When performed regularly, the simple push-up and its variations will help you build bigger pecs, triceps, and shoulders, improve your relative strength, and it can even transfer over to boosting your bench and overhead press numbers.

Here are 10 push-up variations to try if you’re ready to give bodyweight training a fair shake. You will never look at push-ups the same way again.

Best Push-Up Variations

• Chaos Push-Up
• Decline Push-Up
• Incline Plyo Push-Up
• Clapping Push-Up
• Spiderman Push-Up
• Slider Push-Up
• Suspension Strap Single-Arm Push-Up
• Band-Resisted Push-Up
• Archer Push-Up
• Yoga Push-Up

Chaos Push-Up

This challenging variation takes the standard bodyweight push-up up a notch by using a resistance band in a quite unusual way. By performing a push-up with your hands on the band instead of the floor, the highly unstable element fires up all of your shoulder and core stabilizer muscles.

The band gives you instant feedback when using anything less than perfect form. You’re forced to move at a slower speed to maintain control, and the increased time under tension does wonders for adding muscle.

When to Use it

When regular push-ups are easy and you’ve advanced to doing push-ups for seemingly endless reps, the chaos push-up will snap you out of this funk. The increased time under tension makes it great for adding muscle and it’s a great alternative exercise for dumbbell bench presses. The instability of the chaos push-up is excellent for additional rotator cuff strength if you’re coming back from a shoulder injury.

How to Do it

Loop a heavy-duty resistance band around safety pins on the squat rack, at roughly waist height. Light to moderate bands may not be able to support your body weight. The higher the band is placed and the higher your body angle, the easier the exercise will be.

Place your hands on the band in a shoulder-width grip and hold tight with stiff arms. Bring your legs behind you and allow the band to support your weight, while engaging your glutes and core. Bend your arms and slowly lower yourself into a push-up. Press yourself up, pause briefly at the top to reset and stabilize before repeating.

Decline Push-Up

The decline push-up is one of the most common variations of the classic push-up. It’s fantastic for adding muscle because it’s relatively low stress on the joints, requires minimal equipment to perform, and can be trained for very high reps which benefits size and strength.

This movement shifts the focus to the upper chest and anterior deltoid, similar to an incline bench press, for better overall muscle development of the chest and shoulders.

When to Use it

Your chest is a relatively large muscle with multiple sections, or heads, so it pays to train with your arms at a variety of angles relative to your torso. (1) Perform the decline push-up in any workout in place of your standard push-up, particularly if your workout lacks angled chest exercises or if your shoulders are bothering you from other pressing exercises.

How to Do it

Place your toes on a box, step, or flat bench and position your hands underneath your shoulders. Engage your core to keep your spine neutral, neither sagging nor excessively arched. Lower yourself into a push-up until your chest is just above the floor and your elbows are angled roughly 45-degrees from your sides. Pause briefly at the bottom and push back to the starting position. Reset your body position at lockout and repeat.

Incline Plyo Push-Up

The incline plyo push-up allows you to generate upper body power with less compressive stress on the joints than similar free weight movements.

The incline plyo push-up is an excellent regression (less challenging variation) from the clapping push-up because you press less of your body weight due to the inclined position. This can allow you to squeak a few more reps and apply more explosive force.

When to Use it

Use sets of six to 10 reps with this powerful variation as a “primer” at the start of a heavy bench press workout to recruit more muscle and ignite your CNS. (2) If you’re having difficulty with plyo push-ups from the floor, this is a good way to introduce explosive movements while building strength, speed, and power.

How to Do it

Place your hands on a stable platform like a secured bench or box, a set of steps, or a Smith machine bar. Keep your arms straight as you lean forward and position your feet back, keeping a straight line through your body. Bend your arms and lower yourself rapidly toward the bench before explosively pushing yourself up and allowing your hands to leave the bench.

As you land, slightly bend your elbows and “catch” yourself on the way down to better absorb the force. Descend smoothly into the next repetition.

Clapping Push-Up

The clapping push-up is performed with maximum force. On each repetition, your hands will leave the ground and you will quickly clap them together to display power, coordination, and control.

Power exercises like the clapping push-up train the fast-twitch muscle fibers of the body, which are capable of more growth than slow-twitch fibers. (3) This exercise is a progression of the incline plyo push-up and should only be performed when you’ve mastered the incline movement.

When to Use It

As the first exercise of the workout, before heavy lifting, perform sets of six to eight reps. This will build explosive strength and help to improve your performance with other pressing exercises following in the workout, such as the overhead press and bench press.

