Disclaimer: just my opinion and fairly limited experience talking.
Eventually, the best way to gain mass is to lift big and eat big. There are a lot of different schools of thought about reps, sets, and all that, but more weight and fewer reps will help you make bigger gains. Shoot for a weight that will allow you to lift 6-8 reps with proper form. That said, if this is your first time doing weight training you'll want to work up to that. Focus on proper form first (this is really important to prevent injuries), with weights that allow you to complete 12-15 reps, then work your way up to more difficult sets.
I'm partial to building my chest workouts around the bench press, but dumbbell flyes are a bit safer (you don't need a spotter) and also very effective. Google it if you're not familiar. Also, change up the routine: if you go to the gym regularly don't work your chest with the same exercises every monday, wednesday, and friday. Add new lifts to your routine to keep your body from adapting to what you're doing. With pretty much any chest exercise, you can hit different parts of the muscles by using an incline bench set to different angles.
Working the rest of your muscles is equally important. Don't neglect your back, core muscles, and lower body. Only working your chest and shoulders will end up making you funny-looking at best, and injured at worst.
Oh, and last: write down everything you do. This is so much more important than it sounds like. If you just go to the gym and start swinging weights around a couple times a week, sure it's a good thing, but actually making notes of how much you're lifting and how much you've progressed gives you a great indicator of how far you can expect to push yourself, when to stop to avoid injury, etc.
Eventually, the best way to gain mass is to lift big and eat big. There are a lot of different schools of thought about reps, sets, and all that, but more weight and fewer reps will help you make bigger gains. Shoot for a weight that will allow you to lift 6-8 reps with proper form. That said, if this is your first time doing weight training you'll want to work up to that. Focus on proper form first (this is really important to prevent injuries), with weights that allow you to complete 12-15 reps, then work your way up to more difficult sets.
I'm partial to building my chest workouts around the bench press, but dumbbell flyes are a bit safer (you don't need a spotter) and also very effective. Google it if you're not familiar. Also, change up the routine: if you go to the gym regularly don't work your chest with the same exercises every monday, wednesday, and friday. Add new lifts to your routine to keep your body from adapting to what you're doing. With pretty much any chest exercise, you can hit different parts of the muscles by using an incline bench set to different angles.
Working the rest of your muscles is equally important. Don't neglect your back, core muscles, and lower body. Only working your chest and shoulders will end up making you funny-looking at best, and injured at worst.
Oh, and last: write down everything you do. This is so much more important than it sounds like. If you just go to the gym and start swinging weights around a couple times a week, sure it's a good thing, but actually making notes of how much you're lifting and how much you've progressed gives you a great indicator of how far you can expect to push yourself, when to stop to avoid injury, etc.
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