Do you want to know what the best muscle-building exercises for your chest are? Off course you do! Read on to find out about the ten best chest exercises that will help you build muscle.
There are tons of exercises that you can try out on chest day, but it's hard to try them all if you also have other stuff to worry about. We've been looking at the best exercises that will ultimately help you build a muscular chest.
Please bear in mind that this top ten doesn't correlate to the hardest chest exercises. It's entirely focused on the finest mass builders, with a little bit of instruction and explanation to complement each choice.
You can choose to switch exercises in your routine for these choices, create your own chest workout with a few of them, or just try one when your usual chest workout gets easy.
Having said that, let us take a look at the best chest exercises for building muscle, ranked from ten to one.
10. Peck-Deck Machine
This piece of gym equipment is designed to isolate the pectoralis major and minor, the chest muscles. It uses a nautilus style weight system in which the weights are controlled by leverage. For many trainees, chest flyes ar not easy to learn with cables or dumbbells, because the arms have to be locked in a slightly bent position during the exercise. On a positive note, the peck-deck machine is a solid movement teacher that will simplify things, allowing you to work in only one pathway.
9. Incline Dumbbell Pull-Over
The Incline Dumbbell Pull-Over puts your chest fibers under tension for a longer range of motion. How it's done? You sit back against a bench inclined to about 45 degrees and make sure the dumbbell clears the top. Keep this a single-joint movement, do not bend or extend at the elbows.
8. Incline Bench Cable Fly
This exercise is very similar to both the Hammer grip incline dumbbell press and the flat bench cable flyes. It's a very effective exercise to isolate the pecs after completing your multijoint exercises. The cables ensure continuous tension throughout the exercise's full range of motion. If you have got a good chest pump going, then nothing beats looking back at yourself in the mirror as you squeeze out a few more reps.
7. Dips For Chest
If you want to do this right, you have to make sure you're doing dips that emphasize the pecs. If you are new at this exercise and do not have the strength to perform
it, then we advise you to use a dip assist machine if available. It uses weight to
help you push your bodyweight. Put your feet up behind you, lean forward as far as possible and let
your elbows flare out as you dip. Chest dips are a solid spotter-free
alternative to the decline press.
6. Incline Dumbbell Press
This great exercise just had to be in our top ten. With an adjustable bench you can do a more than you can with a fixed bench. Lie back on an incline bench with a dumbbell in each hand atop your thighs. Press the dumbbells up with elbows to sides until your arms are extended. Lower the weight to sides of upper chest until slight stretch is felt in your chest or shoulder.
5. Seated Machine Chest Press
The Machine Press has some unique benefits, one of them being it's easier to slow
down the repetition, both in the concentric and eccentric phases.
Stack-loaded machines are also great for quickly doing dropsets.
4. Machine Decline Press
Some machines allow you to move
each arm independently, which is a great feature on chest day. Besides
doing a machine decline press straight on, you can sit sideways on the
apparatus and press across your body one arm at a time, which delivers a
completely different feel than when you sit straight-on.
3. Low-Incline Barbell Bench Press
Many benches are fixed at a very steep angle, which requires a larger
contribution from the front delts than the chest to move the weight. One of the biggest problems with this exercise is that
the chest and rib cage flatten out during the exercise. This takes
the tension off the pecs and puts it on the shoulders and triceps
instead. In order for the pecs to get a good contraction, the shoulder blades
need to be tight in together behind your back with the shoulders back
and chest/rib cage expanded.
2. Flat Bench Dumbbell Press
This
exercise
closely mimics the bench press, the
favorite exercise among serious weightlifters everywhere. The Flat Bench Dumbbell Press
works your chest muscles, shoulders and triceps. If you have shoulder,
elbow, or lower-back problems, limit the range of motion. You should
lower and lift the dumbbells only a few inches to avoid overstraining
these joints. Flat dumbbell presses allow you to hoist a fairly heavy weight and they
make for a good alternative if you've been stuck on the barbell bench
for ages.
1. Barbell Bench Press
Our number 1: The Barbell Bench Press, by far the most popular and the most effective chest exercise. It does wonders to your body, but it can also disfigure your body at the same time, when performing it incorrectly. This exercise is easy to spot and relatively easy to learn. There are plenty of bench-press programs you can follow to
increase your strength.