Top 5 Inner Chest Workout & Exercises (#3 Is An Inner Chest Pushup!)

Trying to hit the inner chest can often be confusing and outright annoying to say the least…

UNLESS you know the exercises I’m about to give you in this article.

The goal of this article is to take your chest from having that “flat” look to it, to a nice FULL set of pecs.

These top 5 exercises are meant to light up your chest from the inside out no matter where you are. (As #3 is a bodyweight option that you can do at home.)

So, enough delaying, here are the top 5 inner chest workout for pecs that POP.

Inner Chest Workout For Newbies

Before we get into the actual exercises, it’s important to know one thing about inner pec training.

Without this fact, your training will be USELESS and you’ll be stuck with a chest that looks like a pair of water drops coming from your collar bone.

If you’re trying to develop an aesthetic and attractive physique, then you’re going to want to get that “plate of armor look” for your chest.

I’d like to do an exercises with you to see if you can figure out what it is.

Below is a series of inner chest exercises versus general chest exercises, see if you can spot the difference…

If you couldn’t spot it then here’s the key:

All inner chest exercises are focused on bringing the weight from away from your chest, to the middle!

So learn to love flys because you work your inner pecs most when doing flys effectively.

They’re aim is to bring the weight from way outstretched, to contracted in the middle.

Bonus points if you can bring the weight PAST your middle chest and crossover, but we’ll get into that later.

Best Inner Chest Exercises

Now that we know how to spot the best inner chest exercises, let’s get into the exercises that truly stand out.

Developing the inner chest will make your chest appear more full and thick.

Developing the upper chest will help give it an aesthetically pleasing “plate of armor” look to it.

And lastly, developing the lower/outer chest is how you’ll be able to put on mass in the shortest time possible.

These are the best inner chest exercises in order:

• Cable Crossovers
• Alt. Machine Press
• Inner Chest Pushup
• Max Stretch Flys
• Dumbbell Inner Chest Presses

Remember, any chest exercises that prioritizes a HORIZONTAL contraction over a vertical one will target the inner portion much more effectively. [R]

Although these exercises are great for building mass, you can speed up progress with a great natural testosterone booster like Testogen.

When I was taking Testogen, I got ridiculously strong very quickly, I remember obliterating my Incline Bench PR like it was nothing which left me like “Woah, what the fuck? This stuff’s legit”

The best part is that it’s 100% natural too, so you don’t have to worry about any nasty side effects like you do with steroids.

Cable Crossovers (Best Inner Chest Exercise Overall)

Cable crossovers will make up the best cable inner chest workout by far.

To start, setup the machine like you’re about to perform a cable fly.

Then take a step or two forward, enough so that there’s ample tension in your chest.

Extend your arms like a cross with your hands slightly behind your back to stretch the chest.

From here, pretend like there’s a huge barrel in front of you and hug it, bringing your hands in together.

Now this is where it’s key, instead of bring your hands in front and ending there, you’re going to CROSSOVER so that your hands overlap each other.

Aim for 3 sets of 10 reps if you’re a beginner and maybe 4-12 if you’re an advanced lifter.

Alt. Machine Presses (Build An All-Around Thick Chest)

A classic amongst modern aesthetic bodybuilders is the alternating machine press.

To start, get into a chest press machine and instead of doing both sides at the same time, you’re going to intensely focus on one side at a time.

Let’s say you’re working you’re right pec.

Get into the chest press machine and face 90 degrees to the right.

From here, push the handle ACROSS your chest till you’ve reached peak contraction, then do the same number of sets and reps for the left side.

What this does is allow you to specifically target the inner area of your chest effectively, by working from the outside in.

This ultimately leads to a full and thick chest that will practically jump out of your t-shirt the next time you go out.

For beginners, look to do 3 sets of 12 on each side.

For advanced lifters, you could add this to the end of your chest days and go to failure on your left side, then repeat the same number on your right.

If you do that for long enough, it will also help balance out your left and right chest muscles for max symmetry and aesthetics.

Inner Chest Pushup (At Home Alternative)

I know I have a lot of at home workout readers. Rest assured you have not been forgotten.

Because I’ve got a banger for you, the inner chest pushup.

