\strong you are, than an exercise, as pull an overweight guy off the street and i'd be surprised if he could do one pullup, so starting off you must improve the diet, lose the weight, exercise and you can track your progress by how many pullups you can do in a set. As said by someone else above, has anyone ever seen an unfit\ overweight guy do a set of 10 pullups? i wouldn't think so.

Hanley

Transform wrote: »

yes they do - i have never seen a guy that can bang through reps of press ups, dips, chin ups (full range) that had anything flabby.

I have...?

Transform

Hanley wrote: »

I have...?

you sir are the exception to the 'norm' by quite some distance

Hanley

Transform wrote: »

you sir are the exception to the 'norm' by quite some distance

I'm not talking about my old fat self

I've trained with an know quite a few guys who can bash thru fairly hip rep pull ups/dips/push ups and would be fairly "fat". I dunno what you're thinking of when you say flabby tho, so we could be defining things differently!

Transform

Hanley wrote: »

I'm not talking about my old fat self

I've trained with an know quite a few guys who can bash thru fairly hip rep pull ups/dips/push ups and would be fairly "fat". I dunno what you're thinking of when you say flabby tho, so we could be defining things differently!

I think when the OP works on the basics (especially body weight movements, some cardio and his nutrition) he could really go places.

Will it get him in stunning shape - most likely not. When he is at the point that he can run, do press ups, chin ups etc he is not going to have to worry about man boobs. He might still have fat to drop but i hoenstly think he will look remarkably different


This is going to be wayyy better than doing bits and bobs of everything and using bands exclusively

Mellor

petroltimer wrote: »

I think pullups are more an indicator of how fit\strong you are, than an exercise, as pull an overweight guy off the street and i'd be surprised if he could do one pullup, so starting off you must improve the diet, lose the weight, exercise and you can track your progress by how many pullups you can do in a set. As said by someone else above, has anyone ever seen an unfit\ overweight guy do a set of 10 pullups? i wouldn't think so.

Not really. They are still an excercise, and really should be part of your regular workout.
Proformance in every excercise is an indicator fitness or strength
The overweight isn't strong enough to do them, but he prob can't do a bodyweight bench press, or a 1.5bW squat either. So he needs to assist pull-up somehow (machine, bands, spotter, chair etc)

dartstothesea

Does anyone know anyone that had a genuine case of moob (not necessarily full blown, need-a-bra job but just an inordinate amount of fat in that area, to whatever degree), that managed to fully remedy it?

Not that I've seen proof that these suggestions don't work or anything, but let's just suppose for a minute I was skeptical. Humour me / convince me.
I guess I'm kind of looking to Transform with this.

Transform

yes i have seen it but it really depends on how much weight a guy had on him to begin with i.e. if the guy is 1-2 stone overweight and has been eating junk and not doing any weights then with a bit of hard work he will drop the moobs.

If the guy is a good few stone overweight then there is a strong possibility that no amount of training will get rid of the moobs as the skin has been stretched so much (same goes for the stomach) and surgery might be needed to tighten things back up

Stoooopid looking pec implants is NOT a good option i might add -



I did a piece on Today FM last year addressing this very topic and an article on this so i know its something guys tend to worry about but really doing the basics well will get most guys back to where they want to be.

wersal gummage

i dont have moobs. i have 12% bodyfat though and can pinch a good bit of fat on my pecs - if i tense them this is reduced to a tiny amount - but its still there. i have a good diet and good programme but i am eating a surplus of calories as i am putting on a bit of weight - i know this not the way to go about losing bodyfat. just wondering, is there any merit in targetting an area like that by say doing very high reps on chest exercises ??

Hanley

wersal gummage wrote: »

i dont have moobs. i have 12% bodyfat though and can pinch a good bit of fat on my pecs - if i tense them this is reduced to a tiny amount - but its still there. i have a good diet and good programme but i am eating a surplus of calories as i am putting on a bit of weight - i know this not the way to go about losing bodyfat. just wondering, is there any merit in targetting an area like that by say doing very high reps on chest exercises ??

Nope, unfortunately not. Your body doesn’t just feel your chest working and take fat from there for fuel.

Out of interest, who told you that you were 12%, and how did they measure it?

wersal gummage

Hanley wrote: »

Nope, unfortunately not. Your body doesn’t just feel your chest working and take fat from there for fuel.

Out of interest, who told you that you were 12%, and how did they measure it?

thanks. yeah i know you cant spot reduce fat - i was just kidding myself

personal trainer in the gym, using a caliper gismo - he took measurments from a few areas and then did some kind of calculations with that and put it against my height or weight or whatever in a chart. i wouldn't trust myself to do it.

my natural shape is quite slim so if i reduce the calories to below what i'm burning off I know i'll just slim up very quickly - which I dont want really.

Mellor

If you want to get from 12-10%, you'll have to eat less than you are burning.
What do you mean you don't want to "slim uo", you just asked about losign fat.

If you refer to losing muscle mass, you aren't goign to suddenly waste away and you'll need to keep lifting