Top 3 Exercises to Grow Your Chest
A lot of us already have a set-in-stone routine for chest day, but mixing up your workout is a solid way to ensure you're hitting your muscles from all angles. Not only does a large chest look impressive, having a strong upper torso is key to completing multiple compound moves in the gym.
Because of this, we've compiled some of our favorite exercises to help you get the lean and strong muscle you work so hard for. These 3 unique moves are some of our favorites for pumping up those pecs and are incredibly effective when paired with solid nutrition and supplementation.
With that - Let's Begin!
Our Top 3 Exercises for Building that Chest.
There a tons of effective moves to build your chest and the surrounding muscle groups, but these are some of our favorites due to how they challenge multiple muscles at once - ensuring a killer workout that will help you pack on that lean muscle.
1. Cross Body Press Hybrid
This is a great exercise to really isolate your Pectoralis Major (outer area of your chest).
Muscles Worked: Pectoralis Major
- To Perform this Move:
- Stand hip width apart and grab the machine with one hand
- Push across your body all the way through
- Pull back into starting position
- and repeat
2. Dumbbell Twist Press
Due to the added twist in this move, this press will bring a more isolated contraction on the chest. However, because of the rotation involved and increase in time under tension, you might have to use less weight than you would for your traditional press.
Muscles Worked: Pectoralis Major, Pectoralis Minor, Serratus Anterior
- To Perform this Move:
- Hold the dumbbells with a neutral grip - your palms facing in. Position the ends of the dumbbells in your hip crease, and sit down on the bench.
- Lay back and keep the weights close to your chest. Once you are in position, take a deep breath, then press the dumbbells to lockout at the top.
- Slowly lower the dumbbells under control as far as comfortable.
- When pressing the dumbbells back to the starting position, rotate the handles throughout the movement so that the bottom of each faces at the top of the repetition.
- Repeat for the desired number of reps.
3. High Incline Dumbbell Press
This version of the dumbbell incline press is beneficial for correcting possible strength imbalances between your arms. With how common it is for for one arm to be stronger than the other, it's key to know a move to help combat that. As a bonus - this move also hits the anterior head of the deltoid muscle of the shoulders!
Muscles Worked: Pectoralis Major, Serratus Anterior
- To Perform this Move:
- Sit on the bench and lean back with a dumbbell in each hand, with hands positioned at your shoulders, elbows bent and angled down below your ribs.
- Press both dumbbells straight up over your chest as you exhale. At the top of the movement, the dumbbells should almost touch each other and your arms perpendicular to the floor.
- Slowly lower the dumbbells back to the top of your chest as you inhale. As you lower the dumbbells, your elbows should come down at roughly a 45-degree angle to your torso.
- Repeat for the desired number of reps.