Are you one of the people who’s gyms are currently closed due to the pandemic and think you’re “stuck” with a home chest workout?
Because although a home workout for chest isn’t NEARLY as effective as a good old fashioned bench press routine, you can still make gains from the comfort of your home.
In fact, with this routine you can actually get a shredded chest due to it’s high volume. Then when you go back to the gym, you can put on size for a truly impressive set of pecs!
So with that being said, I’m going to share my personal home chest workout and exercises that you can use to get a shredded chest with little to no equipment.
Best Home Chest Workout Exercises
As I said before, nothing beats going to the gym and hammering some incline bench to develop an aesthetic chest.
However, not everyone has access to gyms for whatever reason. Maybe the pandemic, maybe it’s closed, whatever.
So with that in mind we’re going to be splitting up our home chest workout in two sections: With home workout equipment and without.
The best home chest exercises without equipment are:
- Standard Pushups
- Decline Pushups
- Dips
- Modified Pushup Flys
The best home chest exercises WITH equipment are:
- Dumbbell Bench Press (Dumbbells)
- Chest Flys (Dumbbells)
- Dips (Dip Station or Home Alternative)
- Pullovers (One Heavy Dumbbell)
Obviously, there’s different variations of all these exercises that you can throw in like rotation pushups for example to hit your inner chest hard.
Once again to clarify, you do not NEED any equipment to make a good home chest workout.
However, I’d HIGHLY recommend at least a set of dumbbells so you can always get whatever type of workout in, whenever you want.
Home Workout Equipment (Optional)
If you aren’t satisfied with just getting a shredded chest and want to put on some real size and get jacked with your home chest workout then I’d recommend a few sets of equipment.
The bodyweight routine will get you good results if you’re disciplined and consistent.
But the home chest workout routine WITH equipment will net you the most gains.
That being said, here’s the home gym equipment I recommend:
- A Pair Of 25 lb Dumbbells (Order on Amazon)
- Pair Of Adjustable Dumbbells (Order on Amazon) (Pricey, But Worth It)
- Dip station (Order on Amazon)
- Pushup Fly Machine (Order on Amazon)
Also, although we’re focusing on the home chest workout, I also want to throw in a link to a good doorway pull-up bar. This thing is literally a godsend for people trying to get wide lats at home.
If I had to pick one piece of equipment from this list, it would be the 25 pound dumbbells. They’re cheap, and you can work out literally every muscle effectively with them.
If you can’t afford any of the pieces of home gym equipment though that’s fine, just stick with the bodyweight home chest workout below, and you’ll still get an impressive chest.
The Bodyweight Workout For Massive Pecs
Now we’re finally going to get into the home chest workout: Bodyweight Edition.
I recommend, following an upper/lower body split that way you can hit your muscles with both intensity AND frequency to make gains.
This means you’ll do your home chest workout (and other upper body workout) on Monday.
Then on Tuesday, you Train legs. Wednesday upper, Thursday lower… rinse and repeat.
Now, here’s the full bodyweight at home chest workout:
- 30 Pushups
>> Superset - Dips To FAILURE
- 30 Decline Pushups
>>Superset - 20 Decline Flys (I talk about how to do these here)
Do all of those, and that’s ONE round. Depending on how fit you are, you’ll be able to do multiple rounds of this.
If you want a goal to shoot for, I’d say do at LEAST 5 rounds of this routine.
The truth is is that it doesn’t matter what number you get to, just keep trying to do one more round than the day before.
You won’t get jacked ridiculously fast with this routine, but it WILL annihilate your chest muscles.
Because this routine is pretty intense for beginners, make sure you’re also recovering properly and eating a good muscle building diet.
Home Workout With Dumbbells & Equipment
Now, here’s where things get fun.
With equipment, you’ll be able to get an ACTUAL home chest workout in.
This routine will annihilate your chest, and all you need is a few, simple pieces of equipment and you’re on your way to developing an aesthetic chest already.
The equipment we’ll be focusing on will be the cheapest options. Meaning the 25 pound pair of dumbbells and the dip station.
One more thing, expect an absolutely MASSIVE pump with this routine.
This routine is extremely high volume and follows a lot of the same principles as the “Pre-Party Pump Protocol“
Now, let’s get into it. Here’s the home chest workout routine with equipment:
- 20-30 Incline Dumbbell Presses
>>Superset - 20 Incline Dumbbell Flys
- Weighted Dips to FAILURE (Using The 25 pound Dumbbell)
- 30 Pushups
Now if you don’t have a bench to do the incline presses with, that’s fine, just swap out the incline for the flat variations.
Same principles apply to this workout. Aim for at LEAST 5 rounds of this, but go until your chest is annihilated but insanely pumped as well.
This home chest workout routine, could actually serve as your main chest workout if you wanted.
The incline presses in flys are keys to develop an aesthetic chest.
The weighted dips and pushups will help to add slabs of muscle mass to your pecs.
Bodyweight Shoulder, Tricep & Other Exercises
Now, if you’ve been reading my blog, you know that I love working chest, shoulders, and triceps in the same session.
So we’re going to throw in some additional exercises into the home chest workout for even more muscle gain.
I recommend saving these till the end of your home chest workout.
