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Top 5 Exercises: Chest


There are literally dozens of different exercises you can do for your chest (84 according to the Bodybuilding.com exercise database), but not all of them are optimal for muscle growth! So many different and unique chest machines can be found in the gym, and they all look so tempting to use, however, in my humble opinion they will never replace free weight (barbell or dumbbell) compound movements. It is proven that free weights incorporate more muscle fibers, your core, stabilizer muscles, and increase hormone production when compared to machines. Machines are great if you're injured or are a beginner who's just starting their fitness journey so you can train safely and get the form down, but if you have been training for a while the majority of the exercises you utilize should be free weight, compound movements. If you are insistent on using machines, and there is a particular machine you really enjoy, feel free to incorporate it into your routine, but don't strictly stick to machines, challenge yourself!

But enough of my rant on machines, you are here to find out the best bang for your buck exercises for Chest! Mind you, this list doesn't correspond with the hardest chest exercises. It is focused on the best of the best mass builders, with a little bit of instruction and explanation to complement each choice. You can switch out exercises in your current routine for these choices, build your own chest workout with a handful of them, or just try one when your standard chest workout gets stale. Without further ado, let's get to it!

#1 Barbell Bench Press: Whenever you think of chest or chest day, this is always the default movement, and for good reason! You can generate the most power with barbell lifts, so the standard barbell bench allows you to move the most weight. It's also an easier lift to control than pressing with heavy dumbbells. The exercise is easy to spot and relatively easy to learn. This movement will primarily hit your pectoralis major, the lower/middle portion your chest.

How to do the Barbell Bench Press:

  1. Lie back on a flat bench. Using a medium width grip (a grip that creates a 90-degree angle in the middle of the movement between the forearms and the upper arms), lift the bar from the rack and hold it straight over you with your arms locked. This will be your starting position.

  2. From the starting position, breathe in and begin coming down slowly until the bar touches your middle chest.

  3. After a brief pause, push the bar back to the starting position as you breathe out. Focus on pushing the bar using your chest muscles. Lock your arms and squeeze your chest in the contracted position at the top of the motion, hold for a second and then start coming down slowly again. Tip: Ideally, lowering the weight should take about twice as long as raising it.

  4. Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.

  5. When you are done, place the bar back in the rack.

#2 Incline Dumbbell Press: Incline Dumbbell presses are one of my personal favorite mass building chest exercises, and with an adjustable bench you can do a number of things you can't with a fixed bench. My favorite: changing the angle of the incline from one set to the next, or from one workout to the next. Hitting a muscle from varying degrees of incline angles builds it more thoroughly. This movement is going to hit the upper/clavicular portion of your chest. Since you will be controlling and working each side individually with dumbbells, more stabilizer muscles will be involved as well.

How to do the Incline Dumbbell Press:

  1. Lie back on an incline bench with a dumbbell in each hand atop your thighs. The palms of your hands will be facing each other.

  2. Then, using your thighs to help push the dumbbells up, lift the dumbbells one at a time so that you can hold them at shoulder width.

  3. Once you have the dumbbells raised to shoulder width, rotate your wrists forward so that the palms of your hands are facing away from you. This will be your starting position.

  4. Be sure to keep full control of the dumbbells at all times. Then breathe out and push the dumbbells up with your chest.

  5. Lock your arms at the top, hold for a second, and then start slowly lowering the weight. Tip Ideally, lowering the weights should take about twice as long as raising them.

  6. Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.

  7. When you are done, place the dumbbells back on your thighs and then on the floor. This is the safest manner to release the dumbbells.

#3 Chest Dips: First off, make sure you're doing dips that emphasize the pecs, not the triceps: Put your feet up behind you, lean forward as far as possible, and allow your elbows to flare out as you dip. Chest dips are a great spotter-free alternative to the decline press. They are another personal favorite of mine! This is a bodyweight movement, but if you are strong enough feel free to strap some additional weight to make the exercise more challenging. Note: If your goal is muscle hypertrophy and you can do at least 20 bodyweight dips with proper form, it's time to add some additional weight. Or you can use this movement as a bodyweight finisher to completely fry your chest, your call. Dips are going to work the lower portion of your chest (that way you don't have man boobs -__-).

How to do Chest Dips:

  1. For this exercise you will need access to parallel bars. To get yourself into the starting position, hold your body at arms length (arms locked) above the bars.

  2. While breathing in, lower yourself slowly with your torso leaning forward around 30 degrees or so and your elbows flared out slightly until you feel a slight stretch in the chest.

  3. Once you feel the stretch, use your chest to bring your body back to the starting position as you breathe out. Tip: Remember to squeeze the chest at the top of the movement for a second.

  4. Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.

#5 Dumbbell Incline Flye: After your compound movements, it's time to isolate the chest. Feel free to either use dumbbells or cables for this one (or you can either interchange them every chest workout), they both work great. Note: Cables allow for continuous tension throughout the exercise's full range of motion. If you've got a good chest pump going, nothing beats looking back at yourself in the mirror as you squeeze out a few more reps.

How to do Dumbbell Incline Flyes:

  1. Hold a dumbbell on each hand and lie on an incline bench that is set to an incline angle of no more than 30 degrees.

  2. Extend your arms above you with a slight bend at the elbows.

  3. Now rotate the wrists so that the palms of your hands are facing you.Tip: The pinky fingers should be next to each other. This will be your starting position.

  4. As you breathe in, start to slowly lower the arms to the side while keeping the arms extended and while rotating the wrists until the palms of the hand are facing each other. Tip: At the end of the movement the arms will be by your side with the palms facing the ceiling.

  5. As you exhale start to bring the dumbbells back up to the starting position by reversing the motion and rotating the hands so that the pinky fingers are next to each other again. Tip: Keep in mind that the movement will only happen at the shoulder joint and at the wrist. There is no motion that happens at the elbow joint.

  6. Repeat for the recommended amount of repetitions.

#5 Cable Flyes/Crossover: This exercise is a great finisher and especially great for the pump. This one will especially get you that ripped look in the chest and bring out those chest striations (if you have low enough body fat). Weight is not important on this one, go high reps and really burn out that chest!

How to do Cable Flyes and Cable Crossovers:

  1. To get yourself into the starting position, place the pulleys on a high position (above your head), select the resistance to be used and hold the pulleys in each hand.

  2. Step forward in front of an imaginary straight line between both pulleys while pulling your arms together in front of you. Your torso should have a small forward bend from the waist. This will be your starting position.

  3. With a slight bend on your elbows in order to prevent stress at the biceps tendon, extend your arms to the side (straight out at both sides) in a wide arc until you feel a stretch on your chest. Breathe in as you perform this portion of the movement. Tip: Keep in mind that throughout the movement, the arms and torso should remain stationary; the movement should only occur at the shoulder joint.

  4. Return your arms back to the starting position as you breathe out. Make sure to use the same arc of motion used to lower the weights.

  5. Hold for a second at the starting position and repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.

Variations: You can vary the point in front of you where your arms meet.

Bonus Exercise: Push Ups

A lot of people ask me how I got started and which exercise I utilized to get started, and this is the answer. When I first started working out, my main goal was to grow my chest. I didn't have a gym membership or any fancy equipment, all I had was a pair of 10lb dumbbells and my bodyweight. So I just started out doing pushups and flyes in my room. If you don't have a gym membership and want to build a chest, you can never go wrong with pushups. Sure the Push Up is one of the most basic exercises you can do for the chest, but one of the best nonetheless!

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