Chest is the world’s favourite muscle group to work out, there’s no denying it! Don’t even get me started on ‘International Chest Day’, i.e. Mondays. In this blog, we’re taking a look at our five favourite chest workouts – hopefully they’ll get you feeling as passionately as we do!
1) Bench Press
You can exert the greatest amount of power with barbell lifts, and a flat barbell bench allows you to move the most weight. It is also a simple exercise to master, unlike a dumbbell press which requires balance, making it good for beginners and advanced gym users alike. When using the bench, consider varying your grip from time to time to hit all parts of the chest.
2) Chest Dips
Chest dips are a great alternative to the common decline press, but only if you do it right! Leaning forwards and raising your legs up behind you puts the perfect strain on the chest. Chest dips are ideal for super set workouts, and good to do if you don’t have a spotter.
3) Incline Bench
The incline bench targets the upper part of the pectoral muscles. Lots of guys want a defined upper chest for showing themselves off in shirts and vests, so the incline bench is perfect for this. Only use a slight incline on the bench, though – the higher the incline, the more your deltoids will come into use meaning less targeting of your upper chest. Research has also shown that a closer grip on incline bench puts more strain on the pectoral muscles.
4) Seated Chest Press
For me, the seated chest press has two massive advantages over using free weights. Firstly, it is very easy to slow down your repetitions to put that extra strain on the muscles. One of my favourite benefits of this exercise is that you can very easily do drop sets, as the machines are stack-loaded.
5) Peck Deck
The normal chest fly is hard to master, especially when using a cable machine or dumbbells, as your arms need to remain locked at a certain angle for the duration of each repetition. The peck deck machine assists with keeping the arms in the locked position, making it an ideal machine for beginners. Again using a weight stacked machine makes it great to use towards the end of a workout so you can do drop sets.
READ MORE: Best Times For Your Protein Shake!
Top Tip: To gain extra width on your chest, mix in a variation of fly exercises and push ups into your routines. I will often add push ups into a super set with chest dips or the bench press.
Like what you see? Share, like and comment below!
Sources/references/ media
www.bodybuilding.com/fun/10-best-chest-exercises-for-building-muscle.html
www.jackedfactory.com/best-chest-exercises-workouts/
www.muscleandstrength.com/articles/10-tips-to-increase-your-bench-press-strength
HAFFY Fitness 