How To Get A Bigger Chest (Best Exercises & Workout)

“No pecs, no sex," as they’d say. But many people get their chest training wrong. The quest for a bigger chest revolves more than endless sets of bench presses. Although, the bench press is an excellent chest exercise.

But there’s more nuance to building the chest than benching. This is all broken down below, including the best exercises and workouts for you to follow.

Chest Anatomy

In anatomical terms, the chest is called the pectoral muscle. There is the pectoral major and minor. However, the minor plays little role in building a huge chest, so we will focus on the pectoral major, which consists of two heads:

Clavicular head
Sternal head

The clavicular head is known as the upper chest, while the sternal head is known as the lower chest ^[1].

The clavicular head performs horizontal adduction (chest fly), internal rotation and flexes the shoulder like you’re raising your arm in front of you ^[2]. The sternal head performs horizontal adduction and internal rotation.

You can target the different heads by increasing or decreasing the incline. Increasing the incline angle preferentially activates the clavicular head while reducing sternal head activation. Flat and decline bench press targets the sternal head while reducing clavicular head activation.

6 Tips To Get A Bigger Chest

Use A Full Range Of Motion

That guy who spends his workouts half-repping the bench press has not seen pec growth in years. Why? Tension at long muscle lengths is superior for stimulating muscle growth compared to short muscle lengths ^[3].

Maximizing muscle growth involves maximizing mechanical tension by lifting heavy loads through stretch ^[4]^[5]^[6]. Therefore, touching your chest with the barbell when bench pressing will stretch the pecs under tension.

Vary The Angle

Maximizing chest development requires targeting the two muscle heads. Incline benching will target the upper chest, while flat and decline benching will target the lower chest ^[7]^[8]. It’s why you must have variation in your training.

More than flat bench pressing and push-ups are needed to grow a huge chest.

Don’t Neglect The Bench Press

The bench press has been caught in the crossfire of exercise shaming, with some individuals stating it's not a good chest exercise. But what do all the biggest bench pressers have in common? Huge pecs.

In fact, chest size significantly correlates to the 1RM bench press, explaining 86% of the maximum lift ^[10]. Which means the bigger your bench, the bigger your pecs.

Use Barbells And Dumbbells

Barbells and dumbbells make excellent tools for growing your chest. The barbell is for heavy bench pressing, maximizing pec tension. While you can't lift as heavy using dumbbells, you get a greater range of motion, putting more stretch on the pecs.

This is why barbells and dumbbells complement each other so well when training the chest. Start with a heavy barbell exercise and move to a heavy dumbbell exercise to get the best of both worlds.

Use A Wider Grip

When bench pressing, a wider grip (twice your shoulder width) activates the pecs better than a closer grip ^[9]. However, this width can sometimes induce shoulder pain. If it does, bring your grip in slightly until you feel no pain.

Finish With Isolation Exercises

Compound movements are your meat and potatoes. Isolation exercises for the chest are your dessert. You add more volume to your sessions without the systemic fatigue from heavy compound exercises.

Since there's a dose-response relationship between volume and muscle growth, it makes sense to add isolation exercises ^[11].

Best Exercises For A Big Chest

Bench Press

As mentioned above, the bench press is the king of chest exercises. Typically, the bigger your bench, the bigger your pecs ^[10]. So a good proxy for chest growth is hitting 5 – 10 rep personal records as you progress through training cycles.

Your chest is likely growing if you lift more weight in this rep range. Since you are on a flat bench, you primarily target the lower chest, known as the sternal head.

Importantly, your arch shouldn't be excessive as you don't want to limit the range of motion as a Powerlifter does. You don't always have to bench heavy, either. Loads as low as 30% 1RM, when performed to failure, stimulate similar muscle-building responses to benching with 75% 1RM ^[13].

Here’s how to do it:

Lay flat on the bench with your feet flat on the floor. You should have a slight arch in your lower back. Grip the barbell with hands just wider than shoulder-width apart.
Lift the barbell off the rack, holding it straight over your chest with your arms extended. Slowly lower the barbell to your chest, keeping your elbows at a 45° angle to your body.
Push the barbell back to the starting position, simultaneously pushing with your arms and legs while keeping your butt on the bench.

