Step-By-Step Tutorial on How to Flex Pecs (With Pictures, Videos, and FAQs)

Many of us have seen many muscle pro wrestlers and action movie stars like Dwayne Johnson, popularly known as ‘The Rock’ look intimidating just by flexing a couple of muscles – pecs flexing, and then exclaim (sometimes very loud): “Wow!!! How can I also do that?” – This is for the boys.

As for the girls, most of them always star-gaze at such displays, with most of them already swooning for the guys that flex pecs in front of them. 

Trust me, I have been in your shoes for a long while, looking for various ways I on how to bounce my pecs or how to flex pecs also, especially in front of the ladies to enhance my attractiveness, looks and superiority – yeah, don’t be surprised, I really did fantasize a lot on what I will do if I was able to flex pecs also like Sylvester Stallion.

And finally! I learnt how to flex my pecs also, and trust me, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it was. In fact, after some trials, I finally got the hang of it. You should see me now, flexing my pecs away at any opportunity I get – Yeah, I am that vain. Who isn’t?

If you want to learn how to flex pecs like Hulk Hogan and Arnold Schwarzenegger, you have to learn to practice your bounce and workout to emphasize your chest muscles. Does this seem hard? Don’t worry, Healthsoothe is here for you as usual.

In today’s article, we will give simple step-by-step guides on how to flex pecs, and trust me, it will be easy peasy. But one thing you should know before we proceed is that you can’t just wake up and learn how to flex pecs right away. Nope, it won’t work at all.

Pecs are muscles, and if you don’t have muscles (pecs), you have to build them by exercising and other kinds of stuff, and you need some consistency so as to be on your way to getting the hang on how to flex pecs.

But no need to worry, Healthsoothe will give you the key things (regime) you need on how to flex pecs. No need for jaw-breaking or nerve-wracking exercises. Just some key, chest concentrated exercises will do, and we will teach you those.

Alright, you ready? Let’s move!

Flexing Pecs – What is it Really About?

Pec flexing is the ability to repetitively flex your pectoral muscles with enough force to generate marked spasms or contractions. It is often used as a way to ostentatiously display masculinity and muscle strength.

However, not everyone is capable of bouncing their pecs, especially people who are overweight, obese, and have flabby chests. In order to bounce your pecs, you need to strengthen your chest muscles¹http://www.daveywaveyfitness.com/exercises/chest/how-to-work-inner-pecs and use effective and practical procedures.

Gallup surveys found that 55.5% of all Americans exercised regularly every week in 2015, a seven-year high.

And, even if everyone shares their own personal objectives, it doesn't require an expert to realize that body shape is a major motivator for staying healthy (but if you'd like an expert's perspective, accept it from the exact source that those who exercise the most feel the best about their appearance).

When you've put in the effort, it's natural to want to show off your achievements, whether you're participating in your first bodybuilder competition or just posing in the gymnasium mirror when no one's watching.

Bodybuilders have traditionally relied on 11 stances to display their physiques - let's go with the ones that highlight the pecs.

• Front Double Biceps Pose Despite the name, this bodybuilder classic also highlights your greatest pecs. When playing charades and attempting to make someone guess "bodybuilder," most individuals would opt for the double bicep posture first. Arms should be raised so that the biceps are perpendicular to the shoulders and your elbows are bent, producing fists that curve in towards your head. Give your arms enough height to enable you to spread out the lats (the muscles just on the sides of your back), and allow yourself some knee bend. Resist shrugging your shoulders to bring attention to your chest; instead, maintain the level. "Vacuum" the abs by sucking in your stomach to form a chest-focused "V" formation. Keep your chest high and focused, with your elbows pointing slightly forward to emphasize your pecs and lats.

• Most Muscular Pose  Here's one to go along with your Incredible Hulk imitation. The most muscular stance accentuates all of your front-facing upper-body muscles, especially your traps, arms, and chest. Begin by having to stand with your knees slightly bent and your legs staggered; tense your thighs to showcase off the leg muscles as well. Lean your torso forward slightly. Place your hands together near the belly button and create tight fists, attach your fingers, or grasp one wrist. Think of clutching a large barrel as you bring the hands together, elbows bent. Squeeze your biceps as well as the forearms, tighten your abs, and squeeze your pecs hard.

