The 5 Chest Press Variations For Bigger And Stronger Pecs
If you want to build bigger, stronger pecs, the chest press can help. The
chest press is arguably one of the best upper body exercises around, and
it’s definitely one of the most popular.
However, your muscles soon get used to certain exercises, and if you only
chest press for your pecs, your progress will quickly stall.
Exercise variety is vital for muscle strength and growth (1). If your pec
workouts have hit the wall, inject them with some much-needed variety by
adding any of these ten chest press variations to your training.
Superset 1 – Incline Barbell Press and Incline Dumbbell Fly:
Start your workout with incline exercises paired in a superset. Performing these exercises when you are most energetic and fully rested is extremely beneficial.
Barbell presses go first because you’ll be able to handle more volume. When you complete the presses, take a pair of dumbbells and do the incline flyes.
As you do fewer and fewer repetitions, your weight should increase. Remember to adjust these numbers to keep yourself injury-free because when you train with more intensity like this, you might not always be strong enough to do them combined.
Do three rounds of this superset with 10, 8 and 6 repetitions of each of the two exercises.
Superset 2 – Flat Dumbbell Fly and Flat Dumbbell Press:
After the incline angles, we are now going to do some flat angle pairings. Take a pair of dumbbells and go to the bench. Do the flyes so you can stretch at the bottom and get your pectoral muscles ready for when you do the presses.
When you’ve completed 10 repetitions of the flyes, start doing presses without changing anything. Make sure you contract your chest muscles when you get to the top of the press, but don’t lock out your elbows.
Do two sets like this and for the third one, take them to complete muscle failure. If you do more than 10 reps that is really good, but if you push out more than 15, increase the weight.
When you reach muscle failure with your dumbbell flyes, do as many presses as you can.
Superset 3 – Standing Plate Press and Body Suspension Fly:
This superset is different from all the other supersets for two reasons. You’re going to count time under tension instead of reps, so the length of a set is made up of seconds instead of reps also, you’re going to do this set with non-traditional exercises.
The first of these exercises is the standing plate press, take two very light plates and hold them together. These should be 5’s or 10’s, never anything heavier unless you’re really developed and strong. Stand with these plates squeezed together between your hands and press your hands out straight in front of you.
Make sure to contract your chest muscles as you perform this part of the exercise, then bring the plates back towards your chest. Do this for 30 seconds, you don’t even need to count repetitions! When you’re finished, take some body suspension training bands and do bodyweight flyes with them.
Use a resistance band if you don’t have suspension bands, with some standing flyes for now. You don’t need to count reps with this exercise either, just do it for 30 seconds and your superset is over. Do three supersets of 30 seconds for each exercise.
Superset 4 – Pec Deck and Seated Chest Press:
At this point of your workout, weight and strength aren’t that important to you because the goal is now to keep ripping your muscle fibres. This means that you can now switch to machine exercises, which will help you isolate your muscles and develop them.
You can now use the pec deck since it’s a great exercise for this point in your workout. Concentrate on your chest instead of making sure you bring your hands together. When completed, approach a machine press, if possible one with a seat.
Doing horizontal presses will save your shoulders all the trouble of a vertical press, but make sure that your shoulder blades are squeezed together and your chest is stuck out as far as it will go. Do three supersets of 12 reps for each exercise here and you will see awesome results!
Superset 5 – Cable Crossover and Push-Ups:
This is the last superset. This superset has a really big advantage as well, you can do both exercises in a really small space, preferably at a cable crossover station, the transition from one exercise to the other is barely any effort at all.
Doing cable crossovers will benefit your lower pectoral muscles, and the cables will do this because you will keep the tension on your chest all the way through your set.
This is because the weight on the pin won’t be able to rest on whatever remainder of the stack you’re not lifting. When you’re done with the cable crossovers, get on the floor and do some push ups. Once you become unable to do a single push up in correct form, do some partials or put your knees down and keep going.
Keep pushing yourself as far as you can go and you will see the results soon enough, and they will be the most beneficial results, those that make you grow strength and size.