Incline Bench Press

The incline bench press will increase the activation of the clavicular head or the upper chest. As the incline increases, so does the upper chest activation, with subsequent reductions in lower chest activation ^[12].

However, there is a limit to the incline. 30° incline elicits the greatest upper chest activation with reduced activation as the incline increases to 45° and 60° with increased front deltoid activation ^[14].

Hence why you should start with the incline or flat bench press in your workout, depending on your priority, and follow with the other variation. Here’s how to do it:

Set the bench incline to 30° for maximum upper chest activation. You should have a slight arch in your lower back. Grip the barbell with hands just wider than shoulder-width apart.
Lift the barbell off the rack, holding it straight over your chest with your arms extended. Slowly lower the barbell to your upper chest, keep elbows at a 45° angle to your body.
Push the barbell back to the starting position, simultaneously pushing with your arms and legs while keeping your butt on the bench.

DB Bench Press

Chest activation is greater during the dumbbell bench press versus the barbell variation ^[15]. However, the loads you can lift are much lighter. This means it’s usually best to follow the barbell bench press with dumbbell variations. But would you ever replace the barbell bench with dumbbells?

If you have shoulder problems when using the straight bar, dumbbells allow your arm and shoulder to move freely, typically reducing shoulder pain. Here’s how to do it:

Sit on a flat bench with a dumbbell in each hand resting on your thighs. Lie back on the bench and use the momentum to kick them above your chest.
Slowly lower the dumbbells to the sides of your chest, keeping a 45° angle to your body.
Push the dumbbells back to the starting position.

DB Incline Bench Press

Like with the barbell, the dumbbell incline bench targets the upper chest. I’d typically perform these after a main barbell pressing movement. If you don’t have an adjustable bench, you can elevate a flat bench on a couple of thick bumper plates. Here’s how to do it:

Sit on an incline bench at a 30° incline with a dumbbell in each hand resting on your thighs. Lie back on the bench and use the momentum to kick them above your chest.
Slowly lower the dumbbells to the sides of your chest, keeping a 45° angle to your body.
Push the dumbbells back to the starting position.

Decline Bench Press

The decline bench press elicits greater lower chest activation than the flat bench press ^[12]. Does that mean you should do the decline bench over the flat bench? Anecdotally, it doesn't make a difference in the real world.

From my experience and others, you can maximize pec development without decline benching. However, if you want more variation in your training program, there's no harm in using the decline bench. Here's how to do it:

Lay on the decline bench with your feet flat hooked into the pads. Grip the barbell with hands just wider than shoulder-width apart.
Lift the barbell off the rack, holding it straight over your chest with your arms extended. Slowly lower the barbell to your lower chest, keep elbows at a 45° angle to your body.
Push the barbell back up to the starting position.

Push-Up

When the load between the bench press and push-up is equated at 40% 1RM, we see similar increases in chest development and strength ^[16].

This means if you continue to load the push-up with plates and bands, you'll see similar improvements in strength and size as you would when bench pressing.

Set up in the push-up position. Hands on the floor with your thumbs just outside shoulder width. You will be in a plank position.
Externally rotate your hands slightly out so they are not pointing straight ahead. This will feel better on your shoulders.
Slowly lower yourself until your chest touches the floor. If you do this correctly, your chest should be the only part of your body that touches the floor. You've lost your plank position if your hips or stomach touches first.
Your elbows should be 45° from your torso, not flared to the side. Push back to the starting position.

Decline Push-Up

The decline push-up is a personal favorite. I had my best chest development while doing a high volume of these. Because you're on a decline, you target the upper chest.

Further, elevating your feet generates more force than a standard push-up since your arms must support more bodyweight ^[17]. Here’s how to do it:

Set up in the push-up position. Hands on the floor with your thumbs just outside shoulder width and your feet elevated on a bench. You will have a straight line from your feet to your head.
Externally rotate your hands slightly out so they are not pointing straight ahead. This will feel better on your shoulders.
Slowly lower yourself until your chest is just above the floor. Your elbows should be 45° from your torso, not flared to the side. Push back to the starting position.