• The Side Chest Pose Finally, it's the chest's turn to shine. Everything is in the name of this one, which shows off your forearms (biceps and triceps) and quads while emphasizing your pectorals. In a full side view, position your body such that the front leg faces the "audience." Lower the lower leg while flexing the hamstrings so that just your toes contact the ground, leaving your back leg straight. Turn your head and body toward the "audience" without moving your legs (imaginary or otherwise). Bend the front-facing arm 90 ° at the elbow and pump your biceps into your body to make your bicep pop. Now clasp your front arm's wrist with your back arm's wrist. The arm posture here pushes you to accomplish precisely what you want: squeeze your pecs together. As you squeeze, concentrate on lifting the chest — not the shoulders — upwards and the abs inwards, arching your back slightly to highlight your pecs.

Now, How Do You Flex Your Pecs? – Step-By-Step on How to Flex Pecs

• Step 1: Strengthen your chest. In order to know how to flex pecs, you need to have well-developed pectoral muscles. You can do this by performing exercises that target your chest. Ideal exercises are push-ups, bench presses, and dumbbell flyes. Strive to do these exercises about two or three times a week. Increase the resistance or add more weight in subsequent exercise sessions to strengthen your pecs over time. As your pecs get stronger, they will generate more robust contractions. When your pecs are able to contract with enough force, it will appear as if they are bouncing (flexing).
• Step 2: Warm up. Before flexing your pecs, consider doing some warm-up chest exercises. When you are exercising, your body increases blood flow in the muscles that are working. This is why your muscles appear bigger or “pumped” after a certain workout. Therefore, performing relatively brief chest exercises will make your chest appear larger. Doing this allows you to do more profound pec bounces. However, you should avoid working your chest to the point of extreme exhaustion.
• Step 3:  Stand up next to a mirror after the warm-up. This allows you to get a clearer view of your chest. Begin by flexing your pecs individually. For example, you can start by flexing your left pectoral muscle and then shift to the right pectoral muscle. Initially, allow yourself to adapt to the motion by flexing each pec slowly. Over time, flex or contract each of your pecs intensely and quickly. Rapid and intense contractions create noticeably more explosive pec bounces.
• Step 4: Continue to practice. You will not be able to know how to flex pecs overnight. Like many other abilities, it takes time to be able to flex your pecs. To avoid losing muscle mass, continue to perform resistance exercises on a regular basis. You can complement your training with a healthy diet that includes lean proteins and healthy carbohydrates. Over time, a good diet and regular resistance training will lead to muscle growth — which will facilitate pec flexing.

Trust me, on doing all these consistently, you will be able to know how to flex pecs in no time.  Take it from me, you can do it, because if I was able to know how to flex pecs, then you can also know how to flex pecs also.

And trust me, when you finally know how to flex pecs, you will be very satisfied with yourself for going through the process of learning how to flex pecs.

