Ladies: How to Add Curves Part 2

Last week I did a post just for those ladies out there that aren't looking to just lose weight, but rather are searching to add some shape to their bodies. And one of the more common questions I received as a response from this post was...well...how do I say this? 

These ladies out there who were interested in improving their physique and developing a more feminine appearance wanted to know some good exercises that would negate the need for a push-up bra.

Good question. And one that I am happy to tackle. Unfortunately, I see many women making the mistake of avoiding all chest work entirely because they believe this will cause them to develop a very muscular chest, hence reducing the feminine appearance.

This isn’t the case.

Or maybe it's not the muscle that is a concern, but more a fear of appearing flat chested. The primary reason this would happen is simply because through exercise, you may take your body fat level lower, which will then cause a loss of breast tissue. Since the breasts are primarily made up of fatty tissue, any time weight loss is seen this is going to be an issue.

As long as you maintain a body fat level in a healthy range, you should have no problem creating the look you may be after.

This said, which exercises are best for enhancing the look, feel, and health of the pectoral muscles? Let’s have a look at the top choices:

Push-Ups

The first can’t-miss chest enhancing exercise is the push-up. This one is great for females who aren’t going to a gym as it can easily be performed right in the comfort of your own home. And with so many different variations that can be done, it’s relatively easy to make sure that you’re constantly challenged.

If you need to start out performing push-ups on your knees at first, so be it. Progress to the full push-up from there.

Bench Press

The bench press is the second exercise that you might want to consider adding into your "chest enhancing" workout program. The bench press is a terrific strength builder and will hit not only the chest muscles, but the triceps and shoulders, as well.

For those that are interested in fat loss, one thing worth noting in all of your workout program is compound movements like this (meaning - they hit more than one muscle group at a time) require you to use more total calories to complete, enhancing the rate of fat loss that you see.

When performing the bench press make sure that you don’t place the hands too close together however as this will take some of the focus off the chest muscles and place it more on the triceps instead.

If you want to see maximum chest building potential, this needs to be avoided.

Chest Flyes

Finally, the last of the exercises to add into your upper body workout routine if you want to enhance your chest development is the fly.

When performing it, make sure that you breathe in and out slowly as you move through the action pattern and don’t let yourself lower the weights too far.

You only want to feel a comfortable stretch across the chest – never a pull.

So there you have the main exercises that you should consider as you go about your workout program. As always, if you are unsure of any exercise, seek the help of a qualified personal trainer. If you can make sure that you get these into the picture at once or twice per week, you should be seeing positive changes shortly.