Hands Elevated Extra ROM Push-Up

Elevating the hands to allow for extra range of motion levels up your push-up into an intense muscle-building stimulus. If you have gummy shoulders, this can cause issues, so avoid this variation if that's you. Here's how to do it:

Set up in the push-up position with your hands elevated on plates. There should be a space in the middle for your chest. You will be in a plank position.
Externally rotate your hands slightly out so they are not pointing straight ahead. This will feel better on your shoulders.
Slowly lower yourself until you feel an intense pec and shoulder stretch. You don’t need to touch the floor with your chest.
Your elbows should be 45° from your torso, not flared to the side. Push back to the starting position.

DB Fly

While chest flyes elicit lower pec activation than the bench press, it makes a good accessory exercise to finish your workout ^[18]. As much as it’d be simple to perform more compound movement volume, the fatigue on your shoulders and triceps can potentially negatively affect future workouts.

So you can blast more chest volume under stretch using the DB fly. Here’s how to do it:

Lie flat on a bench holding a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing each other. Extend your arms above your chest, but slightly bend your elbows.
Slowly lower the dumbbells in an arc out to your sides, maintaining the bend in your elbows. Go as far down as your flexibility allows, you should feel a stretch in your chest.
Bring the dumbbells back in the same arc motion, contracting your chest muscles.

Standing Cable Fly

The standing cable version is similar to the DB fly, except the cables provide peak tension when the pecs are contracted. During the DB fly, there is little to no tension on the pecs at the squeezed position.

Therefore, using cables over dumbbells for flyes is typically a better option. Here’s how to do it:

Adjust the pulleys to shoulder height and select the desired weight on both sides. Stand in the middle of the cable machine, grab a handle in each hand, and take a step forward.
Extend your arms to your sides, maintaining a slight bend in your elbows. Bring your hands together in front of your body in a controlled, sweeping motion.
At the peak of the motion, squeeze your chest muscles for a second. Slowly reverse the motion back to the starting position, maintaining the bend in your elbows.

Machine Chest Press

If you train in a commercial gym, don't sleep on the chest press machine. There are usually multiple, giving you different angles, grips, and feel. Interestingly, the machine chest press may activate your chest better than the bench press ^[19].

Being more stable means you can push heavier loads closer to failure without increasing your risk of injury or needing a spotter. Here’s how to do it:

Adjust the seat height so that the handles are at chest level. Sit down on the machine with your back flat against the pad.
Grab the handles and push the handles away from your body until your arms are fully extended.
Slowly return the handles to the starting position, allowing your chest to stretch.

Best Chest Workout For Mass

Exercise	Set/Rep	Load
A1) Bench Press	3 x 8	8 RPE
B1) DB Incline Bench Press	3 x 10-12	8 RPE
C1) Standing Chest Fly	3 x 12	9 RPE
C2) Machine Chest Press	3 x 15	10 RPE

Summary

Getting a big chest is a simple endeavor. Hammer compound lifts like the bench press and incline bench and follow it with accessory exercises like chest flyes, push-ups, and machine chest presses. The chest grows with all rep ranges so vary low and high reps with different exercises.

References

1. Solari, F., & Burns, B. (2022). Anatomy, thorax, pectoralis major. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing.

2. Baig, M. A., & Bordoni, B. (2022). Anatomy, shoulder and upper limb, pectoral muscles. In StatPearls [Internet]. StatPearls Publishing.

3. Pedrosa, G. F., Lima, F. V., Schoenfeld, B. J., Lacerda, L. T., Simões, M. G., Pereira, M. R., ... & Chagas, M. H. (2022). Partial range of motion training elicits favorable improvements in muscular adaptations when carried out at long muscle lengths. European Journal of Sport Science, 22(8), 1250-1260.

4. Schoenfeld, B. J. (2010). The mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy and their application to resistance training. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 24(10), 2857-2872.

