Thoracic Muscle Exercises

The thoracic part of the body refers to the chest and middle back region. At the front of the thoracic region lie the pectoralis minor, the pectoral major muscles, and the serratus anterior muscles. Opposite these muscles, and thus lying at the rear thoracic region, are the middle trapezius and rhomboid muscles. You can train all of these muscles using specific resistance exercises. You can do these exercise during separate workouts or as part of an opposing muscle group workout. The latter is recommended if you want to ensure you are training these muscles in a balanced manner.

  1. Pec Major Exercises

    • The pec major is made up of a top, middle and lower part. You can work all three parts by doing push-ups and bench presses. To better pinpoint the top part of the pec major, do push-ups at a 45 to 60-degree decline and bench presses at a 45 to 60-degree incline. To better focus on the lower pecs, use the opposite angles for each of these exercises. This means an incline for push-ups and a decline for bench presses.

    Pec Minor and Serratus Anterior Exercises

    • The pec minor is located beneath the pec major, while the serratus anterior lies close to the outer ends of the pec major. You can work these smaller muscles by doing the shoulder protraction. To do this, lie face up on a flat or incline bench, hold a barbell over your chest with your arms straight, move your shoulder blades as far forward as you can -- this is protraction -- and then move your shoulder blades as far back as you can -- this is retraction.

    Mid-Trapezius and Rhomboid Exercises

    • These muscles of the middle back act in opposition to the pec minor and serratus anterior, which means they function to retract the shoulder blades. So, as you can probably figure, you must do the shoulder retraction to work these muscles. To do so, grip a dumbbell in each hand, lie face down on a 45 to 60-degree incline bench and position the dumbbells beneath the incline part of the bench with your arms straight. Then, retract your shoulders as much as possible, thus bringing your shoulder blades close together, and then protract your shoulders as much as possible.

    Tips

    • Do one variation of the push-up and two variations of the bench press per pec major workout. As for the shoulder-protracting and retracting muscle, do one exercise for these smaller muscles. Perform three sets per exercise and 10 to 15 repetitions per set using moderate weights for the smaller muscles and moderate to heavy weights for the larger pec major muscles. Before and after each exercise session, start and end with a 10-minute warm-up and cooldown, respectively. Walking, jogging and jumping rope are examples of exercises you can do during these preparatory and concluding phases of your workouts.