Other Things to Note When Learning How to Flex Pecs

• Do some exercises to get the blood pumping: If you want to try to flex your pecs right now, drop and give yourself twenty push-ups. Anytime you want your pecs to appear larger and more muscular, it's good to drop to the floor and work them out for a minute. This forces blood into the muscle, making it swell and making it much easier to flex it in a visible way. If you've just finished a workout, it's the perfect time to flex in the mirror for a while and check out whether or not your pecs are bounceable yet. It'll take a while, but you'll always have better results after a workout instead of before.
• Go to the mirror: Basically, bouncing your pecs is just flexing your pecs, but flexing pecs that are sufficiently large so that the spasm is visible when you do it. If you're going to practice, do it right: go in front of a mirror in the weight room or in your training room, and remove your shirt so you can get a better view of your chest. To maintain your muscle memory, it's a good idea to always practice in front of the mirror, so you combine the feeling of flexing with the effect that you want. It might feel great like you're Arnold-rescue, but it might not look like much.
• Contract your pectoral muscles: In the mirror, with your pecs well-exercised, stand with your arms straight down at your sides and attempt to contract your pectoral muscles. It should be a lot easier if you've just worked them out. If they're burning, you'll be able to feel very quickly whether or not you're doing it right. Turn your upper arm (humerus) in toward your chest and you should feel your pec flexing. That's one of the functions of the pectoralis major muscle: rotating your upper arm. Don't worry about flexing them each separately yet, just worry about flexing them both on command. At first, it's hard enough to do just that. If you're like most people, your pecs probably aren't something you're used to flexing on purpose. But, once you get a feel for where they are and how to do it, it can be as easy as flexing your bicep.
• Try to isolate each pec: The more you practice and work out your chest muscles, the closer you'll be to feel them enough to flex them separately. Try to isolate each of your pectorals, and flex them independently of the others. When you see something that starts looking right, stick with it and keep flexing until it starts bouncing like a jumping bean. Stick with it and keep practicing. Some people have to weight train for a long time before starting to notice results like bouncing pectorals. If you can even flex them independently, you're doing pretty well.
• Maintain your pecs: Once you've got it figured out, it's important to commit to keeping your chest strong and your pecs bulging. Pec bouncing is less a skill that you learn and more a product of having really big and muscular pectoral muscles. If you can do it, congrats. Now keep working out that chest.

How Much Muscle Do You Need to Flex Your Pecs?

Joe Nagy, a professional bodybuilder, answers this question inQuora. He says; “Not muscular at all. My girlfriend can do it and she doesn’t even lift. You just need to have enough muscle control over your pecs to know how to contract them at will. If you want to practice what this feels like, spread your arms out wide. Now contract inwards slowly, trying to pull your hands towards one another with your arms outstretched. Do it slowly, trying to flex your chest the whole time.”

So, the muscle you need to flex your pecs is not that muscular. This is more about control. Having more muscle certainly helps, but there are non-muscular people who can do it and muscular people who cannot. It just looks more impressive if you are more muscular.

To learn, just put one hand over the other chest, and flex your chest into that hand. Then gradually try to do it with less and less pressure from your hand, till you can just flex the pec on its own. Do both sides, obviously.

Although having some fat makes the chest look less impressive shirtless, if you are wearing a shirt it’ll make a pec bounce look more impressive, as it has an extra…wait for it…ounce of bounce.

Is it Easy to Know How to Flex Pecs Even If You Don’t Have a Lot of Muscle?

We have already established the answer to this when we expatiated on how much muscle is needed to flex your pecs.  

Yeah, it is easy to know how to flex pecs even if you don’t have a ‘lot of muscle’ – note, emphasis on the ‘lot of muscle’. For you to know how to flex pecs, you must have a certain degree of muscle (pectoral muscle) for it to work. Your pectoralis must be developed to a certain level for your pecs to flex.

Having big body mass (fat) won’t help you here. Recall whatJoe Nagy said earlier; that he taught his girlfriend how to flex pecs and she was able to do it, but she was no bodybuilder. So, this means that she just had the right degree of muscles that could allow for pecs flexing.

So, is it easy to flex your pecs even if you don’t have a lot of muscles? Yeah, it definitely is. You don’t need a rigorous workout schedule or spending all day in the gym. All you need is just to have a certain degree of muscle which can be gotten if you eat healthily and exercise once in a while.

This means that if you are not overweight or obese, this means that you can probably be able to flex your pecs, but you don’t know how to flex pecs, and this article has covered that by giving you a step-by-step tutorial on how to flex pecs.

Is it Dangerous to Flex Your Pecs?

Haha. Anyone that said that flexing your pecs is dangerous for your health is very wrong. This is just like saying that lifting up one of your eyebrows while keeping the other one down is dangerous. Seems ridiculous, right?

Flexing your muscles is more than just a way to show off the results of your strength training workouts. It can also be a way to build strength.

Muscle flexing like the flexing of the pecs and others is more accurately known as muscle contraction because when you flex your muscles, you’re creating tension that’s temporarily making the muscle fibers smaller or contracted.