How to Do it

Lie on the floor in a good push-up position with your hands under your shoulders, your legs straight, and your spine neutral. Bend your arms and lower yourself into a push-up position with your elbows at a roughly 45-degree angle. Before your chest touches the floor, press explosively and let your hands leave the floor. Quickly clap your hands together and get them back to the floor to catch yourself. Reset your body before the next repetition or, if you’re advanced, immediately transition into the next rep.

Spiderman Push-Up

The Spiderman push-up is an advanced variation that requires your upper body and lower body to work together with coordination, strength, and stability.

This push-up variation will increase your chest’s time under tension at the peak of your push-up contraction, which will challenge your strength and improve the hypertrophy stimulus. It also tests and challenges your core stability and hip mobility, making it an excellent “bang for the buck” movement.

When to Use It

The Spiderman push-up is excellent to insert into a conditioning workout or fat loss circuit because it trains many muscles with one movement and improves your upper body, core, and hip flexor strength. Make sure to do equal reps on both legs.

How to Do it

Assume your regular push-up position on the ground with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Lower your chest toward the ground while simultaneously pulling your right knee toward your right forearm. Don’t allow your torso to rotate excessively to accommodate your rising leg

Pause briefly in the bottom while your chest hovers near the ground before reversing the process and bringing your foot back to the starting position while pushing yourself back up. Repeat the next repetition with the left leg. Alternate legs with each repetition. To cue the overall movement, imagine you’re a web-slinging superhero climbing the outside of a building.

Slider Push-Up

For the slider push-up, you’re using a simple slider device to reach one arm forward as you perform a traditional bent-arm push-up with the opposite arm. This variation recruits more of the serratus anterior (outer chest muscle which controls the shoulder blades), while also increasing muscular tension on your chest and triceps.

If you have shoulder mobility issues, stay within a range of motion you can control by limiting how far you reach forward. The slider push-up challenges your shoulder stabilization and may improve shoulder health over time.

When to Use It

The slider push-up is a great exercise to eventually build up to a one-arm push-up because most of the work is done by one arm while the other is providing support. For maximum focus and strength, perform this exercise near the beginning of any workout, before fatiguing your chest and triceps with other exercises.

How to Do it

Kneel on the ground and put an exercise slider or furniture slider under each hand. Rotate your shoulders to put your wrists, elbows, and shoulders in a stacked position. Straighten your legs and stabilize your entire body in a front plank position. Engage your glutes and keep a tight core.

Lower into a push-up by bending one arm while keeping the opposite arm straight as it extends forward. After reaching the lowest comfortable position, pull the forward hand back while pressing the bent arm to lockout. Alternate sides with each repetition.

Suspension Strap Single-Arm Push-Up

This variation uses suspension straps, like gymnastic rings or TRX cables, to adjust your body angle which changes the intensity of the push-up. The straps also add an element of instability, which means you’re training core strength as well as upper body and lower body stabilizers.(4)

This exercise will help strengthen imbalances between sides and give you instant feedback if there is anything amiss with your pressing technique since it requires total focus and control.

When to Use It

Unilateral (single-arm) presses are great for strengthening imbalances between sides, since most people naturally have one slightly more developed or slightly stronger arm. If you find one arm lagging behind the other during the bench press or overhead press, this is an effective way to target each side on its own.

How to Do it

Loop the handles together and grip the strap over your shoulder with one hand. Adjust your intensity by moving your feet closer to the anchor point (harder) or further away (easier). Slowly lower yourself while keeping your shoulders square to the floor. Don’t rotate or shift to favor either side. While learning the movement, control the range of motion and don’t let your elbow go too far past your torso. Press back, reset, and repeat. Perform all reps on one side before switching.

Band-Resisted Push-Up

Bodyweight push-ups will never truly go out of style, and sometimes you just want to add resistance to this classic exercise. Putting weight plates on your back is okay, but it can get awkward to keep them in place as you move. This is where a looped resistance band comes in.

The band’s ascending resistance will make the exercise more difficult toward the top of the push-up, which maximizes your muscles’ peak contraction.

When to Use It

The band provides the majority of resistance in the upper end of the range of motion, which will help build triceps lockout strength and muscle gains for your chest and triceps. Do this when you want to add variety to your training, build some chest muscle, and put some pep back into your bench press without joint stress from a barbell.