That way you can use the majority of your strength and energy in the chest workout.
Also, because many of the chest exercises also work the other muscles.
Pushups for example target the chest, but also develop your shoulders and triceps as well.
That’s why it’s good to throw in these exercises at the end of your home chest routine, since they’ll be “warmed up” so to speak.
Bodyweight/At Home Shoulder Exercises
Again, we’ll be splitting up the two workouts into no/minimal equipment exercises and a workout WITH the 25 lb dumbbells.
If you don’t have the dumbbells but still want to do the exercises, you could easily make your own dumbbells by getting a gallon jug and filling it with sand or water.
Without further ado, here’s the minimal equipment shoulder exercises:
- Handstand Pushups (Bodyweight)
- Shoulder Press (Gallon Jug)
- Incline Pushups (Bodyweight)
- Front Raises (Gallon Jug)
- Lateral Raises (Gallon Jug)
- Rear Delt Flys (Gallon Jug)
I’d recommend picking at least 3-4 of those exercises and then doing 20 reps of each, with at least 4 sets per exercise.
Here’s the recommended shoulder exercises to do with the dumbbells:
- 20 Reps Of Shoulder Press
- 20 Reps Of Arnold Press
- 20 Reps Of Lateral Raises
- 20 Reps Of Upright Rows
- 20 Reps Of Front Raises
- 20 Reps Of Rear Delt Flys
Same rules, pick at least 3-4 of these exercises and as many sets as you can but aim for at least 5.
Again expect a massive pump, as high volume has been shown to lead to greater muscle size for at least a few hours. [R]
Bodyweight/At Home Tricep Exercises
Triceps are thankfully a lot easier to train at home than shoulders.
All you really need is your bodyweight and your set.
Add these bodyweight tricep exercises at the end of your home chest workout:
- Standard Pushups
- Diamond Pushups
- Bench Dips
Again, these are really all you need to build your chest at home.
Bench dips and diamond pushups will be your best friend when trying to grow your triceps at home so make sure to do LOTS of em.
Now for the equipment. This time we’ll be using the dip station and the 25 pound dumbbells from our home chest workout.
Here are the best home tricep exercises with equipment:
- Dips
- Tricep Kickbacks
- Tricep Extensions
Again, these will be your bread and butter for developing massive and defined triceps.
I’d recommend doing all of these but you may want to focus on two of them depending on your goals.
If you want really defined triceps, then focus on dips and extension.
If you want to get massive horseshoe triceps to compliment your home chest workout then focus on dips and tricep extensions.
HIIT Cardio Exercises
Now, since it’ll be a lot harder to put on size without your gym, you may want to take this time to get absolutely shredded.
This is where HIIT cardio comes into play and I recommend you do this either before or after your workouts.
HIIT stands for High Intensity Interval Training, which basically means periods of intense cardio followed by periods of minimal to no cardio.
Obviously the easiest form of this is to go running/sprinting outside.
What I use to do and recommend is go outside and find a place to full on SPRINT as fast as you can for 20-30 seconds and then rest/jog for 30-45 seconds.
If you find that running on the pavement is tough on your knees, then try to find a long patch of grass to run on.
Or you can get a jump rope and do say, 50 quick hops for example, followed by 30 seconds of slow/medium hopping, whatever works best for you.
HIIT has a TON of health benefits from melting fat, improving brain function, boosting testosterone and more.
Personally, my favorite HIIT workout is to do a pyramid, dumbbell swing & burpee combo.
The way it works is you do 1 dumbbells swing, then one burpee. Then you do 2 dumbbell swings and 2 burpees.
You do this all the way up to ten of each, then work your way back down to one. Trust me, this one is brutal and will having you melt fat like butter.
It’s up to you whether or not you want to add HIIT to your home chest workout or not, but I recommend you do so.
At Home Ab Exercises
Lastly, to compliment your home chest workout, we’re going to be throwing in abs too since abs are KEY to looking like a Greek God.
Luckily abs are really damn easy to train from home, and you can develop a killer 6 pack without having to leave your room.
Try to throw abs at the end of your workouts and alternate your ab and HIIT days.
Some of these exercises use a pull-up bar, but if you don’t have one then simply do them laying down and you’ll be fine.
Here’s the best home ab exercises for a shredded 6 pack:
- Sit-ups
- Russian Twists
- Hanging Leg Raises
- Butterfly Kicks
- Regular/Side Planks
These are all you need for your ab workout to get a decent set of abdominals.
Again, try to add it at the end of your home chest workout as a lot of the exercises in the home chest workout will require some core strength as well.
Home Chest Workout For Beginners: Summary
In the end, not having access to a gym for whatever reason sucks. But you can’t let it get in the way of achieving your fitness goals.
You can still get jacked. You can still get shredded. And you can still be 1% better than you were yesterday, and nothing can stop you if you’re willing to try.
This was part 2 to a 3 part chest workout series. In this article we focused on how to build SIZE with a home chest workout more than aesthetics like in part 1.
Regardless, I hope you guys enjoyed this article and I hope you’ll be able to use this advice to get a shredded chest no matter what your situation is.
If you have any questions, comments or concerns, feel free to leave a comment and as always I’ll see you guys next time!