Specific muscle training exercises, called isometric exercises²Carlson D, et al. (2014). Isometric exercise training for blood pressure management: A systematic review analysis. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24582191 (or isometrics), strengthen the muscles by contracting them and keeping them still while they face resistance. So, instead of moving weights, the muscle is being strengthened by holding still.

For example, if you sit against a wall with your legs bent, like there’s a chair beneath you, you’ll feel the tension in your quadriceps. This tension is one example of how flexing your muscles can help make them stronger.

Muscle flexing with isometric exercises provides a number of advantages when included as part of your fitness regimen:

• These exercises may help lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
• They allow for strength training when traditional muscle movements may be painful. Recovering from a torn rotator cuff, for example, can be painful when the shoulder joint moves in certain ways.
• Exercises that support your spine and trunk can improve your balance and core stability.
• These exercises don’t require any equipment or workout space. Some isometric exercises can be done with dumbbells or resistance bands.
• Muscle flexing can be especially helpful if you’re recovering from an injury, especially to a joint like the shoulder or knee. Holding your muscles contracted in one position doesn’t put extra stress on the joint. If you have a joint injury or arthritis, isometric exercise may be ideal and less painful than other strength training exercises.
• Isometric exercises don’t require much time, so if you only have a few minutes to spare, you can easily fit in several muscle-strengthening exercises, and you don’t even need any equipment³Laskowski E. (2018). Are isometric exercises a good way to build strength?mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/isometric-exercises/faq-20058186.
• Isometric exercises may also help keep your blood pressure from spiking, so if you have high blood pressure or are at risk for hypertension, these exercises may be particularly helpful⁴Wiles J, et al. (2018). The safety of isometric exercise. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882444/.

The only thing that could go wrong is doing too much strenuous exercises than the body (your pecs) can take, and of course, this will lead you to damage your body system like tearing of the muscles of the pecs and other muscles, ligaments, as well as tissues, and well, you know what this means when it happens – this could lead to major health complications that you never wanted at all in your life.

So, avoid doing too many exercises that your body can’t take. Get a professional gym instructor to guide you if you don’t know the right exercise regime for your body.

Can You Train Your Pecs by Just Flexing Them?

Simply flexing your pecs in the mirror isn’t going to strengthen them. However, certain isometric exercises, such as planks, wall sits, glute bridges, and others can be good strength training exercises to add to your workout.

Keep in mind, though, that because isometric exercises keep your muscles still, the muscle that’s being worked strengthens in just one position.

To get a more comprehensive workout for a particular muscle or muscle group, it’s important to do flexing exercises in a variety of positions and across a range of motions.

Flexing with isometric exercises may help boost strength, but they do not improve your muscle’s flexibility.

What are the Benefits of Training Your Pecs (Pectoral Muscles)?

Training your pecs will help you get stronger in movements that require pressing strength, whether it’s pushing your body weight off the floor, a pair of dumbbells, or even a heavy door.

You’ll become stronger at what you’re doing—you’ll start to notice progressive improvements in how much weight you can lift or push because pecs help you hold things in front of your body, and strong pecs can help you with lower-body exercises like goblet squats or front squats.

That’s especially important if your upper body was the limiting factor in these exercises, like if your legs felt like they could rep out a few more goblet squats, but your upper body was already wiped.

Outside of your workout, strength in your pectoral muscles will also come in handy when you have to lift a box or pick up your kid. Your pecs also help stabilize your shoulder and shoulder blade, which helps guard against injury.

Plus, your pecs play a role in your posture. If you spend lots of time in a flexed posture, like looking at your phone or hunched over a laptop, your pecs tighten. Tight pecs can pull your shoulder and shoulder blades forward.

This can add to that hunched-over posture, as well as limit your range of motion when pressing weight overhead. Plus, if your pecs are tight, your other muscles—like your traps—have to work harder.

When your pecs are functioning properly, though—not too tight and able to move smoothly through their full range of motion—they help your body stay upright and not pull forward. So, both strengthening and stretching your pecs is important to add to your workout routine.

What are the Best Exercises for Your Pecs (Pectoral Muscles)?