How to Do it

Loop a resistance band around your upper back and put the ends of the band snugly under your hands. Place your hands underneath your shoulders and rise onto your toes in a front plank position. Keep a straight line through your core and squeeze your glutes. Slowly lower yourself down until your chest is nearly touching the floor. Think about driving your hands through the floor as you press back up and fight resistance to the starting position.

Archer Push-Up

This exercise has you performing a push-up with primarily one arm while the other arm provides support, similar to a slider push-up. The wide grip and long range of motion make this one of the more advanced push-up variations.

By alternating side to side, you allow each arm to do its own share of the work. This unique training angle also works the chest differently from most exercises, which can stimulate more muscle growth.

When to Use It

If your goal is to be able to do one-arm push-ups, archer push-ups can play a big role in getting you there. It can be used as a “gateway” movement to build the pressing strength and total-body stability needed to achieve a clean one-arm push-up.

How to Do it

Get on the ground with your toes planted and your hands set well-beyond shoulder-width. Your wrists and elbows may be more comfortable when your fingers point “out” toward the side walls instead of forward. Maintain a stiff body position through your core.

“Pull” your right chest down toward your right hand by bending your right elbow. Keep your left arm straight as your body approaches the ground. Press through your bent arm to return to the starting position and repeat to the opposite side. Alternate sides with each repetition, and perform an even amount of work on each side.

Yoga Push-Up

This unique exercise is one part push-up and one part “downward dog” yoga pose. It trains strength, mobility, and flexibility in your pressing muscles, core, upper back, lower back, hips, and lower body.

Your pecs and triceps get significant time under tension and a change of pressing angle similar to a decline push-up. The “downward dog”-like position helps to improve strength and mobility in the thoracic spine (upper back), hips, and hamstrings.

When to Use It

The yoga push-up is ideal when you’ve finally decided to perform some of the mobility work that often gets forgotten. It works well as a time-efficient warm-up before any workout, especially sessions that will involve chest pressing or shoulder training because it addresses the upper and lower back.

How to Do it

Start in a regular push-up position, on your toes and hands, with your body straight from head to heel. Descend into a standard push-up with your elbows roughly 45-degrees away from your torso. When your chest is slightly above the floor, press up while pushing your hips back at an upward angle. You should feel a stretch in your hamstrings as your torso and legs form an upside down “V” shape.

Keep your shoulders relaxed and pushed away from your ears. Reverse the entire movement to transition back into the starting push-up position and repeat for reps.

Muscles Worked by the Push-Up

Most push-up movements primarily work the chest, with support from the shoulders and triceps, while the abdominals and lower back work to keep a strong core.

However, specific variations can emphasize the upper chest, focus more on core strength, or build shoulder and upper back mobility.

Pectorals

Your chest muscles are front and center with the push-up. Your pecs are largely responsible for arm adduction (bringing your arms closer to your centerline) which occurs when you push your body away from the floor.

Triceps

Once your elbows break 90-degrees as you press upwards, your triceps take over significantly to extend your elbows and lockout your arms. Performing any push-up with a relatively close-grip (your hands closer than shoulder-width) will also increase triceps activation. (5)

Anterior Deltoids

The shoulder muscle has three individual heads, each responsible for moving your arm in a different plane relative to your body. The anterior deltoid on the front of the shoulder works to “raise” your upper arm in front of your body. It assists your chest and triceps when pushing your body away from the ground.

Core

If your spine doesn’t stay neutral during the push-up, it all counts for naught because you’ll compromise joint health, safety, and efficiency. The anterior and posterior core — your abs and lower back — keep your torso rigid so your chest and triceps can apply maximum force. Single-arm movements like the slider push-up and single-leg movements like the Spiderman push-up require more core activation to counterbalance a reduced base of support.

Push-Up Form Tips

The most common technique flaw in the push-up is a loss of core stability. This results in an ugly-looking push-up which strains the lower back and increases the risk of injury. Your best bet is to engage your abs and glutes, and stop the movement if you find yourself losing spinal position.

Although there is nothing necessarily wrong with having your hands wider than shoulder-width apart when performing the basic push-up, be sure to keep your elbows angled near 45-degrees from your torso for most push-up movements. When your hands are placed wide, it’s more work on the shoulders (and shoulder joints) and less involvement from the chest and triceps.

The cardinal sin of almost all push-ups is reaching your head down to meet the floor. This is high risk on your cervical spine and neck, and it short-changes the effective range of motion for your target muscles. You can prevent this error by tucking your chin to your chest, pulling your head back to make a “double-chin”, and staring directly at the floor.

