Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest: You Won’t Believe!

Want a fully developed tapered, chiseled and a good looking chest? We bring you the top 8 exercises for a chiseled chest which alone, when performed well can help you attain your dream chest.

Ok, so lets look at some of the top 8 exercises which can be targeted to build that broad good looking aesthetic chest you ever wanted!

1. Push-Ups | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

Ya! You heard it right! Push – Ups. Do you know that people who do push – ups are able to maintain their muscles for a longer time than others who do weight training with machines or barbells. This exercise is actually like stepping stone for any body builder. Even Chin-ups and Pull-ups are some other basic exercises which lays down the foundation for developing strength in an athlete.

Push – Ups has always been a part of training regimen for natural body builders. If you ask a good trainer, he would always ask to start the workout after doing some basic push ups. They would recommend their clients to start with push – ups and when they are able to do more push – ups they are asked to do Bench Press or any other exercise with weights.

Steps to do Push-Ups:

1. Start in a plank position with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
2. Keep your body straight, engaging core and glutes.
3. Lower yourself by bending your elbows, keeping them at a 45-degree angle.
4. Lower until your chest is just above or lightly touches the ground.
5. Push back up by extending your arms, keeping body straight.
6. Exhale as you push up and fully extend your arms.
7. Repeat for desired number of reps, maintaining proper form throughout.

2. Bench Press | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

To top the list we have the Bench Press which is a no brainer for sure. If you need to develop huge muscular pecs on your body, then you need to lift big and heavy baby! This one is one of the favourites among top body builders for developing a great chest for a lean muscular body.

For beginners- you can start with 30% – 40% of your body weight to start with and progressively you can increase the weights as you become more and more confident. For e.g. a young man weighing 143 lbs (65 kgs) can start with 44 lbs (20 Kgs) and then progressively add up weights in subsequent weeks by 10 lbs or maybe 20 lbs depending on how soon he can develop his strength.

When you are going heavy, do make sure that you have a spotter to help you in few of your last reps. Even otherwise it’s always better to have one to avoid any accidents.

Now, lets see how a bench press can be performed in its best form:

Steps to do a Bench Press:

1. Lay flat on your back on the bench with your eyes directly under the barbel.
2. Position your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart on the barbell. Use a grip that feels comfortable for you, either a pronated grip (palms facing away) and take a good deep breath and exhale. (you can breath in 2 or 3 times before performing a set).
3. Arch your back slightly by squeezing your shoulder blades together. Maintain this position throughout the lift to ensure stability.
4. Lift the bar off the rack, straightening your arms. Hold the barbell above your chest with your arms extended.
5. Slowly bring the bar down towards your chest nipple line or slightly below it in a controlled manner.
6. Lower the bar until it lightly touches your chest and then press/ push hard up to raise the bar back to fully extended arms position to complete one rep.
7. Repeat again for further reps and once you’ve completed your set, move the bar back to the rack by bending your elbows and safely placing it on the hooks.

3. Weighted Dips using Parallel Bar | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

Dips are the most basic but very powerful. Some of the most advanced bodybuilders vouch for the fact that dips help to pack more muscles over your chest area. They help to build functional strength of the muscles. If you want to bench heavy weights, you should include dips for sure.

Another advantage of doing dips is that you can use it to target your triceps as well as your chest with just a small variation. If you keep your body straight while doing dips, you give more emphasis to your triceps, however, if you lean forward and do the dips it activates your pec muscles.

Steps to do weighted dips:

1. Stand between parallel bars, gripping each bar with an overhand grip.
2. Lift yourself up, fully extending your arms and keeping your body straight.
3. Lower your body by bending your elbows, leaning forward slightly.
4. Continue lowering until your shoulders are below your elbows.
5. Push yourself back up by straightening your arms, returning to the starting position.
6. Repeat for the desired number of reps, maintaining control and proper form throughout.

A weighted dip belt or chains are commonly used to add additional weights for dips. The belt is worn around the waist, and additional weights such as weight plates or dumbbells can be attached to it using a chain or clip. This allows you to increase the resistance and challenge your muscles during the dip exercise.

4. Bench Press with Weight Releasers | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

Before learning how to use bench press with weight releasers, it’s essential to know about concentric and eccentric loading on the muscles.

Eccentric Strength – It is strength with which you can lower the weights without loosing control.

Concentric Strength – It is strength with which you can lift the weights.

