First of all when you’re looking to build your chest, you want to make sure that you target your body’s type-one muscle fibers, because they have the most potential to grow.

How do you do that? By diversifying your workout and emphasizing low-reps and heavier-weight in each of your sets. You can also do an explosive, fast movement on the concentric part of the movement. For instance, off the bottom of the pushup you can push hard and fast so that your hands come off the floor and you clap your hands together, then return to the down position slowly for a 2 or 3 count, then repeat.

Some people will disagree with me on this one, but it works for me. The Best Chest Exercise is the WEIGHTED DIP… hands down! Why? It’s very simple, doing dips (and pushups) is the only chest exercise in which you move your body through space, instead of moving the weight through space. .

This is a critical concept to understand, because, moving your body through space (instead of moving iron through space) is more taxing to your central nervous system, which amplifies your brain-to-muscle connections and this causes you to recruit more muscle in every exercise.

Dips work a lot of triceps and shoulders along with the chest. To hang a weight on you you’ll need a dipping belt or a strap or jump rope and you’ll need to be able to perform bodyweight dips. Start out light and do full range movements, keep them smooth and controlled. You can pick up your knees and lean your body forward to emphasize the chest even more.

Next up is the PUSH-UP, yes, that exercise that you’ve done or seen done all your life, but in reality it’s one of the few chest exercises that really demands a lot of strength and agility, because you must execute this with perfect form to get the most out of it. And it works out your abs and back (that’s where you first begin to sag and lose form).

Also, there are so many variants of the PUSHUP that are even more explosive. One of those is the MEDICINE-BALL ARCHBISHOP PUSH-UP; a long name, but this exercise works.

What you do is put 3 to 5 medicine balls in a semicircle, then get in the push-up position and put both hands on the ball to the far right; your chest should be over the ball and your feet must stay anchored throughout this exercise.

Now, move your left hand to the ball at the left and do a push-up, then bring your right hand to that ball. You want to continue moving left, doing push ups until you get to the last ball on the left. Then work your way back across the balls. That’s one rep.

The reason why you want to use the medicine ball is, when you put your hands on a ball, the inherent instability forces your core to work 20% harder than when you do a regular push-up, so this exercise trains your abs and hips to remain stable longer.

Try doing supersets of weighted push-ups with lying cable flies. Have your training partner place a weight on your back for the push-ups. When you do the flies, try holding the peak contraction for 3 seconds, and then do a 5 second eccentric contraction or lowering phase.

Keep your form strict and clean to both prevent injury and to keep from cheating. But, It is acceptable to cheat and heave ho on the last couple of reps.

You can also use resistance bands to do weighted pushups or dips. They don’t require a partner, travel easily and won’t ding the floor. For pushups, just put the band behind your back. you can put it on your lower back to work your core more or up around your shoulder blades. Now put your hands into the band loop and pin it to the floor and go to town. If it’s to loose at the bottom of the stroke, just put a loose overhand knot in the center of the band and you’re set.

For dips, drape the band around the back of your neck so it comes down the front of your shoulders and then place your hands in the band and grab on to the dip bar and have a field day.

You can also use the bands to assist in these movements if you don’t have the strength to move your bodyweight yet.

We only put the bench press last on this list because it is the first you normally think of and we wanted to give you some other ideas. And it is not as functional as the others because you are not moving your body through space. Keep variety in your workouts to keep your body growing and to keep from getting board.

However, you can forge a chiseled chest by doing the INCLINE BENCH PRESS with dumbbells as well, instead of the traditional flat bench.

How to build the chest muscles

One of the many questions I get asked on my travels is “Can you tell me how to build the chest”?. There is no greater sign of power than a huge chest and the good news is that the chest muscles are one of the easiest muscles to build. In order to build the chest muscles to the maximum you need to incorporate a system of dumbbell chest building exercises and the flat bench. So here are two of the best chest exercises to help you build the chest you desire.

  How to build the chest:-   Exercise 1       Dumbbell Incline Press

      Lay on an incline bench, the angle of which should be around 30 degrees and no greater or else the workload is shifted to the shoulders and off the chest. Select a pair of moderately heavy dumbbells. Start with the dumbbells at arm length above the chest then lower slowly in a controlled fashion to a position as low as possible (below the chest) to give that full stretch. Then press the dumbbells back above your chest but do not lock out your arms. Repeat for 8 to 10 reps and 5 sets increasing the weight each tine.

 How to build the chest:-  Exercise 2       Pre exhaust Fly’s and Flat Bench  

This is the combination of exercises that will build you a solid striated chest, do these regularly and you will be astounded by the results. The exercises are very taxing. You will need a flat bench, dumbbells and a barbell.

 Start with a pair dumbbells that will enable you to perform 8 reps with maximum effort. Lay on a bench and hold the dumbbells together pressed above your chest. Now lower the dumbbells in an arc as low as possible (below chest level) then press back in the same arc to the starting position, repeat for 8 reps. When the last repetition is finished drop the dumbbells then without rest, press the barbell off the support to full arm extension above your chest. While breathing in lower the barbell to your chest hold for a second, then press back to the starting position breathing out as you do so. Repeat at least 8 times. The composition of these 2 exercises constitutes 1 set, 3 sets need to be performed.  

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