“How much do you bench, bro?” That’s one of the most frequently asked questions on any given Monday – often referred to as National Chest Day.
A Google search for “chest training” brings up 982,000 results, and the chest stands above the arms and abs in this AskMen article ranking the body parts women find most attractive on men.
But why do so few bros actually sport a respectable pair of chesticles? The problem doesn’t lie in a lack of effort, but more likely in the execution.
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Meet John. John has a good set of arms, a narrow waist, and a wide back, but his pecs make his girlfriend’s A cups look robust. He’s been doing all the things he’s been told to do to build mass, but they simply aren’t working. John is a fictional character, but he represents a lot of guys out there.
So if you’re anything like him, here are 10 of the best damn chest exercises you should start doing right away – followed by five big chest training mistakes and ways to correct them, as well as tips to optimize your workouts and prevent injury.
1. Incline Crush/Squeeze Press
“The incline crush press is one of my favorite chest exercises for a couple of different reasons,” says strength coach Joey Percia.
“Most guys have poor upper chest development from the absence of pressing at different angles during their training. The incline crush press hammers the upper chest. You control the difficulty of this exercise two different ways: With the load and the [intensity with which] you are crushing the dumbbells together. “
To perform the incline crush press, set up on an incline bench with a neutral grip. Make sure the dumbbells are touching. Squeeze the dumbbells into each other as hard as you can as you press the weights up towards the ceiling. When you reach the top of the movement, reverse the weight by lowering it with control and still keeping loads of tension between the dumbbells.
To perform the squeeze press, grab two dumbbells, set up on a flat or incline bench, squeeze the dumbbells together, and press up. Make sure to squeeze the dumbbells together as hard as you can through the entire range of motion.
2. Banded Dumbbell Fly
When it comes to pec development, time under tension is the name of the game. Check your ego at the door and use a modest pair of dumbbells for this exercise.
Then, simply grab opposite ends of a resistance band with both hands and stretch the elastic behind your back. Grab a pair of dumbbells, and lower yourself into a fly position.
The other cue here is to hold the dumbbells in a press position (instead of a neutral grip). But you still want to perform the exercise as if you were doing a fly. This slight tweak increases the stretch at the bottom position, which will help you maximize your gains.
3. Smith Machine Press
There’s some unnecessary hate for this machine. The plane of motion is fixed. It’s not “functional” (whatever that means). Experts argue that it's unnatural for your body to exercise through a fixed plane. Sure, you should never rely solely on isolation moves. But if muscle building is your goal, you do want to use only one joint and isolate your muscle. The Smith helps you accomplish that by forcing you to keep continuous tension on your muscle.
4. Sven Press
Scott Tousignant of Metabolic Masterpiece shows you the Sven press using a technique called Myo Reps.
The Sven press involves pressing two 25-pound plates squeezed together while intensifying the contraction in your upper pecs through the entire range of motion. You’ll set up on a flat bench and rep it out just as if you were doing the squeeze press above — but using plates instead of dumbbells.
The wrinkle here is the Myo Reps technique, which involves 20 reps on the initial sets, followed by alternating five seconds of rest with five reps until complete failure.
5. Plyo Push-Up Speed Ladder
The speed and agility ladder is one the best training tools to help athletes learn a huge array of movement patterns, according to Arizona-based fitness coach and author Jeremy Scott.
This amazing training tool is not only limited to top-level athletes; the average Joe can reap plenty of benefits from utilizing a speed ladder.
The Plyo Pushup Speed Ladder is an unconventional exercise that’ll test you in ways machines and dumbbells won't.
6. Dumbbell Press With A Twist
The setup here is the same as a conventional dumbbell press, but you’re extending the set by adding a twist at peak contraction, when you reach the top of the movement. Adding a twist at the end extends each rep and really forces maximum tension in your pecs (the perfect combo to help you build a bigger chest).
7. Incline Barbell Press
Tried-and-tested exercises are not to be ignored.
Personal trainer Alexander Juan Cortes says the incline barbell press is extremely effective and can be used for long-term progress.
“A strong incline bench is a reliable indicator of both well-developed pecs and shoulders, tends to be less stressful on the shoulder joint than the flat bench, and develops the upper pec muscle and anterior delts, which is aesthetically pleasing and has great transference to sports that require forward ‘pressing’ strength,” he says.
“People love to get weird with their recommendations and recommend either obscure exercises or ‘functional’ movements that are only minimally effective for building muscle.”
Here’s John Meadows demonstrating the movement with continuous tension, stopping an inch or two short of touching his chest and locking out.
8. Incline Dumbbell Press
"For pure aesthetic and physique improvement, the dumbbell incline bench press cannot be beat,” says Jason Helmes of Anyman Fitness.
