Man Breasts

[StephenG]

Hi, I am writing this for a friend, yeah right!!!!

Anyway, I have just joined a gym to lose weight and my newly developed man breasts, in addition to a controlled diet, running etc what is the most effective " man breast" reduction excercise ??

[Impret-Sir]

The best excersises to develop the pectoralis magor and minor muscles are the bench press and pec-deck. However, if you want to loose fat, (which is what it sounds like) you can only do that by reducing calorie intake, or increasing airobic excersise, or better still, doing both! So go on a diet, get on the treadmil and rowing machines, and start some bench press and pec deck work.

[El D]

Personally I would avoid the pec wreck. Bench press and weighted dips are top 2.

[Impret-Sir]

Why El D?

Dips do not taget the pecs as the primary muscle group, but as a secondary one, although this will have an effect, it will not be as good as a pec deck or flys done with free weights.

[El D]

depends how you do them. leaning forward flaring the elbows and its pretty much a decline bench but with the added bonus of being a closed kinetic chain exercise. the pec deck puts tremendous strain on your shoulder joint, and tbh why do them when other exs are superior.

[Impret-Sir]

Well, I guess its a matter of personal taste, but in the 15 years I have been going to the gym myself, and writing programs for, and training others, I have never heard of anyone claiming that pec deck work puts a strain on your shoulders, nor have I ever felt any effects there myself. And I also cannot agree that dips, done any way at all, are a superior excersise for the pecs. If you want to do a decline bench press fine, why not do exactly that?

[Octavius]

Agree with both of you, to start you need to do plenty of cardiac to burn off the excess fat (as well as eat sensibly) then you need to turn the rest of the fat (and your future intake) into muscle by doing the exercises recommended above. 

[Impret-Sir]

Unfortunately it is a myth that fat can be "turned into" muscle. Fat can be replaced with muscle, but the two things are totally different, one can not become the other.

[_andy_]

If the 'man breasts' are fat deposits the only way to get rid of them is to burn off this excess fat.. fat burning is most effective if you excercise at around 60% of your max heart rate, or simply put when you are taking in enough oxygen to make fat burning possible. Concentrate on excercising at this rate by holding a conversation while you excercise, or singing a song to yourself without having to gasp for breath! Remember you cannot 'Spot Burn' fat so trying to build your Pec without getting rid of the fat will ultimately increase you 'Man Paps'!!! Good Luck.