The Best Chest Exercises, Ranked
Seven chest exercises in the order worth trying them, from the presses you can load heaviest to the flies that finish the job, plus every other chest exercise in the library.
By Jobri Fitness
The short answer
Most lifters do well with two chest exercises: a press you can load heavy, like the bench press or incline bench press, and a fly on a cable or machine. Push ups and dips work the chest too and need almost no equipment.
The 7 best chest exercises
Bench Press
BarbellThe default chest press. It's easy to load in small steps and easy to compare from week to week, so progress is obvious.
How to do it: Bench PressAlso with: Dumbbell, Cable, Smith machine
Incline Bench Press
DumbbellThe incline puts more of the work on your upper chest, and dumbbells let each side press on its own with a longer range at the bottom.
How to do it: Incline Bench PressAlso with: Barbell, Smith machine
Chest Press
MachineA fixed path and no balance to manage, so you can take sets close to failure without a spotter.
How to do it: Chest PressMachine only
Dips
BodyweightLean forward and dips work the lower chest and triceps hard. Add weight with a belt once bodyweight reps get easy.
How to do it: DipsAlso with: Machine
Chest Fly
CableCables keep tension on through the whole arc, including where your hands come together, where a dumbbell fly goes light.
How to do it: Chest FlyAlso with: Dumbbell
Push Up
BodyweightNeeds no equipment and scales from beginner to advanced: raise your hands to make it easier, raise your feet or add a band to make it harder.
How to do it: Push UpBodyweight only
Butterfly
MachineThe machine version of the fly: a guided path and a quick setup, handy at the end of a session when you're tired.
How to do it: ButterflyMachine only
How these are ranked
The order favors exercises that are easy to set up, easy to load in small steps and easy to track, because steady progress over months matters more than which press you pick. Presses come first since they let you handle the most weight; flies come later because they work best as a second exercise. It's a sensible default, not the only right answer: if a lower pick suits your shoulders or your gym better, use it.
How much chest work you need
The number of hard sets you do each week matters more than which exercise you pick. How many sets per week to build muscle covers the numbers, and how to build chest muscles puts them into a plan. The training volume calculator counts your weekly sets per muscle, and the workout plan generator builds a week around them.
All 48 chest exercises
- Archer Push Up
- Assisted Dips
- Band Chest Fly
- Band Chest Press
- Band-Assisted Dips
- Band-Assisted Muscle Up
- Banded Push Up
- Bench Press
- Burpee
- Butterfly
- Chest Fly
- Chest Press
- Chest-Pullover
- Close Grip Bench Press
- Decline Bench Press
- Decline Chest Fly
- Decline Push Up
- Deficit Push Up
- Diamond Push Up
- Dips
- Flat Bench Fly
- Floor Press
- High Chest Fly
- Hindu Push Up
- Incline Bench Press
- Incline Chest Fly
- Incline Chest Press
- Incline Close Grip Bench Press
- Incline Push Up
- Knee Push Up
- Landmine Press
- Larsen Press
- Low Chest Fly
- Muscle Up
- One-Arm Push Up
- Paused Bench Press
- Planche Push Up
- Pseudo Planche Push Up
- Push Up
- Spiderman Push Up
- Straddle Planche Push Up
- Straight Bar Dips
- Svend Press
- Tuck Planche Push Up
- Wall Push Up
- Weighted Dips
- Weighted Push Up
- Wide Grip Bench Press
Log your sets in GymEvo
Log every set, see what you lifted last time, and follow your estimated one-rep max on the free progress chart.