Push Yourself with New Exercises

Too many lifters write off the push-up as being “an easy exercise.” They underestimate its value because of the general lack of load and apparent simplicity of the movement. But as any of these variations showcase, a few tweaks here and there will take the bodyweight push-up to the next level by adding extra movement, changing the angle of work, or throwing stability requirements to the mix. Tackle some of these exercises and the push-up will never seem so “easy” again.

References

1. Rodríguez-Ridao, D., Antequera-Vique, J. A., Martín-Fuentes, I., & Muyor, J. M. (2020). Effect of Five Bench Inclinations on the Electromyographic Activity of the Pectoralis Major, Anterior Deltoid, and Triceps Brachii during the Bench Press Exercise. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(19), 7339. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17197339
2. Sale D. G. (1988). Neural adaptation to resistance training. Medicine and science in sports and exercise, 20(5 Suppl), S135–S145. https://doi.org/10.1249/00005768-198810001-00009
3. D’Antona, G., Lanfranconi, F., Pellegrino, M. A., Brocca, L., Adami, R., Rossi, R., Moro, G., Miotti, D., Canepari, M., & Bottinelli, R. (2006). Skeletal muscle hypertrophy and structure and function of skeletal muscle fibres in male body builders. The Journal of physiology, 570(Pt 3), 611–627. https://doi.org/10.1113/jphysiol.2005.101642
4. Borreani, S., Calatayud, J., Colado, J. C., Moya-Nájera, D., Triplett, N. T., & Martin, F. (2015). Muscle activation during push-ups performed under stable and unstable conditions. Journal of exercise science and fitness, 13(2), 94–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesf.2015.07.002
5. Kim, Y. S., Kim, D. Y., & Ha, M. S. (2016). Effect of the push-up exercise at different palmar width on muscle activities. Journal of physical therapy science, 28(2), 446–449. https://doi.org/10.1589/jpts.28.446

Featured Image: Iryna Inshyna / Shutterstock

The post 10 Push-Up Variations for More Muscle and Strength appeared first on Breaking Muscle.

Exercise choice can dramatically influence overall results, especially when it comes to training the chest. Between myths about “targeting” different parts of the chest, training too heavy, or over-stressing shoulder and elbow joints more than pectoral muscles, many lifters are lucky to end up with a well-designed program. However, luck has a way of evaporating when you lean on it too often. Below, we list 12 of the best chest exercises to build your chest program around.

Best Chest Exercises

• Flat Barbell Bench Press
• Guillotine Press
• Barbell Pullover
• Low Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
• Decline Dumbbell Bench Press
• Decline Dumbbell Flye
• Dip
• Sliding Push-Up
• Hand-Release Push-Up
• Cable Crossover
• Smith Machine Incline Press
• Medicine Ball Chest Pass

Flat Barbell Bench Press

If you’re reading a list of the “best chest exercises” and don’t see the classic bench press, your instinct might be to close the page and move on. This founding member of the big three powerlifts is also a time-tested bodybuilding staple.

The versatility of the bench press, which makes it well-suited to building strength as well as muscle size, makes it a key player in many chest-building workouts. Very minor technique adjustments can shift the emphasis towards size or strength, so it’s important to know how and why you’re performing the exercise to get maximum results.

How to Do the Flat Barbell Bench Press

Lie on a bench with your feet flat on the ground. Your glutes and shoulders should never leave the bench during the exercise. Maintain a slight arch in your lower back. For optimal recruitment of the pec (chest) muscles, grab the bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width. A closer grip de-emphasizes the pecs and instead prioritizes the triceps. (1)

With your elbows slightly bent, pinch your shoulder blades together while staying on the bench. Straighten your arms to unrack the barbell and “pull” the weight from over your face to above your upper chest. Lower the bar to mid-chest level while aiming your elbows at an angle between your feet and shoulders. Briefly pause in the bottom position before pressing up. In the locked out position, the bar should be above your upper chest or neck.

Benefits of the Flat Barbell Bench Press

• It trains the chest through a complete range of motion, with assistance from the shoulders and triceps, making it an efficient upper body exercise.
• It’s sport-specific for competitive powerlifters and has carryover to any athletes (especially those in contact sports) who can benefit from upper body pressing power.
• You can load the barbell with a significant amount of weight relative to other chest exercises, making it suitable for very long-term progress.

Guillotine Press

The intimidating-sounding guillotine press (sometimes called a “neck press”) was popularized by bodybuilding coach Vince Gironda in the 1960s. It applies specific technique adjustments to the standard flat barbell bench press to place even more muscular stress on the pecs.

