Best Chest Exercises for Hypertrophy: Top Picks + Sample Workout

Some movements are better for chest growth than others. Let’s review the best compound and isolation lifts for chest hypertrophy, how to do them, and how to program them into your training for optimal results.

Key Takeaways

• Some of the best chest compound lifts for hypertrophy include the bench press, incline press, push-up, and chest dip. Effective isolation exercises for the chest include dumbbell flys, low and high cable flys, and pec deck flys.
  
  

• The optimal training frequency for chest growth is twice per week. You should do a couple of exercises in each session––for example, a compound and an isolation. Lift more weight on compound lifts for around 6-12 reps and less on isolation activities for 12-15+ reps per set.
  
  

• Rest long enough between sets to maintain your performance. That could be 3-5 minutes on heavy compound sets (like the bench press) and around 1.5 minutes on lighter isolation sets (like the chest fly).

Chest Muscle Overview

The chest consists of three primary muscles:

• Pectoralis major: a fan-shaped muscle that makes up the majority of the lower and middle portion of the chest
  
  

• Clavicular head: the head that makes up the upper portion of the chest
  
  

• Pectoralis minor: a smaller, triangular muscle that lies underneath the pectoralis major
  

The pectoralis major and clavicular head insert into the humerus and play an essential role in pressing movements and arm adduction (bringing the limb from the side toward the midline of the body). The pec minor’s primary role is to stabilize the shoulder joint.

Best Chest Exercises For Hypertrophy

The following are the nine best exercises (compound & isolation) for chest hypertrophy: 

Compound Exercises

Compound exercises involve movement at multiple joints (shoulders & elbows), such as pressing exercises.

Barbell Bench Press

The barbell bench press is one of the most popular chest-builders. It allows you to overload your muscles with more weight and build impressive pressing strength.

How To:

• Set the barbell to a height you can grab without locking out your elbows.
• Grab the bar with an overhand grip and hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
• Puff your chest, plant your feet on the floor, and unrack the bar.
• Position the bar over your chest, take a breath, and lower it to your lower chest.
• Pause briefly and press the bar to extend your arms as you exhale.

Pro Tip:

One common mistake is lowering the bar to your mid or upper chest, forcing your elbows to flare out, and putting your shoulders in an unfavorable position.

Aiming to touch your lower chest should prevent overly flared elbows, but for reference, a 45- to 70-degree angle between your elbows and your body is ideal.

Should I Wear Wrist Wraps When Lifting?

If you're lifting heavy during pressing movements like the bench press or push press, your wrists take on a lot of strain. Wrist wraps can help by stabilizing your wrists, reducing the risk of injury, and preventing strain or overload. This added support allows you to lift with more confidence and maintain proper form, especially when going for those big lifts. For reliable support, consider using Gymreapers Wrist Wraps—they're designed to give your wrists the stability they need.

Dumbbell Bench Press

Using dumbbells instead of a barbell for the bench press increases your range of motion and allows for more individualization. With dumbbells, you can shift your hand position to cater to your preferences, which is ideal for those with nagging shoulder pain.

How To:

• Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on the edge of a flat bench.
• Place the weights on your thighs.
• Pull your shoulders back, engage your abs, and slowly lie back as you kick the dumbbells up, positioning them over your chest once you’re horizontal.
• Retract your shoulder blades, plant your feet on the floor, take a breath, and lower the weights to your sides.
• Pause briefly at the bottom and push the weights up, tapping them lightly at the top.

Pro Tip:

Mike Thurston recommends squeezing your chest as hard as possible at the top position to improve muscle activation and encourage growth.

VERIFIED WRIST WRAP REVIEWS

Do Elbow Sleeves Help on Bench Press?

Elbow sleeves can positively impact your bench press performance. Research by Gomes et al. (2024) shows that wearing elbow sleeves during lifts provides additional joint support and keeps your elbows warm, which helps you maintain better form and reduces the risk of injury. This support can also make the weight feel slightly lighter, allowing for a more efficient workout. However, while elbow sleeves offer these benefits, they should complement, not replace, proper technique and consistent strength training.

Incline Dumbbell Press

Pressing at an angle shifts the focus toward your chest's upper (clavicular) portion, with research recommending an incline of 30° to 45°.

How To:

• Set the incline at around 30-45°.
• Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on the edge of the bench.
• Put weights on your thighs, bring your shoulders back, and engage your abs.
• In one motion, lie back as you kick the dumbbells up, positioning them over your chest with your palms facing forward.
• Puff your chest up, engage your abs, inhale, and lower the weights to your sides.
• Press the weights up and in, tapping them lightly at the top as you exhale. 

Pro Tip:

Experiment with the angle of the back support to see what feels best. Anything from around 15° (typically the first setting on most gym benches) to 45° (midway between flat and upright) can work. 