Try to include exercises that hit your pecs a little differently and from various angles, like a chest press from a bench or the floor; a standing cable chest press, which you can also do with a resistance band— “being upright is more applicable to everyday function because now you have to use your core and legs to stabilize,”—and a push-up.

If you can’t get a full push-up from the ground, I recommend doing a modified version with your hands elevated rather than dropping to your knees.

When you drop to your knees, you are breaking at the knees, and you are not maintaining good overall body tension and good core stability. This can make it harder to translate to full-body-tension push-ups down the line.

Plus, with a modified version, you can choose whichever height works for you—a box, a table, or maybe even the wall if you’re just getting started—and then progress it as you get stronger. (The higher your hands are elevated, the easier it will be.)

As for how to implement these pec exercises into your routine? Unless your goal is to build maximum muscle on your chest (like if you are bodybuilding), you don’t need a separate day dedicated to chest exercises. Instead, shoot to incorporate pec exercises and pushing exercises into your regular workouts. If you’re strength training three times a week, try to include one to three pushing exercises in each workout⁵Orthopedic Rehabilitation Clinical Advisor; Derrick Sueki, Jacklyn Brechter.

How to Make Your Pecs Bigger

• Start working out your chest on a regular basis  If you're not seeing much in the way of Hulk Hogan-style bouncing in your pectoral region, it's probably because your pecs aren't quite big enough to show yet. No shame. It takes a fairly large pectoral muscle to flex it enough to bounce in the way the bodybuilders do. That's what makes it impressive. Want to bounce your pecs? Keep working out. Integrate chest workouts into your regular strength training routine. Even a single workout per week dedicated specifically to chest exercises can have your pecs getting swollen in a couple of weeks. Stick with it.
• Do bench presses Working out your upper arms and chest is the best way to get your pecs big enough to bounce. The best way to do that is good old-fashioned bench pressing. Go high-rep with a manageable amount of weight to start burning those pectorals. Depending on how experienced you are with training, it might be better to start with more or less weight. You ideally want something that will be challenging for all the reps you have to do, but light enough that you'll be able to do all of them. 3 sets of 10 or 15 reps with a short break in between sets is common. It's also a good idea to work incline bench presses and decline bench presses to work your upper and lower chest, respectively. Use a similar amount of weight and number of reps to keep your pecs shaped.
• Do push-ups  Don't have the gear to work out on a bench? Do what George Foreman did and work out your chest by doing pushups. Plyometric exercises like pushups, in which you use your own weight for resistance, are a great way of building muscle, as well as the fast-twitch response necessary to bounce those muscles. Do a few sets of a manageable number of push-ups, going as slow as possible to really feel the burn. Wide-grip and incline pushups are also great ways of targeting slightly different targets throughout your pec muscle. If you want to keep it shapely and strong, don't do the same old pushups each time.
• Do dumbbell flys  By far the best way to build muscle in your pecs is doing dumbbell flys. Laying back on a bench with matching hand weights in each hand, raise your arms straight up above you, then drop them straight down to your sides, perpendicular to your body, keeping your arms slightly flexed. Bring your hands back up to meet to do a rep. Use a weight that will be challenging for the entire set. If you have access to a weight room, you can use the chest press machine to do similar exercises from a seated position.
• Do full-body workouts as well Chest training needs to be a part of an overall, full-body workout, or it won't be doing you much good. Make chest training part of a full-body regimen. Be very careful to avoid overtraining your pecs. Chest workouts should be a part of a complete, full-body weight training regimen, not an isolated exercise. There's no two-hour shortcut to bouncing pecs like Arnold.
• Eat a diet high in lean protein To build muscle in your pecs, workouts and a diet that emphasizes muscle-building protein are essential. Lean chicken, legumes, vitamin-rich vegetables, and whole grains need to be a major part of your diet. You can work out your chest all you want, but if you're still eating cheeseburgers and pizza every day, that muscle will keep getting bigger under a layer of fat, making your chest look round, and making your pecs bounces invisible.

What Should You Do if You Injure Your Pecs?

