Skip to content 
What Are The Best Exercises For The Chest? Building chest muscles is the primary goal of most gym-goers. The best exercises cause stress across the entire chest. There is a wide variety of lifts for the chest muscles.
However, you must understand weightlifting and how it works to get the maximum result. For example, which lifts best build muscles in the chest or pectoral region? You can also build muscles without weights or dumbbells.
Therefore, this article will explain chest workouts and anatomy to understand the chest’s best lifts.
The best chest exercises create a massive, well-defined chest
As a rule, focus on training more frequently instead of overtraining yourself. To build a great chest workout plan, you must first be aware of the lifts, their grasp, and elevation to perform them better. Only then will you be able to achieve your desired results.
Some of the excellent lift types for the chest include:
Barbell bench press:
This is a simple exercise to spot and master and is best, especially for beginners. It helps to increase your strength as you can generate the most power with barbell lifts. It is much simpler than pressing with heavy dumbbells. To avoid injuries, keep your shoulders retracted and close to the body.
How to perform it: Lie on the bench while keeping the bar over your eyes and feet firmly on the ground. Now grasp the barbell while wrapping your thumb around it and move it to the starting point. Keep your elbow and chest straight, and position the bar over your chin. Then lower the bar until it touches your chest. Next, press the bar up while exhaling.
Dumbbell bench press:
Using dumbbells in weightlifting helps address any imbalance in the chest’s right or left side. Because it allows each side of your body to work independently; therefore, it helps you get more stabilizer muscles. However, don’t forget that they are harder to control than barbells. Dumbbells result in more motions at the bottom and top of the movement.
How to perform it: Lie on the bench with dumbbells on each side and elbows at 90 degrees angle. Keep your hands and arm wide, slightly more than shoulder width. Now push dumbbells up with a forceful motion like an arc. At the top position, dumbbells will hover over your chest. Now, when pulling dumbbells down, pull the shoulder blades together.
Chest dips:
Always engage in dips lifts that emphasize the pecs. These chest dips are an excellent alternative to the decline press. In addition, it is helpful to create a zipper effect in the center of your chest.
How to perform it: Clutch the dip bars and lift your body. Your elbows should be straight, and your head should be in line with the trunk. Your wrist must be in line with your forearms.
To stabilize your body, bring one leg across the other. Then lower your body while bending your elbows. Keep lowering yourself until your elbows are at 90 degrees. Rest for a few seconds, and straighten your elbows to return to the starting position.
Pec-deck machine:
Although it is much similar to the cable crossover, it helps train a completely different movement pattern than bench presses or pushups. In addition, it works in only one pathway, thus simplifying things, and is an excellent exercise. However, in case you have a shoulder injury, avoid this lift.
How to perform it: Open your feet to shoulder length and firmly stand on the ground. Keep your back against the seat and lift your arms until they reach shoulder level. Then place your elbows on the pad of the machine. Now try to push wings together slowly, but stop just before they touch each other.
Cable Crossover:
It is another excellent way to build chest muscles. It helps to train your chest muscles from a different angle. Keep in mind it is more of a burnout exercise; therefore, use lighter weights and keep your form.
How to perform it: Start standing between two facing cable stations and place both pulleys above your head. Once you select your resistance, hold the handles of the pulleys using an overhand grip. Keep one leg in front while there is a slight bend in the other. Now pull your arms together and slowly resist tension until your arms are about to straighten.
Anatomy of chest muscles
Anyone who is into bodybuilding or is familiar with it knows the importance of understanding muscle anatomy.
To build your muscles aesthetically, you should first understand all the major muscles. Only then will you select the suitable lifts and workouts to build those muscles, as there are four major muscles in the chest area, including pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, serratus anterior, and subclavius.
Primary muscle chest exercises work.
These are the major muscles that help with the body’s movement and help perform any exercises. We have already mentioned above; that there are four major muscles in the pectoral area. And the primary goal of all bodybuilders and weightlifters is to train those muscles. So they try to understand how primary muscles work in the human body.
Secondary muscle chest exercises work.
Secondary muscles are there to help primary muscles to perform their function effectively. Apart from using primary muscles and training them, all weight-training exercises require the help of secondary muscles. For example, the primary muscles involved in the chest press are the pectorals; however, it also includes secondary muscle deltoids and triceps.
Workout programs
Now you completely understand all the best lifts for the chest. So, incorporate these lifts into your workout programs like German volume training, 5×5 training, or HIIT to get the physique you want. You can either use any of these programs based on your preference.
Last words for best chest exercises
Use effective lifts for the chest and incorporate them into your workout to get the best results. So, what are the best chest exercises?
The bench press, pushups, dips, and flys. These work your pectoral muscles in different ways to get you that toned look. They also improve upper body strength, a bonus for many people who use their arms all day long at work or play. What has been your experience with this? Let us know in the comments below!
If you or someone you know is considering bodybuilding, share this article on Facebook or Twitter so that others can learn more about building muscle.