If you feel this movement in the shoulders more than the chest, lower your bench to increase the incline. The more upright you are, the more your shoulders will take over.

Push Up

Push-ups are a classic but often overlooked chest-builder because they’re a bodyweight movement. However, when done correctly, you can build some serious muscle.

How To:

• Place your hands flat on the floor, slightly outside shoulder-width.
• Extend your body. Your shoulders, hips, and ankles should be in a straight line.
• Engage your abs to keep your lower back from rounding.
• Inhale and lower yourself until your chest is almost to the floor.
• Pause briefly and push back to the top position as you exhale.

Pro Tip:

Mike Israetel, Ph.D. recommends several modifications for better chest growth from push-ups:

1. Butt slightly elevated relative to the rest of the body.
2. Touch your chest to the floor.
3. Keep a slow tempo, especially as you go down, and pause briefly at the bottom.
4. Use push-up handles, books, or weight plates to elevate your hands off the floor and create a deficit for a more intense stretch at the bottom.

Also, you can add more resistance by wrapping a loop band over your hands and behind your back. These by Gymreapers are fantastic.

Chest Dip

Dips are a slightly more advanced bodyweight exercise. When done correctly, they build up the chest, shoulders, triceps, and core, emphasizing the lower chest more than other push exercises.

How To:

• Step up to grab both handles of a dip bar.
• Pull your shoulder blades down and back.
• Engage your abs and inhale.
• Hop lightly to extend your arms and suspend yourself in the air. You can cross your legs or keep them straight and close to one another.
• Lean slightly forward and lower yourself until your elbows form a 90° angle.
• Pause briefly and push back to the top as you exhale.

Pro Tip:

Avoid staying too upright. Doing so will shift the emphasis toward the triceps and may cause your shoulders to shrug up, creating instability and limiting your performance.

Isolation Exercises

Isolation exercises involve movement at a single joint; for the chest, this is the shoulder joint.

Dumbbell Fly

The dumbbell fly is a classic isolation exercise for the chest. Though not as popular as cable movements (which we’ll explore below), these can be highly effective.

How To:

• Grab a pair of dumbbells and sit on the edge of a flat gym bench.
• Lie back and raise the weights, positioning them over your chest with your palms facing one another.
• Bend your elbows slightly, puff your chest, engage your abs, and inhale.
• Slowly lower the dumbbells to your sides until you feel a stretch in your chest.
• Pause briefly and bring the dumbbells up, tapping them lightly as you exhale.

Pro Tip:

If you struggle to feel your chest, one simple fix you could implement is to slow the eccentric (the portion of the movement where you lower the dumbbells to your sides) to around 3-4 seconds. Slowing the tempo will help stretch the chest more effectively and improve muscle activation.

Low Cable Fly

Performing a chest fly using a cable machine provides constant tension, meaning you exert force throughout the entire range of motion. A low-to-high angle lets you target the chest's upper (clavicular) portion.

How To:

• Set the cable pulleys to their lowest position and attach a handle to each.
  
• Grab the two handles one at a time and stand in the middle of the cable pulleys.
  
• Take a step forward with your arms to your sides. Bend your elbows slightly.
  
• Puff your chest up, engage your abs, and stagger your stance, placing one foot forward and the other slightly back.
  
• Inhale and bring your arms in and up, tapping your knuckles lightly in front of your chest.
  
• Slowly bring your arms to your sides as you exhale.

Pro Tip:

Cross your hands to get more intense muscle contraction instead of just bringing your knuckles together. This additional motion helps to emphasize the inner pecs and build more definition leading to the coveted “chest split”.

High Cable Fly

With the pulleys in a high position, the angle of attack is different from that of a low cable fly. Here, the primary target is the middle and lower chest.

How To:

• Set the pulleys in a high position and attach handles.
  
• Grab the handles one at a time and stand in the middle of the machine with your arms at your sides.
  
• Take a few steps forward, stagger your stance, and bend your elbows slightly.
  
• Pull your shoulders back, inhale, and move your arms in and down, tapping your knuckles lightly in front of your lower chest.
  
• Slowly bring your arms to your sides as you exhale.

Pro Tip:

Scott Herman recommends aligning the pulley with your body to improve chest activation and avoid shoulder discomfort. To do so, he suggests setting the pulleys at head height.

Pec Deck Fly

The pec deck fly is a chest isolation exercise performed on the pec deck machine. Some machines require you to perform it with your elbows bent at 90°, while others allow you to keep your arms straight.

How To (straight arm version):

• Set the seat at a height where the handles are at chest height when you’re seated.
• Sit down, grab the handles, and pull them in, bringing them together.
• Extend your arms, plant your feet on the floor, puff your chest, and inhale.
• Slowly bring your arms to your sides to feel a stretch in your chest.
• Pause briefly and move your arms in as you exhale.