Fortunately, it’s actually pretty rare to tear your pec muscles, because it’s a very strong muscle—it takes a lot of force to tear it.

But you can injure your pecs if you try to lift too much weight while your form is off, especially if your shoulders are in a shrugged position⁶Sports Medicine: Injuries to the Pectoralis Major. This messes with your body’s alignment, which puts your muscles at a disadvantage, making them weaker.

You can also tear your pec if you let your elbows (and dumbbells) fall too far past your body during a chest press, since this puts your pecs under a lot of stress. What’s more common, though, is tightness in your pecs, which can manifest in discomfort in your shoulders.

Making a point to stretch your pecs regularly can help, I recommend the doorway pec stretch:

• Stand in the center of a doorway with both arms up at a 90-degree angle and place your elbows on the sides of the doorway.
• Keep one foot forward and one back.
• Lean into the doorway so you feel a stretch across both sides of your chest. Hold that position for 30 to 45 seconds.
• When holding this stretch, make sure you focus on your breathing—take deep, diaphragmatic breaths from your rib cage rather than shallow breaths from your chest.

After all, your pec muscles are breathing muscles. Breathing efficiently during this stretch will help reinforce the proper functioning of your muscles so they don’t default to poor posture or alignment.

You can also take this stretch to the mat with a lying pec stretch. Lie on your stomach and extend your arms to the side so your body is in a T-shape. Push off the ground with your left hand and bend your left knee for balance as you roll to your right. You’ll feel the stretch in your right pecs.

Try the same stretch with different arm positions—straight-arm T, bent-arm T, straight-arm Y, bent-arm Y—to find the tightest spots.

What Healthsoothe Leaves You With

The pectoral muscles (pecs) play a key role in throwing sports and are a primary source of power when you do push-ups, bench presses, or dumbbell flyes. In everyday life, your pecs help you push a heavy dresser across the floor or your toddler's stroller up a ramp.

Continuous repetitive arm movements or a sudden extreme blow can damage the pecs, resulting in a condition known as pectoral tearing.

Pectoral tearing -- also referred to as pectoral strain or a pulled pec -- is not uncommon among serious weightlifters. Older and unconditioned athletes and fitness buffs who don't warm up properly are also more susceptible.

Acute pec tears can't be anticipated; they are the result of unexpected extreme force on the muscle. Chronic tears are the result of constant repetitive movement; they're caused by a gradual wearing-down of muscle tissue.

So, one must always be careful when doing exercises, especially if you are on a rigorous workout schedule. If exercising for the pecs, only do what is recommended because a pec tear can cause serious complications.

Bruising, swelling, stiffness, muscle spasm, and decreased shoulder range of motion are all complications of a torn pec⁷PhysioAdvisor.com: Pectoral Strain. There can also be moderate to serious muscle weakness that makes it difficult or impossible to lift objects overhead or push objects away from the chest.

In severe cases, there can be a visible indentation where the muscle was damaged. So, when exercising, be careful, stick to what is recommended for you by a professional gym instructor, and always do medical check-ups when you notice something out of the ordinary in your body system or experience sudden pain while exercising.

All right, guys, that is it for now for how to flex pecs. I hope Healthsoothe answered any questions you had concerning how to flex pecs. 

Feel free to contact us at contact@healthsoothe.com or comment below if you have further questions to ask or if there’s anything you want to contribute or correct to this article.

Additional resources and citations

• 1
  http://www.daveywaveyfitness.com/exercises/chest/how-to-work-inner-pecs
• 2
  Carlson D, et al. (2014). Isometric exercise training for blood pressure management: A systematic review analysis. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24582191
• 3
  Laskowski E. (2018). Are isometric exercises a good way to build strength?mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/fitness/expert-answers/isometric-exercises/faq-20058186
• 4
  Wiles J, et al. (2018). The safety of isometric exercise. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5882444/
• 5
  Orthopedic Rehabilitation Clinical Advisor; Derrick Sueki, Jacklyn Brechter
• 6
  Sports Medicine: Injuries to the Pectoralis Major
• 7
  PhysioAdvisor.com: Pectoral Strain