Before we get into it, let’s get one thing straight – no matter how many press-ups you do, or bench presses you push out, you will never, ever get a chest like Pamela Anderson without some kind of outside assistance from your local plastic surgeon! Because women’s breasts are composed mostly of fatty tissue, and contain no muscle, exercise alone will not change the size of your bust. So, if you were hoping for a miracle quick fix, forget it.


So, what exactly will exercising the chest help to do?
It will tone the surrounding area of skin and muscle so that the profile of your bust is improved. In most cases, breasts will become firmer and will probably lift slightly higher up your chest, giving a much improved outline. And the good news, girls, is that these changes can be visibly achieved in a relatively short space of time.
The biggest muscle of the chest is the pectoralis major – ‘pec’ for short. In the gym, there are many exercises that work this muscle and surrounding area, but many women neither have the facility, nor the inclination to go to the gym. Therefore, with some advice from fitness model, Annie Clark, we’ve put together a series of exercises that can be done from the comfort of your home.

Equipment
To keep everything as simple as possible, we’ve come up with the minimum, most cost-effective set of equipment – a Swiss ball and a set of dumbbells. Also, if at all possible, have a mirror on the floor next to you so that you can observe your form throughout the exercises.


 ANNIE CLARKE'S BODY PARTS - Chest & Bust
 
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Barbell bench press
For this, and the dumbbell lateral raises, you will need to be able to hold the ‘bridge’ position – whereby you rest your shoulders and head on the ball and have your feet flat on the ground, thus forming a ‘bridge’ – forat least a minute at a time.


During the exercise, you need to maintain your form by ensuring that your back and your upper legs remain parallel to the ground at all times. Simply holding this position alone is a fantastic exercise for your abs.
To perform the exercise, start with the barbell (over-gripped) resting on your upper chest. Now, keeping your elbows tucked in, push the bar straight up. Hold briefly at its uppermost position before slowly returning to the starting
position. A barbell can be substituted by dumbbells

Dumbbell lateral raises


Starting from the ‘bridge’ position, with a dumbbell in each hand pushed straight out in front of you, slowly bring the dumbbells down towards your chest.

As you lower the weights, be conscious to keep your elbows wide, and do not let your hands drop below chest level. As your upper arms reach the horizontal, slowly push the dumbbells back up to the starting position..

The press-up
An old ’un, but a good ’un!
The important thing to remember when performing press-ups is to concentrate on your form. Keep your forearms vertical, shoulder-width apart, your back as straight as possible at all times, and try not to take your elbows below the perpendicular.
Stick to these few pointers and you should find yourself performing the perfect press-up. If, however, you find yourself struggling to complete ten or more in a row without losing form, try the kneeling press-up

Kneeling press-up
If you’re not quite up to the
full-blown version of this exercise, you’d be advised to try performing it from the kneeling position. By
effectively shortening the length of your body, you should find the kneeling press-up a lot easier to
execute. And, because this is a softer version, you can concentrate on maintaining correct form throughout, rather than focussing on getting to the end of your reps as quickly and a painlessly as possible.
If you have bad knees, use a chair or table top as a support for your hands, and perform a press-up as normal. An easier version still is to use a wall as support, again following the rules for a normal press-up.

Inclined dumbbell press


The starting position for this exercise is a kind of collapsed ‘bridge’. Your back still needs to be kept straight, but held at an angle of approximately 50°-60° from the horizontal and your lower legs need to be perpendicular to the ground.
The arm movement should mirror that of the dumbbell lateral raises, previously described. Try to keep your lower arms at 90° to the floor at all times during the exercise.

TIP: To help maintain your form, imagine you are moving your arms around a barrel when performing the exercise. This visualisation also works well when performing the dumbbell lateral raises.


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