Best Chest Exercises

The chest (pectoralis major and minor) pushes your arms forward and across your body, so it works in every press, push-up and fly. Presses — barbell, dumbbell or machine — let you load the most weight and are the backbone of chest strength. Incline angles shift the work toward the upper chest, declines and dips toward the lower fibers, and flyes train the stretch with lighter loads. For most people, 10–20 hard sets per week split across two sessions is a solid starting point. Keep your shoulder blades pulled back and down, lower the weight under control, and stop each set one or two reps short of failure on heavy presses. No gym? Push-up variations cover the same movement pattern at home.

Pick exercises from this list, log your sets and weights in ForceIndex and track your progress — free, start right away.

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Incline Push-Up

Decline Push-Up

Explosive Push-Up

Dumbbell Bench Press

Barbell Bench Press

Incline Barbell Press

Decline Barbell Press

Incline Dumbbell Press

Decline Dumbbell Press

Cable Crossover

Cable Chest Fly

One-Arm Push-Up

Spiderman Push-Up

Typewriter Push-Up

Deficit Push-Up

Chest Press Machine

Pec Deck (Butterfly Machine)

Smith Machine Bench Press

Barbell Floor Press

Dumbbell Pullover

Dumbbell Floor Press

Dumbbell Incline Fly

Dumbbell Decline Fly

Band Chest Press

Pseudo Planche Push-Up

Dumbbell Squeeze Press

Low-to-High Cable Fly

Incline Smith Machine Press

Incline Chest Press Machine

Kettlebell Floor Press

Reverse-Grip Bench Press

Neutral-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

How strong am I? Exercise Library