Fit Tip: Chest Home Workout

Chest workouts are very important and everyone should incorporate this muscle group in their routine. When at gyms it seems that more men than women focus on this muscle group, but women should always add this workout to their routine. Why? Well for one thing, it improves your posture. And with better posture you will also be able to breathe easier. Chest workouts are great because they don’t require as much equipment as you think, only an adjustable bench and some dumbbells.

Then there’s the added bonus that it will make your chest and breasts look livelier. I know that there’s a lot of memes out there about women going to the gym and losing their breast size, but that’s due to fat loss, not muscle gain. Doing some chest exercises can help reduce the impact of the fat loss, and make you feel a little better about your smaller size. When you do strength training the muscles beneath your breasts will grow and help make your chest look better.

When you are choosing the weight for your dumbbells, start light and increase from there. You can find the Goldilocks weight when you are able to lift and maintain proper form throughout the set, but the last two reps become challenging.

Chest Workout

Here are directions for the exercises:

Flat Chest Press

• Hold dumbbells with an overhand grip wider than shoulder-width apart directly above your nipple line with your arms straight.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and your feet on the floor. Keep your back flat on the bench as you do this exercise.
• Lower dumbbells almost touching the sides of your chest.
• Pause, then press the dumbbell straight up to start position.

Flat Chest Fly

• Grab a pair of dumbbells and lie face up on a flat bench.
• Lie back on the bench and hold the dumbbells over your chest with your elbows slightly bent and your palms facing out.
• Slowly lower your arms so they are parallel to the floor, keeping the slight bend in your elbows.
• Pause then lift them back to the start position.

Decline Chest Press

• Set an adjustable bench to fully declined.
• Lie back on the bench and hold dumbbells with an overhand grip wider than shoulder-width apart directly above your nipple line with your arms straight.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and your feet on the floor. Keep your back flat on the bench as you do this exercise.
• Lower dumbbells almost touching the sides of your chest.
• Pause, then press the dumbbell straight up to start position.

Incline Chest Fly

• Set an adjustable bench to incline 45 degrees.
• Lie back on the bench and hold the dumbbells over your chest with your elbows slightly bent and your palms facing out.
• Slowly lower your arms so they are parallel to the floor, keeping the slight bend in your elbows.
• Pause then lift them back to the start position.

Incline Chest Press

• Set an adjustable bench to incline 45 degrees.
• Lie back on the bench and hold dumbbells with an overhand grip wider than shoulder-width apart directly above your nipple line with your arms straight.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together and your feet on the floor. Keep your back flat on the bench as you do this exercise.
• Lower dumbbells almost touching the sides of your chest.
• Pause, then press the dumbbell straight up to start position.