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The Best Dumbbell Exercises for Chest

(FOR EVERY WORKOUT)
By Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS

Today I’m going to share my favorite chest exercises… but there’s a catch. We can only use dumbbells! I’ll show you what to do whether you are training for hypertrophy, strength or power. I’ll also give you the best options for metabolic overload, total body and corrective, as well as one exercise that helps us address the lack of adduction that we have when we’re strapped with dumbbells as our only implement.

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Frequently Asked Questions

To workout the lower chest, you need to do exercises that target the abdominal head (sternal area) of the chest. These include the Dip Plus, the Jackhammer Pushdown and the Kneeling X Press.

The best workout for chest will follow the directions of the pectoral muscle fibers to hit upper, mid and lower chest, as well as ensuring to work the chest across midline. This would include exercises like the Barbell Bench Press, Horizontal Cable Crossover, Incline Bench Press, and Weighted Dip.

You can workout chest at home using dumbbell chest exercises like the Eccentric Floor Fly or the Dumbbell Bench Press, or using resistance band chest exercises like the Saw or the Resisted Push Up. You can also do bodyweight chest exercises like Decline, Flat and Incline Pushups.

To workout upper chest, you’ll want to choose chest exercises that bring your arm up and across the body at a diagonal angle, like the Upper Chest Upper Cut, Lean Back Cable Presses and Landmine Rainbows.

To build chest muscles you’ll want to do chest exercises that overload the upper, mid and lower pecs, like the Incline Bench Press the regular Bench Press, and the Weighted Dip.

You should perform 2-4 chest exercises in each chest workout and choose those exercises based upon your goals. Doing more than this may mean your repetitions become less effective as you progress through the exercises.

The best chest day exercises are: 1. Barbell Bench Press 2. Incline Bench Press 3. Weighted Dip 4. Horizontal Cable Crossover 5. Low to High Cable Crossover 6. High to Low Cable Crossover

The best exercises to bulk the chest include the Incline Bench Press for upper chest, the regular Bench Press for mid chest, and the Weighted Dip for lower chest.