How to build a powerful chest—even if you have the most stubborn chest in the world
You’ve already accomplished the daunting task of building muscle, proving that you can rise to any challenge. But for some infuriating reason, your chest is still back where you started.
You’ve grown. It hasn’t. You’ve won the war. It never even showed up to the fight.
War Chest isn’t just a chest program for the average guy who wants a bigger chest. It’s a chest program for guys who wonder if they even have chest muscles. It's for guys who wonder if their pectus excavatum is making it impossible for their pecs to grow. And it's for guys who have watched their friends build massive chests while following the exact same chest routine as they are.
Your chest won’t ever get fed up with being left behind. It’s relaxing, feet up, margarita in hand, watching all of your other muscles do the work. It’s happy there. It’s not going to grow unless you make it.
If your pecs have stubbornly refused to follow every other program, this is the program they’ve been waiting for.
It will slap that margarita out of your lazy chest’s hand.
What if your t-shirts draped out over a powerful chest
instead of clinging to your stomach?
What if you have the potential for an amazing chest
you've just never stimulated it properly?
What if when you took your shirt off
your chest was filled in everywhere?
Why isn't your chest growing?
Am I bench pressing wrong?
The bench press has proven time and time again that it’s the exercise for building a powerful chest. Studies confirm this over and over again (study, study). Thing is, the studies are confirming that the bench press is the best exercise on average.
There are always people whose chests don't even activate much when benching. For them, it does nothing. If you're one of those guys, should you even be benching at all?
You know how some people are naturally overweight, and others are naturally skinny? Different problem, right? One requires a fat-loss diet, the other requires a bulking diet. Different problems require different solutions. Perhaps you need a fundamentally different approach.
Am I doing the wrong exercises?
Maybe the problem isn't that you're relying on the bench press, it's a lack of isolation exercises. What about pec flyes, close-grip push-ups, incline bench presses, and dumbbell bench presses? Most guys with stubborn chests have tried every isolation exercise imaginable and their chests are still lagging behind.
Why won’t my chest activate no matter what I try?
Let’s say that your shoulders and triceps activate more during the bench press instead of your chest. That’s a totally normal problem for guys with stubborn chests. They develop great arms but their chests stay flat. Thing is, if your arms are getting even stronger relative to your chest, they’re growing even more dominant and will try and steal away even more gains from your chest.
Benching even more won't fix the problem, it will gradually make the problem worse…
WHAT IF TIPS & TRICKS AREN’T WORKING?
- Try a wider grip? Or is flaring your elbows dangerous to your shoulders?
- Stop clinking the dumbbells at the top during flys to get more time under tension?
- Build up your back, shoulder or triceps first?
- Do pause reps? Or supersets?
- Try focusing on doing cable low-to-high ultra-flyes?
- Get under a heavy bar more often and do compound lifts like bench and incline bench?
- Try pyramid or reverse-pyramid sets when benching? 5x5? Or try higher reps and focusing on a burn?
- What about chains? Elastics? The natural strength curve?
Did your chest finally start getting consistent, predictable growth? Was the mystery finally solved? Probably not.
It’s not that these tips are bad—well, some of them are bad—but rather that there’s no cohesive system tying them together.
Besides, these tips are all for people with very different problems. If you’re not a powerlifter bench pressing over 315 pounds, you don’t need to worry about chains or elastic bands.
If your bench press isn’t primarily working your pecs, doing pyramid sets or heavy strength training has nothing to do with fixing your chest activation problem.
And cable crossovers might give a larger range of motion or a smoother resistance curve than dumbbell flyes, but they’re the icing on the cake—not a cornerstone that you can build a good chest routine around.
But the real solution is to go beyond these surface-level tips and tricks. We need to build a dedicated, merciless chest routine from the ground up.
The whole routine needs to fit perfectly together:
- The perfect exercises to stimulate your chest
- The perfect volume for growth and recovery
- The perfect progression to avoid plateaus
- The perfect balance of rep ranges
- And discovering why your chest is stubborn, learning about the “limb and torso” problem, and then figuring out how to overcome the problems your frustratingly unique chest is facing.
All of the true tips and tricks will be like perfectly placed gears inside a precisely made spring-powered mechanical watch.
What other guys are saying
Love it!
Done the first week of the War Chest and wow do I have DOMS in my chest! I've had a perpetually stubborn chest so this is great for me. Total pec destruction.
Brendan
Guys, thanks a ton
Chest has always been a really stubborn area for me -- long arms, limb dominant, shallow chest, a mild case of pectus excavatum on one side.
Thanks to the B2B braintrust for designing this one; it was fantastic and rekindled my love for the good ole bench press.
The difference is visually noticeable under a t-shirt. My wife recently put her hands on my chest, paused, and said, "Wow. That's new!"
Doc G
Damn!
Started yesterday. Day 1, wow, that was painful xD
Luis
WAR CHEST IS RIGHT FOR YOU IF:
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90-day Beastly Guarantee
We have a full 100% money-back guarantee. No fine print, no hassle. Come into the program as skeptical as you like. If you don't love it, email us and we'll refund every penny.
How does War CHest work?
Step 1: Learn About What Was Holding Your Chest Back & How to Fix It
- Download the PDF to your laptop, phone, or tablet.
- Make a coffee or grab a beer, and start going through the guide. It will teach you absolutely everything you need to know about overcoming your stubborn chest genetics.
Step 2: Lift, Grow, Repeat
- Do the 3 fully optimized workouts each week.
- You'll probably start noticing the changes right after your first workout, but still, it's an 18-week program—be patient, be consistent, and you'll get the gains you want.
Step 3: Enjoy your strong, full chest
- Fill out your shirts when you're wearing them, look strong when you're not.
- Use everything you've learned to compound your chest gains in every future workout.
- Enjoy your new, fuller chest moves.