Best Chest Exercises

In this edition of the "best of" exercise series, we cover the best chest exercises. Here they are, along with a video playlist:

1. Flat Dumbbell Bench Press
2. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
3. Decline Dumbbell Bench Press
4. Push-ups
5. Cable Internal Rotations

VIEW VIDEO PLAYLIST OF THE BEST CHEST EXERCISES

There are about a thousand different variations of the four movements listed above. You can do the first 3 with a barbell, although I prefer dumbbells because I feel dumbbells work the shoulder stabilizers better, and, if you have one side which is stronger than the other, dumbbells will bring up the "lagging" side better than if you performed the exercises with a barbell.

Although you should certainly train the chest musculature, it is without question the most overtrained area of the body in most folks (young males in particular), the movements are typically performed incorrectly, with too much weight, and chest exercises are the biggest contributor to both chronic and acute shoulder problems in people who strength train. When you train your chest, and really any "pushing/pressing" exercise which involve either the chest and/or anterior deltoids, keep in mind you should be performing enough-and generally more-upper back, scapula stabilization, and rotator cuff work to balance things out.

You'll also notice I omitted the popular fly or cable cross variations. I don't like these for 99% of people. The form on these exercises must be pristine in order not to harm the shoulder and sternoclavicular joints. Furthermore, most people use entirely too much weight. I'd stay away from them.