Even though the bench press is widely regarded as the best exercise for chest conditioning, it's actually a complex movement that uses a variety of different muscles and moving elements.

Therefore, even if a bench press allows you to employ a large load, it's not the best exercise for focusing on the pec musculature in particular. Again, keep in mind that this concept is applicable to almost all muscle groups. While compound exercises are great for increasing functional strength and simultaneously training several muscle groups, isolation exercises can also be used to target particular muscles.

To ensure that you are fully stimulating all regions of the pec muscles to the amount required for growth, it is crucial to incorporate a variety of compound and isolation movements into your regimen.

Chest Anatomy 101

Your inner chest consists of pectoralis majors, two big chest muscles attached to the sternum, and also two smaller pec muscles, one on each side of the chest, named “pectoralis minor.” These, however, don’t reach the sternum and don’t need to be targeted with an exercise aimed to bring inner chest up. When it comes to the inner chest workout, most of the special focus goes to the muscle connection and the area where pecks are attached to the sternum.

Chest Workout 1: Sternal Portion Of Chest Focus

The purpose of this workout is to place primary emphasis on the sternal portion of the pectoralis muscle, while incorporating both compound and isolation movements.

Additionally, the primary focus of this workout is to specifically initiate hypertrophy of the pec musculature.