2 “Must-Do” Exercises For A Massive Chest (Based On Science)

Chest is one of the most enjoyable muscle groups to train. Yet, it seems to be a muscle group that many people struggle with developing. This then often leads them to throw every single possible chest exercise at it in hopes that it’ll grow. But, the truth is, this haphazard selection of exercises for chest often does more harm than good. Today I’ll show you how you can get the most bang for your buck when it comes to how to build a bigger chest by instead just focusing on 2 simple yet very effective chest exercises geared for mass (incline dumbbell press and cable/banded movement) – that when paired together, can make a big difference in your chest development.

The first exercise is the low incline dumbbell press. Pressing movements for the chest are necessary because it enables us to apply a high amount of tension to our chest overtime since can both lift heavier loads with it and easily progress it over time with more weight. But dumbbell presses have advantages over barbell presses since it allows us to achieve a greater range of motion on our chest fibres, while also giving us the freedom to tweak our form to better suit with our individual chest fibres and with what just feels most comfortable on our joints.

Now, a low incline press is one of the best chest exercises geared for mass for a of couple reasons. The first reason is that we want to ensure that we’re adequately training each portion of our chest. That’s because with a low incline up to just 15 degrees, you get a significant boost in upper chest activation but with less of an increase in front delts involvement and with less of a drop in activation from the middle and lower portions of your chest. And I’d even argue that when you then apply a slight arch in the upper back and tuck the elbows in slightly as you perform this movement, you’ll now be aligning the resistance with even more of your chest fibres and experience even greater activation of your whole chest. The second reason why this chest exercise is beneficial is comfort. By adding a slight incline, your shoulders will now be placed in a slightly externally rotated position which for many is a much more comfortable pressing position for the shoulder to be in.

The next exercise is going to be any sort of cable or banded movement, like a seated cable fly or, if you don’t have access to cables, then banded push-ups or banded flyes. During a dumbbell press, our chest experiences the greatest amount of resistance at the bottom, stretched position. But as you press the weight up the resistance progressively decreases until you reach the top position, where the chest now receives very little stimulation. And what we know about muscle growth is that exercises with different strength curves will likely produce different amounts of muscle growth in each region of our muscle. Which implies that if we stuck only with the dumbbell press or added in other exercises for the chest that have a similar strength curve like the dumbbell fly, then we’d be failing to adequately train and stimulate our chest in the locked out position.

The cable fly accommodates for this by providing adequate tension on the chest throughout the whole range of motion, especially during the fully contracted position. You can also play around with the angles of this chest exercise to emphasize the upper, mid, or lower portions of your chest as well. Similarly, if you don’t have cables, the banded push-up or banded fly is a suitable alternative since the resistance applied to your chest will be lowest at the bottom position but then progressively increase as you lockout and reach the chest’s fully contracted position.

Now, what you choose to do with these two exercises is totally up to you. I would definitely recommend plopping them somewhere into your current chest routine as you see fit. And if you’re currently doing a ton of different exercises and volume for your chest yet not making any progress, then shifting more of that volume and effort to these two movements instead, while focusing on performing them with proper form and progressing them overtime, will do wonders for your chest development.

When it comes to how to build a bigger chest, often times, more is not better. For a step-by-step program that uses science to show you exactly how to train AND how to fuel your body week after week so that you can build muscle and lean down as efficiently as possible, then simply take the analysis quiz to discover which science-based program would be best for you and where your body is currently at below:

TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 - Overview
0:29 - Exercise 1
1:03 - Exercise 1 Reasoning
3:23 - Exercise 2
3:37 - Exercise 2 Reasoning
4:51 - Exercise 2 Alternative
5:15 - Application

[JeremyEthier]

What's your favourite chest exercise? Comment below! Let me know what other muscle groups you'd like me to dive into as well in a similar fashion as I did here!

[MixMeister]

This everyone is what an educated natty looks like, thanks Jer! Keep up the quality content and keep it real brother.

[theflyingninja]

Jeremy keeping it old school and not getting involved in YouTube fitness drama at all.

[seungbinjeong]

I like how working-out can be scientific like this, rather than "Hey bros! I did this for the last 2 months and it was really good. You should try too!"

[FabFurqan]

Jeremy + Jeff = These two guys have taught me a lot of things 🔥🔥🙏

[akin]

Been doing low incline DB press for years (due to shoulder injuries). Glad you included it in the video. The best chest pressing movement in my opinion, especially for the longevity of the shoulders

[jcool]

0:00 Overview
0:29 Exercise 1
1:03 Exercise 1 Reasoning
3:23 Exercise 2
3:37 Exercise 2 Reasoning
4:51 Exercise 2 Alternative
5:15 Application

[yzerman]

Jeremy, I started following you a month ago when I started intermittent fasting. I have dropped 18lbs in 3.5 weeks and have added muscle. You are awesome...flat out. thank you

[marcelo]

By far the best fitness channel on YouTube!!

[jasperplayz]

my favorite 2 chest exercises are incline db bench press and weighted dips. they both give such a good pump with one targetting the upper chest and one the lower/middle chest.

[jackbrondwin]

I never miss your videos. You do the extra bits like writing below the video the name of the exercise, plus non gym alternatives plus a great description of do's & dont's. Wish you the best for X-mas and holidays.

[spiraljumper]

I'm trying to build a personal fitness program from scratch basically, and as a total beginner, little videos like this that show me how to target very specific muscle groups with simple exercises that I can immediately implement are really helpful.

[danmcmahonfilms]

This is super helpful info man! I have been training hard for several months doing a variety of chest exercises, with a big focus on flat dumbbell presses. Recently I got confident enough to start doing the cable fly and it has helped me gain so much in less time. You can absolutely feel the difference. Time to add the low dumbbell press too!

[youssefshahir]

Continue a playlist of most effective 2 exercises for each muscle

[vonanon]

absolutely love your content! been at this for over a decade, and I still learn things from you. this and several of your videos are so complete and well researched, I'm ditching the fakey drama queen X guy completely and sticking with you and bret

[bluntfitnessandhealth]

Solid content as usual 🔥 Ive gotten some of my best gains from a cable machine. It can be very effective with its full range of motion opportunities. Thanks for the video 💪

[kierand]

Fantastic clarity to each and every video. Keep it up.

[elitetotti]

yes, been training for a few years and chest is the most lagging muscle
it sucks

[stayhappylittlemermaid]

I walk slowly but I never walk backward.

[KevinWakliFitness]

Americans don't know how much we Kenyans love them...America🇺🇲 Kenya 🇰🇪 loves you💯