This increased muscular stress means less weight can deliver more results. In fact, the guillotine should not be performed with heavy weight, since it would lead to excessive joint strain. It can be an excellent addition to a chest-building workout, but lifters with pre-existing shoulder issues may have trouble performing the exercise properly.

How to Do the Guillotine Press

Lie on a flat bench with your feet flat on the ground. Keep your glutes and shoulders touching the bench. Flex your abs to flatten your lower back into the bench. Grab the bar with an overhand grip, nearly as wide as possible. Unrack the bar by pressing upwards, and pull the bar to a position above your neck.

As you lower the bar, keep your elbows pointed directly out to each side. This will drastically increase the stretch on the chest muscles. Keep the bar in line with your neck as you lower it as far as possible. Press upwards immediately after reaching maximum stretch.

Benefits of the Guillotine Press

• Targets the chest without the need for relatively excessive weight, reducing wear and tear on the joints.
• Emphasizes the chest while minimizing recruitment of the triceps and shoulders.

Barbell Pullover

The barbell pullover is one of the oldest exercises a lifter can do, with weightlifters in the late-1800s advocating the exercise. It’s also one of the most confusing exercises. Rarely do lifters argue over which muscles are trained by a specific exercise, because there’s almost always a clear-cut answer, but the pullover is constantly at the center of an ongoing “chest exercise or back exercise” debate.

The pullover actually works both the chest and lats (back muscle) at the same time, but many studies, along with many anecdotal reports from lifters over the decades, support the pullover as a very effective chest exercise. (2)(3) If your lats “take over” during the exercise and you cannot feel your pecs working, perform the exercise at the end of your chest workout when the pecs are pre-fatigued. (4)

How to Do the Barbell Pullover

Hold a small barbell with an overhand grip slightly closer than shoulder-width. Sit on a bench and rest the bar across your legs. As you lie flat onto the bench, “kick” the weight into a position over your face and straighten your arms. Plant your feet securely on the ground.

Keep your glutes on the bench. Lower the weight towards your head, descending nearly in line with the bench if your shoulder mobility allows. Pause very briefly in the stretched position before pulling back to the starting position. Maintain a slightly bent elbow position during each rep and do not actively bend at the elbows to lower the weight.

Benefits of the Barbell Pullover

• Targets the chest, lats, and shoulder muscles.
• Emphasizes the chest with limited triceps recruitment.
• The pullover is an effective stretch for the lats, as well as the shoulders, and can improve shoulder mobility over time.

Low Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Chest training often incorporates a variety of angles to optimally address both the “upper chest” (clavicular head of the pecs) and the “mid or lower chest” (sternocostal head of the pecs). These different parts of the chest muscle will be more thoroughly addressed in a later section.

Inclined chest exercises will target the upper pecs. However, a relatively low angle is ideal because an excessively inclined angle (more vertical than horizontal) will reduce chest activation and increase shoulder activation. (5) Dumbbells allow a deeper stretched position and/or more range of motion at lockout, compared to a barbell.

How to Do the Low Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Set an adjustable bench to a low incline — the second hole on an adjustable bench or place two bumper plates under one end of a flat bench. Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on the bench with the weights resting on your legs. Lie back onto the bench while “kicking” the weights into a straight-arm locked out position above your chest.

Angle your hands slightly towards your feet by rotating your wrists outwards. Neither your palms nor your thumbs should be directly pointed towards each other. Maintain this hand position throughout each rep. Lower the weights under control, reaching a stretched position with the weights near your chest. Press upwards, bringing the weights close together in the top position.

Benefits of the Low Incline Dumbbell Press

• The incline angle optimizes upper chest recruitment without excessive shoulder activation.
• Exercise variety (incorporating angles and different implements) has been shown to improve training results. (6)
• Dumbbells allow more freedom for the wrist, elbow, and shoulder joint compared to a barbell, making the exercise less stressful to the joints.

Decline Dumbbell Press

Decline bench press variations are often believed to emphasize the “lower pecs” due to arm position. However, the “lower pecs” aren’t one separate muscle, they’re only part of the larger pectoral (chest) muscle.

A decline angle has been shown to activate the chest comparably to the flat bench press, while recruiting less shoulder muscle, so decline pressing is an excellent option for lifters with shoulder pain (7) Using dumbbells instead of a barbell also allows a greater range of motion which can translate to a greater muscle-building stimulus.

