How to Get Striations In Your Chest

Step 1

If there's one thing that guys with big chests typically miss, it's striations. Striations are the cherry on top of a fantastic physique, and getting them in your middle and lower chest can be almost as difficult as all the work that goes into building the entire chest itself. That being said, once you've got 'em, you feel like a champ. In the following paragraphs I'll tell you about a couple different exercises that will, over time, help you develop shredded look striations in your chest. There's also another important factor, one which I'll reveal after I talk about the exercises. Stay tuned.

Step 2

The first exercise that is fantastic and useful for gaining striations in your chest is the traditional flat bench dumbbell fly. Dumbbell flys are done with relatively light weight, and they operate in a fashion that requires specifically the middle part of your chest to contract. This kind of isolation focuses in on the mini little muscles inside the middle and lower chest, which in turn helps build those muscles into the striations that physique admirers everywhere have come to know and love.

Step 3

Next, and strikingly similar, is the seated machine chest fly. The reason that I think this exercise deserves its own little blurb is because it targets the chest in a slightly different way than typical flat bench flys. The machine fly allows for an entirely more effective contraction at the top of the movement, due to cables pulling the weight down with the same resistance as they would at any other place in the movement. With dumbbell flys, the weight doesn't pull the chest as much at the top of the movement as it does on the bottom. With machine flys, your middle chest will get the contraction of a lifetime. This is muy bueno, and will bring you a ton of striated results.

Step 4

Thirdly is the close-grip bench press. This exercise is actually primarily used for the triceps, but its close-grip nature provides a lot of extra contraction for the middle of your chest. Furthermore, the amount of weight you can load up on a barbell for this exercise is very helpful for putting necessary strain on your pecs. All in all, this exercise is a solid candidate in the quest for chest striations.

Step 5

And now we come to the last exercise: single arm resistance band standing flys. What a mouthful, right? This exercise operates exactly the same way as seated machine chest flys, but the real gold comes in the form of freedom. With the set that I've linked below, you can attach cables to any door in your house, meaning you can work on your striations at any time of the day. Bust out a couple sets of this exercise whenever you're feeling bored and I promise you'll eventually see striated results.

Step 6

Now for the other important factor: diet. While all of the above exercises will do a fantastic job of working the muscles in the middle chest, you'll never be able to actually see your striations without a proper diet. Since the muscles are so tiny, a certain excess amount of fat will prevent them from popping out into the open. So, make sure you're consuming a lot of protein and not a lot of carbohydrates. There are a few tips about nutrition that you can take a peek at. Follow them, and use the exercises above, and chest striations will be yours.