So I've always been in pretty decent shape but last few years I've def gained weight and have seen my chest area gain fat. In the Fall I had my numbers run and everything was in line so this all appears to be diet and workout related.

What can I do at home (I work long hours so gym membership isn't realistic) to thin this issue down some? Push-ups is obviously the top online pick but any other recs?

In reply to Jimmy Conway If you don't have access to weights, I'd get a subscription to the Beach Body app and run Insanity or something similar.

But in my experience the barbell is king for this sort of thing.

I dealt with this over 20 years ago when I lost a ton of weight and had excess skin

- You need to lose weight. As someone else said, you can't spot reduce fat- you just keep losing weight until you notice enough fat has been taken off your chest

- You also need to do chest-directed exercises, so you can at least build up the pec area as you lose fat so it can take on a different shape. Barbell works, pushups work, cable flys work, dumbbell flys work......ANYTHING that gives you consistent chest stimulus. It doesn't have to be heavy- it just needs to be challenging enough that it causes growth

In reply to Jimmy Conway

Jimmy Conway said:

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So I've always been in pretty decent shape but last few years I've def gained weight and have seen my chest area gain fat. In the Fall I had my numbers run and everything was in line so this all appears to be diet and workout related.

What can I do at home (I work long hours so gym membership isn't realistic) to thin this issue down some? Push-ups is obviously the top online pick but any other recs?

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As said, diet first. That's the number 1 thing to focus on. 2nd, what resources do you have at homke? Do you have any weights, rack etc?

If you do not, push ups are great. Make sure you do them correctly and be controlled and focus on the eccentric (the lower part) and the bottom portion (chest just mm's off the floor) as a wide amount of evidence suggests that the stretched portion of the lift builds the most muscle. After that get easier, start doing deficit pushups. That increases the stretched portion even movement. Also consider doing lengthened partials, as, with the evidence I just mentioned, doing partials with an emphasis on the lengthened portion has been shown to be very effective. The point it, the evidence seems to suggest that the concentric portion really isn't that important in muscle growth.





And what might be the most effective chest workout? DB flys.



How to effectively add more reps





Dr. Milo Wolf is another one to follow. While a lot of this you may not have access to, his information on what does work best for chest hypertrophy is helpful. The key take aways are making sure the exercise is stable (no bosu ball BS or uneven "functional" crap, stupid clapping pushups etc), targets the actual muscle desired to grow and is lengthened friendly ie allows you to get into the most advantageous position for growth-the lengthened part of the movement (for pushups, that is actually when you are in the bottom of the movement as this is where the chest is stretched the most. Hence why deficit pushups are so amazing for growth. As are very deep dips IF your shoulders allow it.

Triple your vegetable intake.