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Best Chest Exercises For Men

Shashank Nakate
The bench press and chest fly are the best chest exercises for men. Let us understand the importance of these exercises, and the correct procedures to perform these exercises.
The exercises which show the best results for your chest and which help in strengthening the pecs, deltoids, and triceps, are the flies, bench press, and push ups. Here these exercises are described in detail.

Significance of Chest Workouts
Chest workouts are important for the development of the different muscles of the region, especially the pectoral muscles. The different exercises help in strengthening both the upper and lower chest muscles.

Bench Press

The bench press is performed while lying your back on a bench with the help of a barbell. In the bench press, the barbell is lowered till the chest and again pushed back upwards. The elbows are locked while the arms straighten up.
This primarily focuses on strengthening the pectoralis major muscle, however, the adjoining muscles such as serratus anterior, anterior deltoids, triceps, and the coracobrachialis are also exercised. In the bench press, the shoulder blades are pinched together so that the anterior deltoid muscles do not come into play.
While performing this, the legs are either placed on the ground or at the end of the bench, however, the buttocks maintain contact with the bench, and thus, the spine remains straight and parallel to the horizontal plane. Both the hands are placed at an equal distance from the center of the barbell.
The angle at the elbows is maintained at 90 degrees and they are placed below the wrists. One should be careful while lowering and then pushing the bar upwards. A brief pause between these two actions helps in avoiding any injury.

Chest Fly

This workout mainly exercises the pectoral muscles, while the deltoid muscles and biceps are worked out to some extent.
One starts with lying on the back. This is performed with the help of weights in both the hands. The arms are extended and held above the body along the midsagittal plane. One can either keep the arms straight or slightly bent at the elbows.
Lowering the arms slowly through an arc and along the transverse plane finally brings them parallel to the ground. The original position is attained by raising the arms through the same arc upwards. As far as possible, the elbow joint should not be locked while the arms are in an extended position; a slight bend at the joint should be maintained throughout.
This exercise can also be performed with the help of cables. Three cable flies are even more effective than the dumbbell flies due to the resistance provided by them constantly, throughout the entire movement of the arms.

Plyometric Push Ups

The plyometric push ups help in increasing the power of the chest muscles. Unlike the regular push ups, the plyometric push ups involve speedy movement of the muscles. Thus, not only are the muscles strengthened, but they also become more powerful.
The position to be attained for doing plyometric push ups is the same as that of the regular ones. The arms should be placed widely; it helps in lowering the body easily. An angle of 90 degrees should be formed at the elbows.
The first step is to lower the body while keeping the head, hips, and toes in a straight line. In the next step, the body is pushed upwards explosively as high as possible while clapping simultaneously. The landing should be soft and one should try to land in the same position where hands were placed.
This exercise is performed in the later stages when a person has already mastered the regular push ups.
The workouts described here are the best chest exercises for men. One should practice them on a regular basis to strengthen the pectoral and adjoining muscles.
Disclaimer: Always consult a physician before starting any physical fitness program in order to reduce the risk of injury.