Advanced Bodybuilders include eccentric training to develop their limit strength.

Steps to do an eccentric load training using chains in Bench Press:

1. Attach weight releaser or chains on either side of plates on a barbell before starting with the exercise.
2. While lowering the bar towards your chest line, the Chains touch the ground releasing some of the weight.
3. Next, as you lift the weights, the links in the chain gets lifted along with your barbell adding up the weight in a controlled manner.

This is a very advance training and should be performed in presence of a trainer or a spotter.

You can add up to 5% to 30% of the bar weight as weight releasers depending on your strength.

5. Smith Machine Negative Overload Bench Press | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

A Smith Machine negative overload bench press technique is a great exercise to eccentrically overload your muscles. This exercise typically would require two partners on either sides of the machine.

Steps to do Smith Machine Negative Overload Bench Press:

1. Lie flat on the bench such that the bar is directly above your chest.
2. Load the bar with 10 – 25% extra weight.
3. Now lower the bar with weights slowly (take 5 to 6 secs) till you almost touch your chest.
4. At this level, both your partners should simultaneously pull out the extra weights off the bar.
5. Next, push the bar back to its starting position with your arms extended.
6. Again, weights shall be added back by your partners at this position.
7. Continue the steps 3 to 6 in a cyclic fashion to complete as many reps as required.

6. Flyes | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

Flyes are the most loved exercise among top bodybuilders when it comes to buildina lean muscular chest. Flyes can be done either by dumbbells or by chains. If you have shoulder pain or want to reduce the stress on your shoulders, then chains are also a great option.

Step to do Flyes:

1. Lie flat on a bench with a pair of dumbbells in your hands.
2. Extend your arms towards the front with a slight bent.
3. Gradually lower the dumbbells to the sides until your chest muscles are stretched.
4. Bring the dumbbells back to the zero position.
5. Repeat the steps 3 and 4 for required no. of reps and rest in between sets.

Chain Flyes are also done in similar fashion. You can attach a handle to a chain with the help of a carabineer. Rest all steps remain the same. The only advantage here you get is as you go down, more and more chain links touch the ground and your weight reduces gradually as you lower the weight, and again while lifting back to the arms extended position, weights add up gradually and become max when it reaches to the fully extended position.

7. Cable Crossovers | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

Cable Crossovers are also type of Flyes that we do using a cable crossover machine. This exercise involves pulling cables from either sides of a cable machine across your chest. Working principle is almost similar to flyes, however you have a much more controlled tension on your chest muscles throughout the rep.

Steps to do Cable Crossover Flyes:

1. Fix the pulleys on a high position above your head and select the resistance to be used.
2. Hold both the pulleys in your hand and step forward to feel a little stretch in both your hands and your torso in a slight forward bent position.  This is your star position.
3. Slightly bend your elbows to prevent any undue stress on biceps. Now, while pulling the pullies extend the arms as if traversing an arc and bring it towards your front side directly above your chest.
4. Again, gradually go back to your start position and repeat the steps 2 and 3 with as many reps as you require.

Making adjustments in the height of the pulleys and also varying the point in front where your arms meet can help you target lower, upper and mid parts of your chest. This will be covered in detail in some other post.

8. Dumbbell Pullovers | Top 8 Exercises For A Chiseled Chest

To finish your chest workouts this one is the best! This exercise works not only on the chest, but also on the lats and the muscles of the ribcage. Please note that people with shoulder injury should avoid this exercise.

Steps to do a Dumbbell Pullover:

1. Lie perpendicular to the bench with only your shoulders supported.
2. Feet should be flat on the ground, shoulder width apart with head and neck hanging over the bench.
3. Place the dumbells between your palms which should hold the dumbbells in a diamond shape and face the ceiling.
4. Start position is dumbbells resting on the chest.
5. Slowly raise the dumbbells over your chest and take it behind your head from over your head until its in line with the torso. Do keep in mind to have a slight bend  about 10 to 15 degrees in your elbow throughout the exercise.
6. Pull the dumbbell back to start position in a controlled fashion while squeezing the chest.
7. Repeat the above steps to achieve the desired reps.

Please note that exercise is only one of the dimensions which we are focusing here. However, exercise alone has never and will never give you a chiseled chest. You must attack various aspects of your physique through diet, sleep, rest etc in order to achieve a well rounded a 3D chest and then there are also various variations in exercises which helps you attain a muscular good looking chest.