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Bodyweight exercise allows you to build well-developed chest muscles, which is key to improving your overall physique and helps you perform a variety of physically demanding activities with ease. If you're looking for the best chest exercises, look no further than bodyweight training.
To strengthen and increase the size of your chest muscles, you'll need to engage in a variety of chest exercises. By mixing up your workouts and performing different exercises, you will encourage a more balanced chest development and build a muscle mass that will make a difference in your physique.
Anatomy of the chest
The chest muscle is made up of the pectoralis major and the pectoralis minor. Often referred to as "pecs," they consist of two larger muscles - the pectoralis major and the sternum. The pectoralis major has an upper portion (clavicular head) and a lower portion (sternal head).
5 bodyweight exercises to strengthen chest muscles
Now that you have a better understanding of how the chest muscles work, let's take a look at five bodyweight exercises you can do to strengthen them.
1) Push-ups
Push-ups are undoubtedly among the best bodyweight exercises, targeting both your pecs and triceps simultaneously. There are plenty of push-up variations that will help you level up your workout as you get stronger.
When you’re first performing push-ups, it’s common to find 10 reps difficult, but free not; as you get stronger over time, you’ll start pushing 20-30 with no problem.
2) Chest dips
Dips are great two-in-one bodyweight exercises for a variety of reasons; they primarily target your chest, but also activate the shoulders, triceps, and abdominals.
The angle at which you hold your body during the exercise will affect how much demand you put on your chest or triceps. This way, one exercise can result in the growth of two different body parts.
3) Bench press
Despite the fact that bench press is one of the most popular lifts in the gym, it's still widely disliked these days. One of the benefits of a standard barbell bench is that you can move the most weight on it. Additionally, it's easier to control than pressing heavy dumbbells.
Along with this, you can even include decline press-ups to mix up and target each muscle. Decline bench press-ups place the emphasis on your lower pectorals, contributing to a well-rounded and more defined chest.
4) Chest fly
A chest fly is a great bodyweight exercise for a beginner or for an experienced weightlifter. It’s simple to do and effective. Whether you are looking to increase your muscle mass, lose fat, or just want to get stronger overall, a dumbbell chest fly is a great workout choice.
5) Barbell skull crusher
The barbell skull crusher is a killer bodyweight exercise that works out a lot of muscles at the same time.
Skull crushers load all three heads of the triceps - long, medial, and lateral. The focus is more on the lateral and long heads of the muscle; the two triceps heads that are easiest to see. Skull crushers can be modified to target specific heads of triceps.
Pick 4-5 bodyweight exercises and do them twice a week. See how your body responds to that routine in roughly the next six weeks. Did you increase your strength? Does your chest expand just a bit? Are your arms growing nicely? If so, you might be onto something.
Don't be discouraged by slow progress, especially if there's a lot of stress in your life that's preventing you from lifting as frequently or strongly as you'd like.
Remember, what you do after your workout is just as essential. End your workout with post-workout stretches and calm yourself down a bit.
Your muscles are weary and begin to break down after any activity, whether it involves cardio or weight. It is crucial for muscle and tissue healing, strength development, and overall recovery to occur soon after cardio or bodyweight exercise.
Now, let’s get those chests pumping and busting!