5. Wackerhage, H., Schoenfeld, B. J., Hamilton, D. L., Lehti, M., & Hulmi, J. J. (2019). Stimuli and sensors that initiate skeletal muscle hypertrophy following resistance exercise. Journal of applied physiology.

6. Krzysztofik, M., Wilk, M., Wojdała, G., & Gołaś, A. (2019). Maximizing muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review of advanced resistance training techniques and methods. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(24), 4897.

7. Cabral, H. V., de Souza, L. M., de Oliveira, L. F., & Vieira, T. M. (2022). Non‐uniform excitation of the pectoralis major muscle during flat and inclined bench press exercises. Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, 32(2), 381-390.

8. dos Santos Albarello, J. C., Cabral, H. V., Leitão, B. F. M., Halmenschlager, G. H., Lulic-Kuryllo, T., & da Matta, T. T. (2022). Non-uniform excitation of pectoralis major induced by changes in bench press inclination leads to uneven variations in the cross-sectional area measured by panoramic ultrasonography. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 67, 102722.

9. Clemons, J. M., & Aaron, C. (1997). Effect of grip width on the myoelectric activity of the prime movers in the bench press. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 11(2), 82-87.

10. Akagi, R., Tohdoh, Y., Hirayama, K., & Kobayashi, Y. (2014). Relationship of pectoralis major muscle size with bench press and bench throw performances. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 28(6), 1778-1782.

11. Schoenfeld, B. J., Ogborn, D., & Krieger, J. W. (2017). Dose-response relationship between weekly resistance training volume and increases in muscle mass: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of sports sciences, 35(11), 1073-1082.

12. López-Vivancos, A., González-Gálvez, N., Orquín-Castrillón, F. J., Vale, R. G. D. S., & Marcos-Pardo, P. J. (2023). Electromyographic Activity of the Pectoralis Major Muscle during Traditional Bench Press and Other Variants of Pectoral Exercises: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Applied Sciences, 13(8), 5203.

13. Ogasawara, R., Loenneke, J. P., Thiebaud, R. S., & Abe, T. (2013). Low-load bench press training to fatigue results in muscle hypertrophy similar to high-load bench press training. International Journal of Clinical Medicine, 4(02), 114.

14. Rodríguez-Ridao, D., Antequera-Vique, J. A., Martín-Fuentes, I., & Muyor, J. M. (2020). Effect of five bench inclinations on the electromyographic activity of the pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, and triceps brachii during the bench press exercise. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(19), 7339.

15. de Araújo Farias, D., Willardson, J. M., Paz, G. A., Bezerra, E. D. S., & Miranda, H. (2017). Maximal strength performance and muscle activation for the bench press and triceps extension exercises adopting dumbbell, barbell, and machine modalities over multiple sets. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 31(7), 1879-1887.

16. Kikuchi, N., & Nakazato, K. (2017). Low-load bench press and push-up induce similar muscle hypertrophy and strength gain. Journal of Exercise Science & Fitness, 15(1), 37-42.

17. Ebben, W. P., Wurm, B., VanderZanden, T. L., Spadavecchia, M. L., Durocher, J. J., Bickham, C. T., & Petushek, E. J. (2011). Kinetic analysis of several variations of push-ups. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research, 25(10), 2891-2894.

18. Solstad, T. E., Andersen, V., Shaw, M., Hoel, E. M., Vonheim, A., & Saeterbakken, A. H. (2020). A comparison of muscle activation between barbell bench press and dumbbell flyes in resistance-trained males. Journal of sports science & medicine, 19(4), 645.

19. Muyor, J. M., Rodríguez-Ridao, D., & Oliva-Lozano, J. M. (2023). Comparison of Muscle Activity between the Horizontal Bench Press and the Seated Chest Press Exercises Using Several Grips. Journal of Human Kinetics, 87, 23.

About the Author

I am a professional strength & conditioning coach that works with professional and international teams and athletes. I am a published scientific researcher and have completed my Masters in Sport & Exercise Science. I've combined my knowledge of research and experience to bring you the most practical bites to be applied to your training.

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