The chest muscles are often referred to as your "pecs" which is short for their latin names: pectoralis major (the main chest muscle) and pectoralis minor (higher up near the clavicle or collar bone).
The chest muscles are responsible for shoulder adduction, that is, bringing your arms closer to your body or in any pushing or pressing movement. This means they are used in any pushing movement, and are useful for getting up off the floor, pushing open a door, doing press ups, and are dominant in throwing sports. Your chest muscles give the upper body more size and generally create a bigger and broader chest when trained well!
The origin for the chest muscles is on the sternum, clavicle, and ribs, and they insert onto the lateral aspect of the humerus or arm bone. The pectoralis major fibres run mainly horizontal whereas the pectoralis minor fibres run on and upwards angle, and are best trained by an inclined bench movement.
bench press, press ups / push ups, chest flys, pullovers, horizontal bar dips, incline and decline bench press, dumbell (free weight) press, pec deck machine, chest press machine.
Have a look at our page on muscles of the body for more info on the chest muscles.
To find out more about chest training, chesy muscles, your pectoralis major or minor muscles, or strength training in general please contact us!