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How to Lose Chest Fat & Get Rid of Man Boobs (Part 2)

In the previous article, we discussed the two main causes: one being a medical condition called gynecomastia. The common cause of gynecomastia is a hormone imbalance where there is an increased amount of estrogen and lower testosterone. The other cause of man boobs is simply being over weight or being obese - caused by the fatty tissue build up in the chest area. Having man boobs as a result of carrying excess body fat is the topic we are discussing here, and so far, we've covered two of three key points for losing the chest fat.

  1. Diet and nutrition - eating clean and healthy to create a slight calorie deficit
  2. Morning cardio - interval based short to medium duration cardio to burn calories and boost your metabolism for increased fat burning

Now, we get to the third key point of losing chest fat and overall body fat - weight training and exercises. Each pound of lean muscle you gain will help you burn an extra 50 calories per day, and that doesn't even involve you doing anything. If you were to just put on five pounds lean muscle, that would translate to an extra 250 calories burned every day - this is roughly equivalent to running (at 6mph) for about 23 minutes. The more lean muscle you gain, the easier it becomes to burn off overall body and chest fat and lose man boobs.

Aside from the fat burning potential, there are numerous health benefits of weight lifting including:

  • develop core strength
  • increase metabolic rate
  • improve muscle function and strength and also improve endurance
  • having stronger muscles help prevent injuries
  • improves your balance, muscle stability, and mobility
  • helps increase your bone density
  • weight lifting slows down the effects of aging, and also reduces the amount of muscle loss with age
  • improves overall health and fitness

How's that for benefits of weight training? Even more importantly, it can help you build a bigger and more defined chest while reducing your chest fat.

Man Boob Exercises - the Best Chest Exercises

See here for a breakdown of the chest muscle anatomy. When it comes to building chest muscle, or any muscle group, there are few key points I like to mention often:

  • Focus on compound lifts - squats, deadlifts, and bench press
  • Use heavy weights and low reps - use a weight that allows only 4 to 6 reps of strict form exercises
  • Low volume workouts - approximately 8 to 10 sets per muscle group - usually done with 3 different exercises.
  • Compound lifts done before anything else - meaning exercises like squats, deadlifts, and bench presses are done before other exercises for the same muscle groups

Emphasis should be put on these two points:

Compound lifts over isolation movements - compound chest exercises such as bench press and dumbbell press will always help you develop a better chest than isolation movements such as dumbbell flyes.

Heavy weights, low reps over light weights, high reps - no matter what you do, lifting heavy with lower number of reps will always develop a better pectoral muscle than light weights with high reps. Provide the right stimulus, through heavy weights, and your chest will respond.

With that said, below, we have a few of the best chest exercises you can perform to build up your chest muscle and get rid of your man boobs.

Flat Bench Barbell Press

The flat bench press is a compound exercise that builds size and strength in the chest muscle, front delts, and triceps. It is the staple exercise for building chest muscle to help you get rid of man boobs.

flat bench press   barbell bench press

  • Lie on a flat bench, with your feet spread a bit wider than shoulder width for balance
  • Your grip should be medium width such that when you lower the bar, your forearms should be perpendicular to the floor
  • Use a closed grip, not an open grip. While many like to use an open grip for whatever reasons, there's no benefit of using it over a closed grip.
  • Lift up the bar from the rack and hold it at arm's length above you
  • Lower the bar in a controlled motion until it touches your lower pecs
  • Press the bar up until at arm's length again

Dumbbell Press

Similar to the flat bench press, this exercise develops the mass and strength of the pectoral muscles. Using dumbbells allows the chest to work through a greater range of motion, and an extra degree of balance and coordination is required forcing stabilizer muscles to work even harder. This is also one of the best man boobs exercises.

flat dumbbell press   dumbbell bench press

  • Lie flat on a bench with feet firmly planted on the floor, buttocks, back, shoulder, and head positioned on the bench
  • If you're doing heavy dumbbell presses, you may need to use your legs to help "kick up" the dumbbells into the starting position - or, have your spotter hand you the dumbbells
  • Keep your shoulder blades pinched together - this creates the most stable pushing environment
  • Start the movement with the dumbbells at about shoulder level and palms facing forward
  • Push the weights up and then lower the dumbbells as low as you can and feel the complete stretch in the pec muscles

Incline Bench Press

The incline bench press builds mass and strength in the middle and upper regions of the pectoral muscle, and front deltoids and triceps are also recruited in this exercise.

incline bench press   incline bench press

  • Lie flat on a incline bench, with your feet firmly planted on the floor (or bench support)
  • Keep your buttocks, back, shoulders, and head positioned on the incline bench
  • Pinch your shoulder blades as you would when doing a flat bench press
  • Grip the bar with your hands wide enough apart such that at the bottom of the rep, your forearms are perpendicular to the floor. Use a closed grip
  • Lift the bar off the rack
  • Inhale as you lower the weight, and exhale as you push the weights up. Do not bounce the weight off your chest to gain momentum
  • Have a training partner spot you as you perform the incline bench press

Parallel Bar Dip

Bar dips mainly targets the chest muscles and also involving the triceps muscles.

bar dips  bar dip exercise

  • Position yourself in between the parallel dip bars
  • Cross your feet behind you, and lean forward slightly (the more forward you lean, the more stress you place on your chest muscles)
  • Starting with your arms extended, lower yourself in a controlled motion - go down as far as possible
  • At the bottom, press back up to the starting position

If you find it difficult performing dips with your body weight, you can perform assisted dips on a dip machine, or have a training partner spot you. As you progress, you can add additional weight to your bar dips exercise by holding dumbbells between your legs, or attaching additional weight to your body with a weight belt.

Sample Workout Program to Lose Man Boobs

Now that we've listed a few of the best exercises to get rid of man boobs, let's put them in a workout routine to give you an idea of how a workout session would go. Remember to use a heavy enough weight that would allow you perform the stated number of reps with good form.

Barbell bench press: 3 x 6
Dumbbell incline press: 3 x 6
Weighted (or assisted) dips: 3 x to failure

Alternatively, here's another example:

Flat dumbbell press: 3 x 6
Incline press: 3 x 6
Weighted (or assisted) dips: 3 x to failure

As you can see, these chest workouts are very simple, and use only compound exercises to build the chest muscles. These workouts should take no longer than 30 minutes, and you should only train your chest once a week. If you use sufficiently heavy weights with good form, you will see results. Your chest will start to tighten up, and assuming you're also following an entire body workout program on a weekly basis, you should be able to build up some lean muscle mass, and with time, reduce your body fat overall, which can help you get rid of your chest fat and man boobs.

You may also be interested in Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat Build the Muscle training program that's aimed at helping you get all aspects of your diet and training in place to achieve long lasting results. The pic way above you see is of Tom himself at 3.7% body fat, and I guarantee you that the man knows what he's talking about when it comes to building muscle and burning fat.

>> Click here for Tom Venuto's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program