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5 Home Exercises for Your Chest.. Best Bodyweight Exercises to Pump up Pecs





 
5 Home Exercises for Your Chest: Best Bodyweight Exercises to Pump up Pecs

This effective chest builder can be done anywhere, any time – and it works your shoulders, triceps and abs too. And there are a number of great variations that mean you’ll never run out of simple moves that sculpt impressive pecs.

The push-up is often overlooked and considered unworthy of inclusion in many men’s training programmes. That’s a big mistake. Because when it comes to building a bigger and stronger chest, few moves are better than the classic bodyweight exercise that’s still used to separate the army men from the army boys.

Here, we quickly run through the benefits of seven variations so you can build a bigger and stronger upper body.



Push-Up:


Push-Up gif


The classic push-up is a great exercise for improving muscular endurance in your pecs, front shoulders and triceps, as well as a fantastic way to work these muscles to full failure to encourage muscle size growth. This will work all those muscle fibres in your chest that don’t get worked by your heavy bench presses so you’ll build more muscle size, strength and endurance.


How to:

● Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
● Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
● Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
● Don’t let your hips sag or rise during the set: if they sag, it puts pressure on your back; if they rise, it takes the tension off your chest.
● Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
● Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
 

Diamond Push-Up:

Diamond Push-Up gif


Want bigger arms? The diamond push-up is the move for you because this variation places far greater emphasis on your triceps than your chest to pack on the size on your upper arms.


How to:

● Start in the push-up position but with your hands together so that your thumbs and index fingers form a diamond.
● Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
● Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor. Make sure your elbows point back, rather than out to the sides, during the lowering phase of a rep to avoid over-stressing the joint.
● Pause briefly at the bottom.
● Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
 

Wide-Arm Push-Up:

Wide-Arm Push-Up gif


Placing your hands wider apart increases the focus on your chest and lessens the involvement of the triceps and shoulders. It’s important to perform the move safely by lowering your torso to the ground slowly and under full control – doing so will both reduce the risk of injury and increase the effectiveness of the move.

 
How to:

● Start in the push-up position but with your hands about double shoulder-width apart.
● Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
● Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
● Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
● Press back up powerfully to return to the start.
 

Side To Side Push-Up:

Side to side PUSH-UPS gif


This variation is a great way of increasing the difficulty of the basic move to make the muscles of your chest, shoulders and triceps work hard to support, manage and move your body weight up and down and from left to right, while your core muscles need to be fully engaged to keep your torso level for the duration of each rep.

 
How to:

● Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
● Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
● Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
● As you lower, move your torso left so your head is in front of your left hand.
● Keeping your chest as close to the floor as possible, move your torso across so your head is in front of your right hand.
● Press back up powerfully to return to the start, moving your torso back to the middle as you do.
 

Spider-Man Push-Up:

Spider-Man Push-Up gif


This heroic variation is a move that’s not just about the chest, shoulders and triceps. Your upper and lower abs need to be fully engaged to draw one knee up to your elbow then back down again, and you’ll activate the deep stabilising muscles of your core to keep your whole body stable throughout each rep.

 How to:

● Start with your hands underneath your shoulders and toes on the floor.
● Brace your core and raise your hips so your body forms a straight line from head to heels.
● Keeping your weight on your arms, bend your elbows to lower your chest towards the floor.
● As you lower, draw one knee up towards your elbow.
● Pause briefly at the bottom, with your chest as close to the floor as possible without touching it.
● Press back up powerfully to return to the start, straightening your leg as you do, then repeat with your other knee and alternate with each rep.



Dips With Two Chairs


2 chair workout gif


Muscles Worked

● Primary – Triceps
● Secondary – Shoulders, Chest

Performing Tricep Dips With Two Chairs

● Mount the two chairs carefully, with your arms fully extended and nearly locked out. Your legs will be slightly bent at the knees. Make sure the chairs are fully solid and can carry your weight AND hold their position.
● Slowly lower your body down until your arms are bent at a 90 deg angle. Keep your back straight on the way down.
● Push your body up to return to the start position.