“This movement is meant to be volume-based. You're not chasing a one-rep max. You are recruiting every possible muscle fiber in your chest, using a controlled movement and a higher rep range (8-15), and completing multiple sets per session (3-5),” he says. “The chest grows best with volume, so be sure to program the move at least twice per week for maximum exposure.
Helmes says to be sure you’re not using body English: No pauses at the top or bounces at the bottom. Focus on doing a smooth, controlled motion while keeping constant tension on your pec muscles.
“If you follow these instructions, soon you'll be able to rest your drink on your upper chest," says Helmes.
9. Dumbbell Press With Bands
Bands allow for accommodating resistance through the entire range of motion, matching your strength curve. In other words, the bands are most resistant when you’re at your strongest (i.e. band is fully lengthened at the peak of a chest press, when you’re near full extension), challenging you equally throughout the entire distance your targeted muscle group travels. This adds a whole other level of difficulty to any exercise — without having to go too heavy and sacrifice form.
The range of motion is short here, but tension is kept on the pecs continuously — with no drop or pause at the top or bottom.
10. Elevated Stretch Push-Ups
Sure, push-ups are cool, but you can add another level of intensity to them with this exercise.
This is a great finisher on chest day, and it will also help you enhance your flexibility. Keep your chin up to maximize the stretch, and don't let your lower back sag.
Elevate your feet and use two step-up platforms to give yourself a deeper stretch at the bottom. (Notice a pattern here?)
Here’s John Meadows showing you the best way to perform this movement:
Bonus: Cable Fly
The cable fly is one of the best chest isolation exercises. When it comes to hypertrophy, keeping tension on your working muscle is key. During a bent-forward cable raise, the cables force you to maintain that muscle tension throughout the movement — even around peak contraction when the hands are close.
5 Chest Training Mistakes (And Fixes)
1. Overreliance On Flat Bench Pressing
For guys focused on building a bigger chest, the bench press is just another chest exercise and not necessarily the Holy Grail of chest moves. Let's bring back our fictional character John.
Barbell pressing bothered John’s shoulders and he rarely felt his pecs working as much as during isolation exercises. Plus, maintaining good technique (i.e. elbows tucked, arched back, retracted shoulders) seemed to reduce a lot of pectoral muscle recruitment for him.
If you’re like John, maximum chest muscle recruitment during a bench press requires maintaining a flat back while keeping your elbows at a 90-degree angle and bringing the bar just above your chest. But this form comes with a risk of shoulder impingement or pec tears, so most trainers advise against using it for 1RM (one-rep max) sets – if at all.
The solution: Swap out the barbell for a pair of dumbbells or move to a decline or incline bench.
2. Slow Down, You’re Going to Blow
There is a reason nearly every bodybuilding program out there instructs you to take the eccentric portion of an exercise slowly.
John doesn’t bring the weight down with much control. Instead, he focuses on lifting as heavy as possible. To make matters worse, he bounces the bar off his chest with each rep, leaving plenty of growth opportunities on the table by reducing the tension on the target muscle.
John needs to check his ego at the door and reduce the weight to focus on the eccentric (the part of the movement where you lower the weight) portion of the lift.
If you’re making the same mistake as John, try this: Instead of taking two seconds to lower the weights, try taking twice the time.
3. Mind Over Matter
This isn’t just broscience. Establishing a mind-muscle connection is key to maximizing chest development. A review of the scientific literature by researchers Brad Schoenfeld and Bret Contreras found a direct link between establishing a mind-muscle connection and muscle activation.
Here is an excerpt from the review: “When the goal is to maximize hypertrophy, indirect evidence suggests that an internal focus may be the best approach […]. When attempting to maximize muscle activation, an internal focus of attention would seem to be a better choice.”
In other words, stop lifting too heavy in an attempt to get the attention of the girl in the booty shorts, and lift for results. The effectiveness of the mind-muscle connection is reduced when training at higher loads, and if you’re like most gym-goers, you’re probably training too heavy — using enough body English to rival your dance moves after one too many vodka Red Bulls.
4. Pump Up The Volume (In Training Blocks)
John simply isn’t training his chest with enough volume. He thinks a few heavy sets of barbell presses followed by a few more sets of flies once a week will do the trick.
But when, like John, your goal is to maximize muscle development, volume is king. A meta-analysis published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research shows that multiple-set training results in a 40% greater increases in muscle growth compared to single-set workouts.
Keep in mind the optimal number of sets varies from person to person and depends on a host of individual factors such as genetics, recovery, level of advancement, and diet. So if your current training has you doing 8 total sets for chest every week, don’t throw in 40 sets this week. You need to know that repeatedly training with a high volume will inevitably lead to overtraining.
Periodized training will help you avoid the overtraining plague while benefitting from a high volume training approach. Mike Israetel of Renaissance Periodization calls the peak amount of work you can do each week without hitting a wall MRV (Maximum Recoverable Volume). He recommends completing 15-25 sets per muscle group per week, split over two to four training sessions (so don’t just do all 25 sets on Monday and call it your chest day).
