Happy International Chest Day, bro’s. I hope this fine Monday brings you a glorious chest pump and massive chesticle growth that rivals that of The Rock.
Just in case you’re heading into chest day without a set plan, I’ve got a new exercise to throw at you this week.
You may have been at the gym and seen a few random jacked bros holding a couple of weight plates together and pushing them away from their body. If you’ve never done this, it probably looks fucking strange.
And while it may look strange, it’s a badass chest move to start doing at the end of your chest days. I give you the Svend Press.
As you can see in the video above, the Svend Press is a very basic move, and it’s quite a bit different than most other chest exercises you do in the gym, mainly because you’re standing up, and pushing out away from your body. This typically makes most people think of the Svend Press as a front delt exercise.
Just because your front delts are getting some work, like they do in every single pressing exercise, doesn’t mean the Svend Press doesn’t fire up your chest.
Why it works.
One of the biggest factors in training for growth is utilizing isometric contractions. Essentially, isometric contractions are keeping the muscle working in a specific range of motion and forcing the muscle to work, which leads to a ton of fatigue, which means more growth.
This is where the Svend Press shines. That simple little in and out move is one hell of an isometric contraction. But even better than just holding a dumbbell fly position, which is also an isometric contraction; you’re getting isometric contraction benefits in two different ways.
But pushing the weight away from you you’re training the chest in that specific range. Because of the angle and positioning, your triceps never really take over. Which is great news for chest growth.
That’s not it though. Because you’re actively holding two plates together your inner chest has to fire like crazy, all the while you’re actively training the chest to push weight away from you. In this regard, it’s very similar to the squeeze press.
It’s like killing two birds with one stone.
How to do it.
The Svend Press is one of the simplest exercises in human history. Seriously. All you’ve got to do is pick up two plates, push them together, and then push away from you.
You can also do this move in a number of different positions like lying flat or on an incline, essentially turning it into a squeeze press, which I talked about last week.
How to put it in your chest day.
Obviously looking at the Svend Press it’s pretty damn obvious that you’re not going to push a ton of weight with this move. That’s exactly why it belongs at the very end of your chest day routine to further add more volume and fatigue to your chesticles.
So on your next chest day, go through your normal routine and get a sweet chest pump going. And then when you’ve finished it up, knock out the Svend Press for 3-4 sets of 10-12 reps.
Have a great chest day, bros.