The chest press targets your chest, shoulders, and triceps — primarily your pectorals and deltoids. In a gym, you’re likely to see people doing chest presses with a barbell, but you can easily do them at home with dumbbells too. The pull-up can be intimidating, especially when you’re just starting out.
Reverse-Grip Dumbbell Press
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- Adding weight will also open the door to a wide range of other effective chest workouts such as the chest press and chest flies.
- According to a 2016 research review, strength training at least 2 days a week is ideal to grow your muscles.
- Depending on your experience level and goals, training the chest should be done anywhere from 1–3 times a week.
- For beginners, I recommend using the same core chest exercises for 4-6 weeks to master technique and track progressive overload.
- If you don’t have any balls, you can make this a true no equipment chest exercise by using a couple of heavy books stacked together instead of a ball.
- To do a lying dumbbell Svend press, you will need a set of 2 hex dumbbells (flat sides).
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A seal push-up is an easier variation of a standard push-up, working the same muscles but to a lesser degree. As the legs and pelvis are anchored to the floor, a smaller percentage of the individual’s body weight is being lifted. In turn, the trunk is less activated and the biceps and lats are not targeted to any significant degree – certainly not more than in a regular push-up. As I explain in my fitness books for men and women, to maximize your results, you must take most of the sets in your at-home chest workouts to within a rep or two of failure. Jeff Cavaliere is a Physical Therapist, Strength Coach and creator of the ATHLEAN-X Training Programs and ATHLEAN-Rx Supplements. His programs produce “next level” achievements in muscle size, strength and performance for professional athletes and anyone looking to build a muscular athletic physique.
Wide Push-ups
This is not possible with dumbbells obviously as each side has its separate weight. With dumbbells, if your weak side lags, you will immediately notice it. If you are doing a body part split, you will have a workout that focuses on just chest. Assuming you are doing just a chest workout with dumbbells, here is how a good https://madmuscles.quora.com/ one can look. The hammer press is a good alternative to the standard dumbbell bench press for those who want to take a little stress off their shoulders. By rotating your arms slightly so that as you reach the top, your palms are in an underhand grip, you will get a stronger contraction.
As you lower back down, you rotate your hands back so that they are facing each other like a traditional dumbbell fly during the stretching phase. The dumbbell fly is a classic accessory exercise for opening up the entire chest, improving range of motion, and building solid definition of your inner chest. The dumbbell twisted fly is the same exact concept but it allows for even more muscle fiber activation. By following these tips, you can ensure that your home chest workouts are safe, effective, and enjoyable. Push-ups are a compound exercise that targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps.

What Chest Muscles Do Push-Ups Improve?
Since the pushup targets so many muscles, it will help you break a sweat, thereby helping you burn that arm fat. Strengthening your triceps too will add firmness to the underside of your upper arm, which is an area where it’s hard to lose fat. Beneath the pectoralis major is the pectoralis minor (also called the pec minor), which assists the pec major.
For a more impactful workout and to make sure you continue to challenge your body over time, you can gradually increase the number of reps as you build your strength and stamina. Push-ups are very practical exercises that you can perform without any equipment or needing to go to the gym — they can be done from the comfort of your home and on your own time. The primary role of the triceps is to stabilize the shoulder joint and extend the elbows. What’s more, the long head assists with adducting the humerus, like when you move the upper arm closer to your body. If you feel too much stress in your shoulders, avoid descending too low. Don’t force your chest onto the ground right away, but increase your range of motion slowly, instead.
Core muscles
Since these exercises focus on tightening and toning, they’re primarily geared toward women, but c’mon, anyone can do them. Ultimately, this allows you to take stress off your joints and place them on the muscles (where they belong). Prepare to maximize your gains with our exclusive 12-week hypertrophy training program. Choose between a 4 or 5 day training split and gain 2-12 pounds of muscle over 90 days…
Dumbbell Chest Flyes
Your back hurts after yet another day of sitting at the computer. Many of us walk around with less than ideal posture, often due to hunching over at work or staring at our phones. For busy moms, squeezing exercise into an already packed schedule can feel like a challenge.
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CHEST MUSCLE BIOMECHANICS
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But if you don’t have access to a bench, then there are other exercises below that don’t require one. Gradually leveling up with heavier dumbbells is a simple solution. Just get heavier dumbbells when the exercise becomes too easy. Improved Muscle Balance & Symmetry – With dumbbells, you’ll work out each arm independently. This prevent muscle imbalances that often happens with barbells and machines.
It also supports your shoulders madmuscles review and arms, helping reduce the risk of injury during workouts and physical activities. Decline push-ups are one of the most challenging chest exercises because you have to lift more weight than in a standard push-up. Pushups are a versatile exercise that you can do on the floor or on another stable surface at home. A full push-up target the pectorals, arms, and shoulders really well, but also challenge your core.
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The decline bench press hits the lower pecs by placing the arms below the chest at about a 45 degree angle. The flat bench press is an exercise that targets the sternal fibers of your middle chest by placing your arms at a 90 degree angle to the chest. There are two important factors you need to understand to be able to translate chest exercises with weights to bodyweight versions.
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Chest workouts at home offer a practical way to build strength, improve posture, and boost athletic performance without the need for a gym. By leveraging the at-home chest exercises above, you can target the full chest for balanced development. This suspension-based exercise targets the chest while engaging the shoulders, arms, and core. Ditch the gym equipment and use TRX straps that add instability, forcing stabilizer muscles to work harder for better strength and control. The pec minor is not a primary mover or muscle that has big growth potential like your pec major.
To effectively target your chest muscles at home, selecting the right equipment is crucial. The equipment should not only enhance your workout but also align with your fitness goals and living space. Starting position is with your hands on the bench and feet on the floor.