How to Do the Decline Dumbbell Press

Adjust a flat bench to elevate your hips above your head. Take a pair of dumbbells and sit on the bench with the weights resting on your legs. Lie back onto the bench while “pulling” the weights into a straight-arm locked out position above your chest. Be sure to hook the bench with the back of your knees to prevent your body from sliding downwards.

Angle your hands slightly towards your feet by rotating your wrists outwards. Maintain this diagonal hand position for each rep. Your elbows should maintain a slight angle between your shoulders and feet. Pause briefly in the stretched position before pressing to the starting point. On the last rep of any set, lower the weights into the stretched position and perform a “curl” by bending at the elbows to lower them to the floor before getting up from the bench.

Benefits of the Decline Dumbbell Press

• Dumbbells reduce joint strain by allowing more individualized movement of the wrists, elbows, and shoulders.
• The decline angle trains the chest with limited shoulder stress.

Decline Dumbbell Flye

The dumbbell flye is an effective isolation (single-joint) exercise to activate only the chest muscle with minimized involvement of the shoulders and triceps, compared to compound (multi-joint) bench press variations which recruit all three muscles. This makes it an excellent addition to any workout focused specifically on training the chest.

The decline position takes advantage of gravity in the locked out position for increased muscular tension. On a flat bench, the weights offer limited resistance at the top. With a decline bench, the muscles are more highly activated to support the load.

How to Do the Decline Dumbbell Flye

Set an adjustable bench to a slight decline angle. Take a pair of dumbbells and sit on the bench with the weights resting on your legs. Lie back onto the bench while “pulling” the weights into a straight-arm locked out position above your chest. Be sure to hook the bench with the back of your knees to prevent your body from sliding downwards.

Maintain a slight bend in your elbows throughout the exercise. Begin with your palms facing each other. Lower the weights towards the ground while keeping your hands in line with your elbows. Don’t allow the weights to rotate your arms towards your head. In the bottom position, the weights should be near chest-level. Contract your chest to “pull” your hands back to the starting position.

Benefits of the Decline Dumbbell Flye

• Isolates and emphasizes the chest with limited activation of the shoulders and triceps.
• Decreased shoulder joint strain compared to pressing.

Dip

The dip, along with the pull-up, have both been called “the upper body squat” because of their potential for building size and strength. Makes you think that a program focused on squats, dips, and pull-ups would be great for adding a bunch of muscle and getting really strong, right? Yep, right.

Dips, specifically, are an excellent way to target the chest, shoulders, and triceps using only your bodyweight, making it ideal for lifters with limited equipment. It works the muscle through a long range of motion and has the potential for adding significant weight by using a weighted vest, dip belt, or dumbbell held with the legs.

How to Do the Dip

Begin at the top position on a set of dip bars with your arms locked out. To ensure optimal chest recruitment, lean your upper body forward during the movement. Keeping an upright torso will reduce chest activity and increase focus on the triceps.

Bend your arms to lower your body as far as your shoulder mobility allows. Pause briefly in the stretched position to further increase muscular stress before pressing up to lockout.

Benefits of the Dip

• The bodyweight exercise can be performed with minimal equipment.
• Assesses and builds shoulder mobility during the exercise.
• Bodyweight exercises are often seen as more “functional” than using free weights or machines, contributing to total-body performance and joint health. (8)

Sliding Push-Up

The basic push-up can be an effective introductory exercise for new lifters, but it can be difficult to progressively overload. Rather than adding weight, specific push-up variations can provide an effective training stimulus for continued size and strength.

The sliding push-up is an advanced variation which allows the pec muscles to work through an extremely long range of motion, moving the arms inwards during the exercise rather than remaining static. This inward motion has been shown to significantly increase muscle activation in the chest. (9)

How to Do the Sliding Push-Up

Take a pair of furniture sliders, or towels on a tile or wood floor, and set up in a push-up position with your hands on the sliders and nearly touching each other. Maintain a straight line from your heels to your neck.

Lower your body under control until your chest almost touches the ground while allowing your hands to “slide” outwards. In the bottom position, your arms should be well beyond shoulder-width. While pressing upwards, pull your hands together until they nearly meet in the starting position.

Benefits of the Sliding Push-Up

• Increased chest activation compared to basic push-ups.
• Allows intense training with limited equipment.
• Push-up variations train abdominal and total core stability while also targeting the chest.

Hand-Release Push-Up

The hand-release push-up was popularized by CrossFit as a way to achieve consistent, unquestionable depth during high-repetition push-ups.

The hand-release push-up manipulates the “stretch-shortening cycle,” which is a way muscles are recruited to provide force in response to being in a stretched position. (10) While the hand-release push-up does require a full range of shoulder mobility, it also recruits the chest muscles more significantly than standard push-ups.