The inner chest pushup is one of the best at home bodyweight chest exercises out there.

You can do this anywhere you want, and on top of that, you’ll also be working your abs, shoulders and triceps all at once.

Performing it is simple too. Simply do a regular pushup but at the top of the movement, rotate your body so that your facing the left or right while keeping your hands and fingers on the ground.

Done right, you will feel an intense contraction in your inner chest when you do this.

By rotating and keeping your hands on the ground, you transfer the weight from your outer chest, to the inner.

This is a great workout finisher if you have a gym, but if you don’t I’d recommend following my at home chest workout, and adding these inner chest pushups to the routine.

Max Stretch Flys (Build A WIDE Chest)

Next we have max stretch dumbbell flys.

The difference between these and regular flys is that you’re going to be lowering the weight slightly and focusing on stretching your chest as much as possible at the bottom of the reps.

This will stretch your ENTIRE chest, and if you go far enough it will especially work your inner pec muscles.

From there bring the weight back up, and when you’re inner chest is subjected to the intense stretching and contraction of this movement, you’ll grow your inner chest guaranteed.

“Evidence suggests that when stretching is done with a certain degree of tensile strain (particularly when loaded, or added between active muscle contractions) may elicit muscle hypertrophy.” [R]

Put simply, get a really good stretch and then contract your chest, and it will grow a lot faster than you’d think.

I remember when I first got serious about dumbbell flys, it felt like my chest had been lacking the “one thing” for so long and when I added these, my chest blew up.

I was shocked because I didn’t even realize I was lacking the chest thickness until I developed it! Do NOT let this be you.

If you’re a beginner then 3 sets of 8 will suffice. Advanced lifters may want to add more sets but we’ll keep the reps low for this one.

Dumbbell Inner Chest Presses (Classic Mass Building Exercise)

Lastly, we’ll take a classic chest exercise: the dumbbell chest press and we’ll add the inner chest spin on it.

To add the extra kick to target your inner pecs, lay down on the bench and stick your chest out past your shoulders.

From there press the weight and lower it out just a bit past where your elbows are at 90 degrees.

(Not too far, else you risk injury. Just enough to get a stretch.)

From there focus on bring the weight TOGETHER and not just pressing it upwards.

Remember this for all chest exercises and your inner chest will blow up in no time.

Sample Routine

I realize this is a lot to throw at you if you’re just getting started, so I want to leave you with a sample routine that you can use to get started.

I don’t recommend replacing your entire chest workout with this one, as it’s important to develop all parts of the chest for aesthetics.

That being said, if you’re trying to work on your weak points, then consider throwing this routine in every other week or so.

Alternate this routine with your current chest routine to fox your inner chest weak point:

• Dumbbell Inner Chest Presses 3×12
• Alt. Machine Presses 3×10
• Cable Crossovers 3×10

Of course feel free to switch any of the exercises with the ones listed.

Also consider adding the inner chest pushups at the end to finish off.

Warning to the newbies out there: If this is your first time working the inner chest AND you add the pushups at the end, you will be sore for a couple days.

But then again that’s part of the fun because you know you’re making gains, so get to it brother.

How To Target Upper-Inner Chest

One more thing. Many people have issues targeting their upper inner chest.

This muscle group is notoriously stubborn to grow and anyone who’s tried knows how annoying it is, especially with the lack of information online.

That being said, if you want to target your upper inner chest and get jacked then I’ve got you.

Start by doing 4 to 5 sets of either incline bench, or incline dumbbell bench.

Once you’re done with a single set, IMMEDIATELY go and do a set of cable crossovers.

Call this an upper inner chest super set if you will, but this is what I’ve done in the past and it works absolute wonders for growing your upper inner chest.

Conclusion

This concludes part 3 of the chest post trilogy.

Part 1 focused on hitting your upper chest and Part 2 teaches you how to build a massive chest, even from home.

I hope you guys are able to take the advice from these articles and develop the Arnold-esque chest, because we all know how much us guys love to hit chest, might as well reap the rewards for it as well.

As always, feel free to dm me on insta @realmatthewcarter or leave a comment for any questions or concerns.

Until next time,

-Matthew Carter