You could invariably go up to 30 sets of work per week, but you will need to bring the intensity down. Israetel’s recommendation for intensity is to lift within 55-85% of your 1RM. Remember; you’re focused on building muscle before anything else.
5. Don’t Neglect Your Upper Pec
To build visually impressive pecs, you need to spend more time attacking the upper pecs, according to fitness coach and AskMen writer Bryan Krahn.
And not just with heavy weights: You also need to target them with different exercises that stress all functions of the pecs, ideally through a variety of rep ranges and time under tension.
Here’s Krahn’s favorite upper chest workout:
A1) DB Pullover – 3 x 12-15
Increase the stretch with each rep, engage your upper pecs during the concentric portion of the movement and stop an inch above your chest.
B1) Incline Mid Grip BB press — 4 x 4-6
Lower the barbell to the top of your pec, pause for one second and drive up over your face. Rest 10 seconds.
B2) Incline DB Press, Neutral Grip – 4 x 8-10
Using a neutral grip, lower the dumbbells to your shoulders. Pause at pec level and drive straight up.
Rest 10 seconds.
B3) Incline DB Fly, Unrolling – 4 x 12-15
Grab two light dumbbells and do incline flyes, dropping your forearms back towards your head. When you reach a maximum stretch, switch your grip from pronated to supinated and return to the top.
Rest two minutes.
RELATED: Here's A Tailored Diet And Exercise Regimen To Get That Chiseled Chest
Injury Prevention
Oh, the good-old days when you could walk into the gym and load up a barbell without a care in the world. But countless reps and sets later, you realize the inevitable wear-and-tear has caught up with you.
First of all, no matter your age (but especially as you hit that 30+ barrier), a proper warm-up is necessary to prevent injury and prepare your joints for the battle to follow. But it doesn’t require a 77-minute foam-rolling marathon followed by 83 minutes of plyometrics and stretching.
You’ve seen the ugly pec tear videos on YouTube. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, follow the three following tips.
1. Focus On Exercise Sequence First
The way you set up your exercise program is crucial to preventing injury.
Take, for example, a typical chest workout. You probably go in cold and start loading up the bench press, right? Instead, you should start with a low-load machine press or dumbbell press, pyramiding up in weight. You will fill the shoulder and elbow joints with blood (plus your chest muscles), better protecting them for the sets to follow.
Tip: For your first exercise, choose uncomplicated movements that allow you to really feel the target muscle working and start driving blood and nutrients into the muscle, preparing the joint, ligament and tendons for your workout.
2. Wear Protection
Sure, you like to wear a tank top that flashes more nipple than a Janet Jackson Super Bowl performance. And that girl reading on the elliptical might gaze your way just when you’re hitting your side chest flex.
But keeping your shoulders and elbows warm is more important in the long run. Either wear long sleeves for the first part of your workout or invest in elbow sleeves or wrist wraps.
Tip: Set your ego aside and invest in protection to better shield your joints.
3. Use Proper Technique
An extreme elbow flare can set you up for shoulder impingements while too much of an elbow tuck minimizes pectoral activation and power output (and turns your chest exercise into a triceps one).
The great strength coach Greg Nuckols does an amazing job at cueing bench press form:
“The perfect bench press rep starts without any weight on the bar. Why no weight? The first thing you need to do is determine your proper hand spacing on the bar,” he says. “For optimal power, your forearms should be as close to vertical as possible at the bottom of the rep.”
His next cue is to plant your feet firmly on the floor, and force your shoulder blades together tightly on the bench beneath you. This will force your shoulders back and drive you to puff your chest out, placing the pecs in an optimal position to perform the press.
Next, remove the bar from the racks and tighten up your torso muscles. Begin lowering the bar with complete control throughout the whole movement. Nuckol suggests stopping when you reach the bottom of your sternum (where your breastbone is).
The powerlifting community favors the idea of driving the movement with your legs. You absolutely want your feet planted for stability, but you’re looking to build muscle here — not lift the most weight as possible — so this isn’t something you need to worry about.
“Keep your feet firmly planted on the floor even if you start to struggle with the weight,” says Nuckols. “The moment you lift your feet off the floor, you break your base of power and the odds of you completing the lift diminish greatly.”
Additional Chest Training Tip
Before deciding on a routine to follow, do yourself a favor and assess your strengths and weaknesses. Does your upper chest ring hollow? Then focus on chest exercises performed on an incline (the program mentioned above is a good start). If your lower chest is droopy, then hit your chest with more decline movements.
Mitch Calvert is a certified trainer and fat-loss coach. He discovered his love for fitness 14 years ago at 240 lbs – and now works specifically with men like his former self who have weight to lose and confidence to gain. He hosts Mansformation Challenges for guys looking to get over the fat-loss hump. Download his sample chest routine.
Original article and pictures take images.askmen.com site
