The chest can be a tricky muscle to exercise.
Similar to the back, we use our arms like levers to activate the muscle group. It’s human nature to engage the arm muscles, like the forearms, triceps, and biceps. Consistency is the best way to help develop that mind-muscle, but we’ll touch on some tips to help optimally target this tricky muscle group.
Even the most experienced lifters will secondarily hit some related muscle groups throughout their chest and back workouts, just due to the nature of the body. We’ll go over the best way to program the chest into a split that works for you.
In this guide, we’ll also discuss the best workouts with recommended sets and reps to achieve your specific goals in the gym, whether that be strength, size, or both!
This ultimate chest workout guide has something for everyone, from veterans in the iron paradise to those just starting out, even if you only have access to dumbbells for your chest workout!
Chest Workouts With Dumbbells
Ultimately, using dumbbells instead of machines and other equipment comes down to personal preference, but there are certainly some major benefits to just using dumbbells for the best chest workout possible. Dumbbells with any movement group, but especially for the chest can provide:
- Flexibility
- Safety
- Chest Activation
- Balanced development
Movements that allow enough flexibility for you to adjust your arm angles in a way that best suits your body are critical for activating the chest. Most exercises with dumbbells do just that. This allows you to position your body and arms in the best possible way to grow your chest. Compare this to a machine, which has almost no flexibility and forces a one-size-fits-all approach onto anyone who uses the machine.
Safety should be the number one priority for all lifters out there. There’s no doubt many people disregard safety completely while lifting, but using more dumbbell workouts can greatly decrease your risk of injury while lifting without inconveniencing you in any way. Dumbbells are safer because you can simply drop them at any time without consequence if set up properly. Compare this to a barbell bench press for example. What happens when you can’t get the barbell up to the top?
This may come as a surprise to many, but the chest is activated more in presses that only involve dumbbells. According to this study, the chest reached peak activation while subjects performed a dumbbell bench press in comparison to a Smith Machine or barbell bench press. This is not to say those movements don’t have their pros, but for strictly isolating the chest, a dumbbell bench press is the best way to efficiently grow the chest.
Another fatal flaw that plagues many lifters is asymmetrical development. What does that mean? Your right arm/leg is stronger than your left, or vice versa. This can easily happen when lifting with a barbell or using machines frequently. Naturally, we all push or pull a little extra with our dominant hand without even realizing it. It is almost impossible to not develop asymmetries lifting this way. Dumbbells combat this perfectly by forcing the lifter to move the exact same amount of weight with each side of the body.
1. DB/Smith Machine Press
Execution
This workout gives you the ultimate flexibility to perform the exercise in a way that suits you best. That said, there are multiple tips when it comes to form that everyone should incorporate while executing this movement.
When most people go to execute any kind of chest press, they immediately grab the barbell or dumbbell and flare their elbows all the way out, almost so they are forming a horizontal line.
This is why barbells can be inferior to movements that allow flexibility, like a dumbbell chest press, where the lifter is free to move their arms at any angle. With a barbell, you have to get your elbows in line with the bar, which is worse for isolating the chest.
The key with any kind of chest press is to flare your elbow out only to a 45-degree angle. This will line the movement up with the fibers that run through the chest better, leading to more efficiency and an increase in muscle growth. The video below demonstrates this perfectly.
One of the drawbacks of the dumbbell version of a chest press vs a barbell is a loss of some of the stability. Each of your elbows is freely holding a very heavy dumbbell. It simply takes effort to keep them balanced and stable in the right position.
To fight this, we can use another tip to increase the stability. The biggest way to increase stability is by driving your feet into the ground. This seems odd, and you would never do it naturally, but driving your feet into the ground locks you into position using muscles irrelevant to the lift itself, enabling every muscle fiber in the chest to be focused on driving the dumbbells up.
Another common, yet difficult issue to overcome when executing the dumbbell chest press is the activation of the chest, being able to really feel the muscle contracting throughout the movement. This is a skill called mind-muscle connection and simply takes practice to develop.
People often can feel a chest press in their shoulders and triceps, which is not ideal when the goal is to maximize chest growth. Changing your arm angle to 45-degrees will help with this tremendously. On the mental side of things, imagine your arms are just levers for the chest. Focus on moving the weight with your shoulder blades instead of relying strictly on your elbows.
Volume
3 sets x 6-8 reps
2. Machine Chest Fly
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3. Body Weight Dips (Or With Assistance)
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Chest Workouts For Strength
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Workout 3
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Chest Workouts For Size
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FAQ
You can track your spending more easily if you update the apps on your phone to the destination’s currency. That way, it will be easier for you to check how much money you have left so that there are no surprises when it comes time to pay.
If you’re traveling, it’s a good idea to set your phone to the local currency so that all of your transactions are automatically labeled with their correct prices.
Fiddling around with exchange rates all the time is not worth it!