How to Do the Hand-Release Push-Up

Begin in a standard push-up position, on your hands and toes with your hands just outside shoulder-width. Maintain a straight line from your heels to your neck. Lower your body until your chest touches the floor.

Briefly lift your hands off the ground and pull your shoulder blades together, allowing your entire upper body to rest on the ground. Immediately replace your hands just outside shoulder-width and press up to lockout.

Benefits of the Hand-Release Push-Up

• Increased chest activation compared to basic push-ups.
• Allows intense training with no equipment.
• Push-up variations train abdominal and total core stability while also targeting the chest.

Cable Crossover

The cable crossover is a time-tested chest exercise, often used by bodybuilders to “carve detail” into the chest muscles. That’s not actually a thing because “detail” is only achieved by lowering body fat to reveal muscular development.

Because the cable provides constant resistance, the muscle is worked completely through the complete range of motion, compared to dumbbell flyes which provide varying intensities due to leverage changing relative to gravity. Basic flat dumbbell flyes become less difficult as the weight moves from horizontal to perpendicular. Cable pulleys bypass that limitation.

How to Do the Cable Crossover

Stand in the center of two high cable pulleys with single-handles attached to each side. Grab the handles and begin with your arms at shoulder level and your palms facing forward. Keep a slight bend in your elbows while pulling your hands to meet at belly button-level.

Pause briefly to maximize the peak contraction before returning your hands to the starting position.

Benefits of the Cable Crossover

• Isolates and emphasizes the chest with little to no activation of the shoulders and triceps.
• The cable pulleys apply constant tension to the chest, increasing the muscle’s total time under tension and leading to increased growth.

Smith Machine Incline Press

The Smith machine has earned a relatively unfair reputation as being ineffective for muscle growth or, worse, dangerous for joint health. That mindset comes primarily from improper exercise form or loading, as well as the machine’s design which uses a fixed path and requires less joint stabilization.

The Smith machine press has been shown to activate the chest to a nearly identical degree compared to the flat barbell bench press while reducing shoulder muscle recruitment. (11) When combined with an incline angle to emphasize the upper chest, the Smith machine incline press becomes an extremely efficient chest exercise.

How to Do the Smith Machine Incline Press

Position an inclined bench under a Smith machine and ensure that the bar is in line with your collarbones. Grab the bar with a wider than shoulder-width grip. Unrack the bar and lower it until you feel a maximum stretch across the chest.

Press up immediately and smoothly. To maintain muscular tension, stop just short of lockout in the top position before beginning the next rep.

Benefits of the Smith Machine Incline Press

• Allows the upper chest to be targeted with decreased shoulder recruitment.
• The Smith machine allows lifters to bench press safely without the need of a spotter.

Medicine Ball Chest Pass

Medicine balls are often used in athletic or conditioning-based workouts, but can serve an important role for building muscle, strength, or power.

The medicine ball chest pass allows an explosive movement which has been shown to increase chest activation as well as boost strength when followed by heavier lifting. (12)(13) This makes it an efficient stimulus for building size and strength.

How to Do the Medicine Ball Chest Pass

Stand several steps away from a sturdy wall, with your feet shoulder-width apart and legs slightly bent. Hold a medicine ball in both hands, with the ball touching your chest. Quickly and forcefully throw the ball forward, not upwards, into the wall.

Carefully watch for the ball’s rebound. Pick up the ball (don’t try to catch it). Take a moment to set up the starting position before repeating. Note: To ensure explosive power, use a light medicine ball. For example, 10-15 pounds could be used by experienced lifters.

Benefits of the Medicine Ball Chest Pass

• Increases chest activation during exercises performed shortly afterwards.
• Develops explosive power which transfers to bench press strength.
• Recruits the legs, core, and upper body with an emphasis on the chest muscles.

The Chest Muscles

The chest has multiple heads, or sections, which can be emphasized by understanding their purpose and choosing specific exercises to target each separate section. Unfortunately, some lifters have misinterpreted the muscle’s design, which has made their chest workouts much more complicated than is necessary.

Pectoralis Major

The pec major is the primary chest muscle. While it’s one specific muscle, it consists of two separate heads — the clavicular head (upper chest) located in the upper quarter of the chest near the collarbone and the sternocostal head making up the entire remaining part of the chest.

There’s no anatomical evidence for a “lower chest,” “inner chest,” or other popular subdivision of the muscle. Only the upper pecs have been shown to be emphasized separately, specifically from exercises performed at an incline, due to the separate attachment point of the clavicular head.

