If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

You wouldn’t believe how many questions I get each and every week about chest exercises. Everyone wants to build a bigger chest, but not everyone knows the best way to go about it. In the interests of providing some information on this topic (and everyone wants to know “what’s your secret, Caleb?”) I’m going to provide a little help with this article. While I may not be ready to give all of my secrets away, here are a few of my favorite chest exercises.

First, I’d like to share a little general information for the newbies out there (hello and welcome!). Your chest muscles consist of the Pectoralis major and minor – the familiar term “pecs” is short for this. The Pectoralis major attaches to the arms and clavicles; the minor is a thinner, roughly triangular shaped muscle which is beneath the Pectoralis major.

What I’ll do is start with the upper chest exercises and we’ll work our way down from there — sound good playa? Two exercises that have solidified their place in the “tool chest of effective upper chest exercises are Flyes and push-ups because they are very effective for building this part of your chest. Without further ado:

Inclined Dumbbell Flyes – Lie flat on your back on an incline bench and either pick up two dumbbells or if you have a spotter have them hand them to you. Taking one in each hand (of course!) and your palms should be facing each other you want to raise the dumbbells up towards each other under control, until they meet over your head. At this point, you want to squeeze your pecs for a one count while the dumbbells are overhead. Then lower slowly and repeat as many times as you can.

Declined Push-Ups – Your feet will be elevated by resting on a low bench; otherwise this movement is the exact same exercise as a regular pushup. Keep in mind, that with push-ups, you always want to keep your back as straight as possible. Also, be sure to vary your hand widths for the best possible results. Now for the middle of your chest – there’s a lot of different exercises for the middle chest, but here’s my favorite because it’s good for bodybuilding newcomers and pros alike.

Dips: these are pretty much my favorite exercise for building the mid-chest. I’ll explain using a set of dip bars (even though (any two parallel surfaces off the ground and parallel to it will do as well), raise yourself to straight arm height with knees bent and legs crossed at the ankle below you. Lower yourself with control, leaning slightly forward (you should feel it in your mid-chest) until your chest touches the bar and then return to your starting position. Repeat as many times as you can.

Now the final part of the chest – the lower chest. This is a variation on the bench press – something which I KNOW you know how to do, but this is even more beneficial to the lower chest.

Declined Barbell Bench Press – Essentially, this is like any bench press – grip a little wider than the width of your shoulders, lower slowly and carefully. It’s OK to touch the bar to your chest when doing a bench press in this position – but of course as with any bench press exercise, make sure you have a spotter at all times. Repeat as many times as you can.

Popularity: 5% [?]