What Are The Best Exercises To Grow Your Chest? top 3 exercises for a bigger chest!
If you want a bigger, more defined, & aesthetic chest…you’re in the right place.
You don’t need to look anywhere else. I’m going to give you the 3 best exercises for strong & aesthetic pecs… AND how many times per week to do them with how many sets & reps you should do them for. (CLICK HERE IF YOU RATHER WATCH ON YOUTUBE WITH VIDEO TUTORIALS)
First, we’ll cover the 2 heads that make up the pec muscle so you can understand which exercises target each head of your chest.
Your pec is made up of 2 heads: The Clavicular & Sternal Head. Or you can refer to them as the upper & mid/lower chest as I am going to do for the remainder of this article b/c that’s what I say in person.
Now that you have a clear picture of the 2 heads let’s dive into it.
EXERCISE #1 - DB Incline Bench Press (15-30 Degree Incline) - Add a band for added resistance!
This is an amazing exercise for chest growth. It’s going to bias the upper pec (clavicular head) of your chest so it’s great for growth & aesthetics.
Why DBs over the BB?
Because with DBs you’re going to get 2 things that you don’t get with the BB bench press:
1 - More range of motion
&
2 - A better contraction of the chest because DBs let you adduct your humerus more.
Let’s hop into how you’re going to do it for best results:
DB Incline Bench Press
Set up a bench on an incline of about 15-30 degrees
Sit down & kick the DB’s up with your thighs
Keep your shoulder blades depressed & retracted or down & back
Then press up while keeping your elbows ~45 degrees from your body
When you press up you should let your shoulder blades protract a little bit for maximum chest contraction
An alternative or harder variation of this exercise is the…
DB Incline Bench Press w/ Band (recommend watching the video for this part, skip to 2:05 in this video, click here)
Set up a bench on an incline of about 15-30 degrees
Wrap the band around your body, the band sits around your shoulder blades on your back, under your shoulder on your arms, & in your palms between your thumb & fingers.
Sit down & kick the DB’s up with your thighs
Keep your shoulder blades depressed & retracted or down & back
Then press up while keeping your elbows ~45 degrees from your body
When you press up you should let your shoulder blades protract a little bit for maximum chest contraction
Frequency: Once per week.
Sets & Reps: 3-5 sets of 3-8 reps.
Rest: 2-3 minutes between each set.
EXERCISE #2 - Chest Flys
These 3 variations are amazing chest isolation exercises for your chest finishers. You can take these very close or to failure for every set. These flys have minimal elbow flexion so this is going to take the triceps out of the movement & isolate the pecs. If you don’t like cable chest flys you can use the pec-dec machine instead. Although, I’d recommend staying away from DB flys because they’re not effective for chest hypertrophy. You lose all tension at the top of the movement when the DBs are directly above your body. With cables or the pec-dec machine, you never lose tension throughout the entire movement.
First up…
High-To-Low (low pec)
Set the cables to head level or higher
Grab the cable handles & take a couple steps forward
While keeping your shoulders down & back bring your arms together
try to keep your elbows at a fixed angle, not locked out, but not bent too much either
When you press up you should let your shoulder blades protract a little bit for maximum chest contraction
Mid Level (mid-pec)
Set the cables to chest/shoulder level
Grab the cable handles & take a couple of steps forward
While keeping your shoulders down & back bring your arms together
try to keep your elbows at a fixed angle, not locked out, but not bent too much either
When you press up you should let your shoulder blades protract a little bit for maximum chest contraction
Low-To-High (or incline bench chest flys) (upper pec)
Set the cables to shin level or lower
Grab the cable handles & take a couple of steps forward
While keeping your shoulders down & back bring your arms together
try to keep your elbows at a fixed angle, not locked out, but not bent too much either
When you press up you should let your shoulder blades protract a little bit for maximum chest contraction
Frequency: 2-3 times per week.
Sets & Reps: 3 sets for 12-20 reps, take all sets to or close to failure.
Rest: 60-90 seconds between each set.
EXERCISE #3 - MAchine chest press or Incline machine chest press (either machine you have access to that lets you adduct your humerus
Right now you’re probably thinking WTF. Where is the barbell bench press? None here. This article/video is the guide for maximum chest hypertrophy & aesthetics, not strength. I’m definitely not saying you can’t do those things by barbell benching but I am saying these movements are more optimal for chest hypertrophy.
Incline Machine Chest Press
Sit Down in the machine with a slight arch in your back
Press the arms of the machine out
When you press up you should let your shoulder blades protract a little bit for maximum chest contraction
Regular Machine Chest Press
Sit Down in the machine with a slight arch in your back
Press the arms of the machine out
When you press up you should let your shoulder blades protract a little bit for maximum chest contraction
Frequency: 1-2 times per week.
Sets & Reps: 3 sets for 8 to 12 reps.
Rest: 2-3 minutes between each set.
What’s Next Week?
I hope this helps you! If you need help please feel free to DM me on Instagram @tedshredss or email me: tedgormanpt@gmail.com. I’d love to give you free tips/advice or help clear up anything we talked about today.
Next week’s article/video Is going to be another one of these types but for a different muscle group.
I’m putting up a story today on Instagram to let you guys decide what muscle group it is.
Go check it out to vote for the muscle group you want a video/article on!
Thank you for reading or watching!
I hope this has helped you and if it has…
Please let me know via email! tedgormanpt@gmail.com
Also, if you have any questions about what we talked about today…
Email me, I’d love to answer your questions and give you some advice 🤝
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Talk soon,
-Ted :)
