Lou Ferrigno’s Chest Training Routine

Lou Ferrigno’s tips for building bigger pecs

lou ferrigno side chest

Best known for his role as the titular character on TV’s The Incredible Hulk from 1977 to 1982, before and after that Lou Ferrigno was a professional bodybuilder. He placed second to someone named Schwarzenegger at the 1974 Mr. Olympia and, 20 years later, was runner up again at the 1994 Masters Mr. Olympia. In his 20s as well as his 40s, Ferrigno, now 58, had two of the world’s best pecs. He shares his thoughts on the press-centric chest routine he used in the ‘70s.

Lou ferrigno double biceps pose

LOU FERRIGNO ON CHEST TRAINING

The basics built my chest: benches, inclines, declines and flyes.
I like barbells better than dumbbells for presses, and I avoid a full-lockout on each rep to keep the tension on my chest and not my triceps.
Dumbbell pullovers supersetted with cable crossovers is a great combination. The first one stretches out your chest and the second one focuses on chest contractions, so you get two different things one after the other.
I pyramid all of my presses down to six reps. Lower than that builds more strength and less muscle.

apr09-lou-01

LOU FERRIGNO’S CHEST TRAINING ROUTINE

CHEST EXERCISE	SETS	REPS
Bench presses	5	10-6
Incline presses	5	10-6
Decline presses	4	10-12
Dumbbell flyes	4	10-12
Dumbbell pullovers	4	10-12
superset with
Cable crossovers	3	10-15