More Chest Exercises

Dumbbell Flyes - Flyes are done on the bench, with the arms spread outward from your body and the dumbbells brought together at arms length above your chest. As in the barbell press, you raise your arms quickly and then lower them slowly and controlled. This is one exercise in which if you lower the dumbbells too quickly and the weight is too great, you can easily cause yourself injury. It is good to have a spotter for most of these exercises. As was the case with the barbell bench press, you're going to be exercising your upper chest when doing the flyes on an incline bench, and exercising the middle and lower chest when working on the flat and inclined benches, respectively. One note, when your arms are outstretched to your sides, keep your elbows slightly bent to avoid the possibility of hyper extending your elbows.

A variation that you should consider adding to your repertoire is the Supinating Dumbbell Flyes in which, as you bring the dumbbells towards one another at the top of the movement, you twist your wrists. This is particularly good for the upper chest when on the incline bench.

Dumbbell Presses - The same pattern is given as was the case with the barbell presses and dumbbell flyes, in that the incline, flat, and decline benches are again used. Dumbbell presses would seem to be just a repetition of the barbell press, but if you've worked free weights for awhile, you know that dumbbell presses can be harder to do correctly, as you don't have the steadying influence that the barbell gives you. So the dumbbell presses really require quite a bit of discipline to do correctly, and get the best workout. Again, raise the dumbbells quickly and lower slowly, both at the same time of course.

Push Ups - Again we have three variations to work with, but now it's only the flat bench and the floor we'll be using. To work the upper chest you do what are called Declined Push Ups. You're going to be doing regular push ups with your hands on the floor, but your feet will be lying across the bench. The middle chest is worked on by doing regular push ups on the floor, and to exercise your lower chest muscles, do push ups with your feet on the floor and your hands on the bench (some find an exercise ball easier to work with for this one). When doing any of these, you want to remember to keep your back straight (think "plank") plus you'll get a better set of chest workouts by raising up quickly and lowering slowly. If you don't mind a little extra pain, good-for-you type of pain, lower as slowly as you possible can, at least for a few reps.

With push ups you can experiment some using different widths between your hands, and also different wrist positions. For example, pointing you fingers towards each other instead of both hands pointing outward gives you an entirely different feel. It's best to experiment first with the standard push up, hands and feet both on the floor.

Additional Middle Chest Workouts, Pullovers - Pullovers, using either a barbell or dumbbells while lying on a flat bench, are great exercises for the middle chest muscles. For the barbell pullover, an EZ Curl bar works best. You start with your arms raised above you and elbows slightly bent, and then slowly lower the barbell back over your head as far as you can reach. You can do the same exercise using a single dumbbell (not one in each hand). Again holding the dumbbell above your chest with slightly bent elbows, lower it over the back of your head as far as you can go, and then return to your original position. You definitely want a spotter when doing either of these pullovers, especially with the barbell.

Dips - To add the icing to the cake, finish off your chest workouts with a set of dips. If you're unfamiliar with the term, dips are done using a pair of dip bars which are a pair of horizontal bars, usually about waist high. You grip each bar, bend your knees, cross your lower legs, and slowly lower yourself until your chest is nearly level with the bar. Having done this, raise yourself up and repeat until you can go no longer. This will also give your triceps a good workout, in fact they will likely scream "Uncle" long before your shoulder or chest muscles do. This is one exercise where you are using your own weight, and it's the number of reps you can do that signify improvement.

What's been done here is to present you with a group of chest workouts, arranged in an order which emphasizes the different benefits you receive from the incline, flat, and decline benches. You'll be best off sampling each of these and making your own plan about which exercise you want to do and when. The important thing is that you make use of the three types of benches. Don't be in a hurry to build an awesome chest. That's going to take time no matter what your approach. It's far better to get the techniques down pat, start with lighter weights than you think you need, and work you way up. With free weights that's the best way to go.