10 Essential Exercises for Daily Muscle Building Success
Monday is International Chest Exercise Day, a day when we are passionate about chest exercises, but there are hundreds of chest exercises, We're sure you won't spend all your time doing all of them, you will definitely want to know which are the best exercises to contact your chest, so in this article we have organized the best exercises for your chest muscles, so you can easily compare them with your usual training plan.
The chest movements we have chosen are based on the results of rigorous testing by our professional trainers. As anyone who practices powerlifting knows, the best exercises to build muscle are selected by measuring the activation of the electromyogram (EMG), but in reality all exercises are not perfect, so we have used some parameters to evaluate them.
- Ease of movement execution.
- Overall muscle stimulation and intensity of muscle stretching.
- Popularity of these movements among weightlifters and bodybuilders (this is important!) .
- Availability of equipment in a commercial gym or in a home gym in general.
Here are the best chest exercises to promote muscle growth, plus three complete chest workouts to add to your training day to give your chest workouts something different. Accompanied by nutrition and supplementation focused on muscle growth, this can be your post-workout plan to get the best out of your training!
10 Best Chest Exercises
Barbell Bench Press
Why is this movement on the recommended list? Now no matter what kind of bench press we do, the barbell bench press is definitely the best movement for developing the pectoralis major. First of all the barbell bench press allows you to use more weight, is easier to control compared to the dumbbell bench press, and the barbell bench press takes the brunt of the other movements. So don't be afraid to do this movement.
The barbell bench press also corresponds well to some of the bodybuilder's classic training programs, such as 5x5's for chest muscles and muscular endurance training, or even 10x10's for pure chest pushing mass. If you want to take every bench press day seriously and have a bench press limit weight you want to hit, such as bench press 300lbs, this movement will be a great choice for your chest workout.
In Your Workout: At the beginning of your chest program (after you have warmed up), do large sets with a weight bench in the higher range of the starting weight, such as 5-8 reps. After that do a high number of chest workouts with some some other movements. The different movements allow for a more comprehensive chest development by changing your grip width and and different power generation.
Dumbbell Bench Press
Which is better for chest muscle growth, the dumbbell bench press or the barbell bench press? It's an age-old debate that we can do both movements in one of our chest programs, but what is undeniable is that the dumbbell bench press does have a more powerful variation than the barbell bench press, the ability to do more compound movements, and more training uses.
Dumbbells have other advantages because each side of our muscles work independently, so dumbbells as a strength control exercise can create a better level of balance and strength control for your training. In addition the dumbbell bench press allows for a longer range of motion than the barbell bench press, and some studies suggest that increasing the range of motion within reasonable limits can be more effective in growing muscles and producing more stimulation.
In your workout: At some point, you start doing flat dumbbell press dumbbell flat bench presses with large sets with large weights. They can also be good for high reps later in the chest workout, either with flat lifts or with the weight bench angled or lowered.
Incline Bench Press
The incline bench press is the primary training modality for working the upper chest, and many lifters find they are more chest-focused than the flat bench press to reduce the stress of shoulder pronation. Using a barbell or other grip bar to do this will be effective, but using dumbbells may make your chest training more effective because you can increase the stimulation of your upper pecs depending on the size of your grip.
Tips: Many benches are fixed at a very steep angle, which is more effective on the anterior deltoids than on the chest, so this is clearly not advisable. If possible, adjust your weight bench to a lower incline, such as 30 degrees, to focus on stimulating your Uber Pecs.
Decline Press
The common perception we have about the decline is that it only applies to lower chest training. While it has benefits in this regard, great figures in bodybuilding history, such as six-time Mr. Olympia Dorian Yates, preferred to use this movement to work the chest in his 6-week training program because it made the engorgement of the entire chest feel more pronounced, allowing them to lift heavier and more comfortably than a flat bench.
Machine Chest Press
Doing free-weight presses on a flat bench is one of the best movements we can undeniably bench press, but machine presses and cable presses can be more pronounced for pec stimulation arguably more friendly for newbies. First, it's easier to slow down your repetitions in centripetal and centrifugal movements. Compound machines are also good for doing compound movements quickly.
But does it feel worse than free weight training in practice? This is a difference in human psychological sensation. With EMG testing we can find that machine bench presses raise far less power in the shoulders than free weight changes. This allows you to really target your pecs to make a deeper stimulation.
Push-Up
One of the obvious advantages of push-ups is that they don't require any equipment to be exercised anytime, anywhere, and this can be the core of a home chest workout while you can also develop many other variations on this movement. Push-ups have great versatility, such as easy to adjust the range of motion and some simple adjustments can be made by the position of the hands and feet to help us be able to more effectively shift the point of force to the pectoral muscles or other target muscle groups.
You may say it's just push-ups and simple self weight training won't give you a strength boost. But according to research, both push-ups and bench presses are similar in terms of muscle activation and overall muscle growth. This doesn't mean that push-ups are all you need for your chest training, but it does mean that they should definitely take up a portion of your training program.
Dip
The dip was a staple in the training programs of the Golden Age bodybuilding gentlemen of the time, and there's an important reason for that. Because there is no movement that stretches the chest as fully and stretches it as fully as this self-repelling movement. If you're really strong, you can add extra weight with dip, or if you have trouble doing the self weight movement, you can use an elastic band or machine for assistance.
All types of dip great for the chest, but on chest training days, this movement can drain your chest dry. Cross your feet behind you, lean your body forward as far as possible, and keep your elbows extended outward as you squat.
Chest Fly
Are you looking for a way to isolate your pecs for training? Now is the time to fly. You can't compare to cables when it comes to the angular variations of the fly. They allow you to keep your pecs under constant tension throughout the entire range of motion trajectory, which is why it would be your no-brainer choice in a pec training program.
Cable crossovers are the preferred choice for most lifters, and there are certainly good reasons to go for this movement, but also consider trying a lying version using dumbbells on a bench inclined at 30°. They are more stable and less risky than standing presses, allowing you to further drain your pecs.
Dumbbell Pull-Over
Pull-over have been a favorite torso exercise for bodybuilders for decades. This training movement dates back to the 1940s and even earlier, when weightlifters alternated 20 reps of deep squats in training designed to expand the volume of the chest cavity. The principles of this method may not hold true today, but the movement is still worthy of being included in chest training today.
Rest your upper back on a flat bench and bridge upward, which will put your chest fibers in a stretched state with a longer range of motion. Keep your elbows at a fixed comfortable angle, the more you bend and flex your elbows, the more this is a triceps movement and the less your pecs will be engaged.
Machine Fly
For most weightlifters, machine pec training (aka chest training) is an irreplaceable workout that is more effective and harder to do than dumbbell training. If your gym has one of these machines, you should be thankful that you can get a strong pump in your pec training without needing other muscle groups to compensate or putting your shoulders at risk of receiving an injury.
But does it work in real training? EMG data shows that the activation of the pectoralis major in this movement is somewhat similar to that of the bench press, which suggests that even though the trajectory of your movement is on a different track, both are an integral part of chest training. But what is the biggest difference between these two movements? For machine pectoral training, you don't need a spotter and can more safely increase the intensity of your pec training to true muscle failure.
What Are the Best Mass Chest Exercise Programs?
The best chest-building workout program features a workout plan that is just on time and you will look forward to working out throughout the week. Lift dumbbells or barbells to get your muscles pumping and give your chest all the tears and nutrients it needs to get bigger. If there is still time after the pecs, then you can do the same workout on your triceps for synergistic development. Get Fit With RitKeep Fitness.