The pecs work to bring the arms in towards the body’s centerline, seen when the arms are extended in a flye or press and brought above the chest, for example.

Pectoralis Minor

The pec minor attaches to the shoulder blade and is heavily recruited to bring the scapulae (shoulder blades) forward, particularly in the lockout position of presses. The pec minor is not visible or often directly targeted, but plays a key role in overall shoulder health.

Serratus Anterior

The serratus is a small series of muscles that sit alongside the ribs. Like the pec minor, they attach to the scapulae and help to control scapular movement. The serratus are also heavily recruited at the end portion of the locked out position.

How Often Should You Train the Chest

While chest training is popular, it shouldn’t be overemphasized relative to other body parts. Excessive chest or shoulder training may exacerbate postural problems unless balanced by comparable back training. (14)

However, for optimal muscle growth, one to three properly programmed workouts each week can be an effective approach for muscle growth. Ideally, the chest should be trained in a workout including the shoulders and triceps, the upper body, or the entire body.

Each training split would require a different approach to total volume (sets and reps), using lower volume for the chest when more body parts are trained in a single workout. For example, you may perform a total of 14 sets for the chest, followed by shoulders and triceps; or you might perform six sets for chest, preceded by back and followed by shoulders, triceps, and biceps (for a complete upper body workout) and repeat that upper body workout several days later.

How to Progress Your Chest Training

Because the chest can be effectively trained with a variety of compound exercises, it’s possible to progress steadily by adding weight to those exercises each week.

Dumbbell pressing exercises, for example, don’t necessarily accommodate adding 10 to 20 pounds per dumbbell each week. Those weights would quickly become dangerously unwieldy and strength levels don’t typically progress that fast. Increasing five to 10 pounds per dumbbell could be maintained for a longer period.

The nature of isolation exercises, being single-joint, doesn’t blend effectively with using heavier weights. To encourage joint safety and to maintain stress on the target muscle, focus on adding a rep (or several reps) on exercises like flyes or cable crossovers.

One reliable approach with chest training is to perform a compound exercise (like a press or dip) for lower reps with a heavy weight followed by moderate to higher reps with moderate weight using a mix of compound and isolation exercises.

How to Warm-Up Your Chest

All chest exercises involve the shoulder joint and, because the shoulders can suffer from significant wear and tear, a thorough warm-up is an essential first step to any chest workout. Take a light resistance band and perform this basic warm-up circuit before any chest training.

• Cat/Camel: Begin on your hands and knees with your arms straight. Look up to the ceiling while sinking the arch of your spine downwards. When you’ve reached as far as your mobility allows, reverse direction by driving into the ground through your straight arms. Look down to the ground while rounding your spine in a deep curve. That’s one full rep. Perform five reps before moving to the next exercise.
• Band Pull-Apart: Take a resistance band with a palms-down grip, holding the band at arms-length in front of your body. Keep a slight bend in your arms while pulling both hands back. Pause when the band touches your chest. Return to the starting position. Perform 10 reps before moving to the next exercise.
• Band Dislocate: Widen your grip on the resistance band to well beyond shoulder-width. Begin with the band at your waist. Keep your arms straight while raising the band above your head, reaching as far back as possible. When your shoulders have reached their full range of motion, return to the starting position. Move at a slow and controlled pace in each direction. Perform five reps before moving to the next exercise.
• Push-Up Plus: Begin in a classic push-up position, on your hands and toes with your hands just outside shoulder-width. Maintain a straight line from your heels to your neck. Lower your body until your chest nearly touches the floor. Press upwards under control. After locking out in the top position, continue pressing with straight arms and allow your shoulder blades to round forwards, before reversing the process to lower your body. Perform five reps before repeating the first exercise. Do a total of three complete circuits.

Building a Complete Chest

Chest workouts don’t need to be overly complicated with a half-dozen exercises “attacking” the muscle from every potential angle. However, efficient chest training also shouldn’t be overly minimalistic with just one exercise to train the entire pec. By sorting through the exercise options you’ve just learned, you can design a complete workout that delivers size and strength without wasting time in the gym and without beating up your body.

References

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2. Marchetti, Paulo & Uchida, Marco C.. (2011). Effects of the Pullover Exercise on the Pectoralis Major and Latissimus Dorsi Muscles as Evaluated by EMG. Journal of applied biomechanics. 27. 380-4. 10.1123/jab.27.4.380.
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