The pectoral is a muscle group that is very popular in male training programs, most girls think that chest development should be left to men. The questions that arise as a result of this are: do women really lose breasts from training? And in any case, why should women train their chests?
Is the size of the breasts reduced by training the chest?
Many women think that training the chest will make their chest look smaller. Breast loss is nothing more than a myth and is derived from seeing female bodybuilders who sometimes see themselves with flat chests when competing. It is not the muscle that makes them have a flat chest, but the extreme diets.
Most bodybuilders or competitors go on stage with very low levels of fat, even below what is considered healthy for a woman. The chest is primarily fatty tissue, so when fat levels drop, so will the chest. Aside from women who wear implants, most female fitness or bodybuilding competitors do not have enough fat to fill out their bras.
As long as you can maintain a level of fat that is within the range considered healthy, you won’t have any problems. According to the American Council on Exercise, women should have a body fat level of 10-13% for “basic physical and physiological health.” Going below 10% (for women) can lead to health problems.
Once this myth of breast loss has been disproved, we will explain the benefits of good chest training and, ultimately, the reasons why women should train their chests.
The reasons why women should train chest
1. The chest is an important muscle
It is not good to eliminate a muscle group in the training process. Your body is a whole piece, you should not train only some parts and skip others, without a good reason. The chest is just as important as the shoulders and abs, so it should not be left out due to stereotypes!
2. Training the chest prevents injuries
Let’s say you decide to skip training your chest altogether but continue to train your back, arms, core, and legs. Such an unbalanced training routine could end up developing muscular imbalances in your body.
This could lead to poor posture and the inability to perform other exercises correctly. You could even seriously injure yourself trying to do an exercise that involves some chest muscles that they won’t be able to pull – or in this case, push the weight, hence the importance of women training their chests too.
We’re not saying you should max out on the bench press every time you train your chest. In fact, a training adapted for women is preferable, basically compound exercises that focus on the chest, shoulders and triceps.
Whether you’re looking to move into a new apartment on your own, develop athletic skills for a particular sport, or sculpt your body for a magazine cover — chest muscles will play an important role in your training program.
3. A workout is not complete without exercising the chest
By doing chest exercises, not only is this being worked, but the shoulders and arms are also strengthened. This happens with all exercises, there are always secondary muscles that end up working.
This is an essential reason why women should train the chest, since we are talking about very complete activities that exercise a good number of muscles, such as the shoulders, triceps, and biceps.
4. The breasts will look more voluminous
Another reason why women should train chest is that this training does develop the muscles under the breasts. If you have small breasts, they will become visually larger, due to the muscles below. So if you don’t want to see a reduction, you should exercise them as another muscle group.