Pro Tip:

Maintain a slight bend in your elbows. This will allow you to bring your elbows further back, experience a better chest stretch, and decrease the pressure on the shoulder joint.

How To Train Your Chest For Hypertrophy

Here is your quick start guide to programming for chest hypertrophy:

Frequency

A single weekly workout can spark growth. However, there are a couple of issues with this approach:

First, you need to do a lot of work, which will affect your performance as the workout progresses and decrease the quality of your training. It will also lead to significant soreness in the following days.

Second, muscle protein synthesis is elevated for around 24 hours and gradually returns to baseline within 36 hours. So, by only training your chest once, you’re resting too long and missing out on opportunities to spike muscle protein synthesis again in the same week.

Research recommends training muscles twice weekly if the goal is muscle gain. 

For example, you could train your chest on Monday and Thursday, allowing for recovery between sessions to keep the quality of work high and re-stimulate muscle protein synthesis as it returns to baseline.

Number of Exercises

Most trainees will benefit from three or four chest exercises for optimal growth. 

I recommend:

• A compound lift for the lower and middle chest (e.g., bench press, dips, push-ups, or machine chest press)
• A compound lift for the upper chest (e.g., an incline bench press or decline push-up)
• An isolation exercise that works a specific area of the chest (e.g., a low or high cable fly)

If you want to do more exercises, you can do two compound and two isolation, such as:

• Flat and incline dumbbell press (compound movements)
• Low cable fly and pec deck fly (isolation movements)

Exercise Order

Exercises should follow the order of compound lifts first and isolation activities second. Compound lifts should be executed first when you’re strongest because they are heavier, more demanding, and require more focus as multi-joint movements.

Prioritizing compound movements when you’re most fresh allows you to lift more weight safely and provides a more potent mechanical tension stimulus, essential for muscle growth and strength gain.

After your compound work, finish with some simple isolation activities, where you lift lighter weights for more reps (typically 12-15, but sometimes 20+).

Sets, Reps, and Load

Research suggests at least ten weekly direct sets per muscle group for optimal growth. Given that the chest is a relatively large muscle, you could do around 15-16 weekly sets, so long as recovery isn’t compromised. 

Split your weekly volume into two sessions (as per Frequency recommendations).

Here’s how that could look:

• Monday: 8 sets
• Thursday: 8 sets

Aim for 6-10 reps per set for compound movements and 12-20 reps for isolation movements. 

The load you select should reflect the target rep range. The weight should be heavy enough to challenge you but still within the target rep range. If you cannot stay within the desired rep range without compromising your technique, then use a lighter weight.

Rest Periods

A simple rest period rule in weight training is to recover long enough to maintain your performance from set to set.

For example, if you get 12 reps on the first set, you should ideally get at least 10, possibly 11 reps on the last set. 

General guidelines suggest the following:

• 4-6 reps: 3-5 minutes of rest
• 6-10 reps: 2-3 minutes of rest
• 10-15 reps: 1.5-2 minutes of rest
• 15-20 reps: around 1.5 minutes of rest

Progressive Overload

Progressive overload is another crucial aspect of chest hypertrophy. Put simply, your training must become increasingly more challenging to continue forcing your body to adapt by getting stronger and building more muscle.

The simplest way to provide an overload is to lift more weight, but other options include:

• Doing more reps with the same weight
• Doing more total sets
• Adding more exercises
• Doing the same work but in less time
• Doing the same work while losing body weight

For muscle growth, it’s best to gradually increase the weight as you get to the top of a rep range. 

For example, let’s say you’re doing sets of 6-8 reps on the bench press. Once you get eight reps on all sets with proper form, add slightly more weight (say, five pounds) and work up to sets of eight reps again.

The same applies to isolation exercises, though progression occurs more slowly than with compound exercises.

Sample Workouts For Chest Hypertrophy

1x/Week

Here is what a decent chest growth workout would look like if you could only train your chest once per week:

*keep in mind that training your chest twice weekly is more effective, but that may not always be possible.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest Period
Barbell Bench Press	4	6-8	2-3 mins
Incline Dumbbell Press	4	10-12	2 mins
Pec Deck Fly	4	12-15	1.5-2 mins
Push Ups	4	To failure	2 mins

2x/Week

Here are two sample workouts to train your chest twice weekly: 

Monday:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest Period
Barbell Bench Press	4	8-10	2-2.5 mins
Low Cable Fly	4	12-15	1.5-2 mins

Thursday:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest Period
Incline Dumbbell Press	4	10-12	2 mins
Pec Deck Fly	4	12-15	1.5-2 mins

These two workouts are quite short, given that you only need 10-16 sets of chest work weekly. You can pair the chest work with other push movements for the triceps and shoulders or do upper-body workouts that train the shoulders, chest, triceps, back, biceps, and midsection.

Frequently Asked Questions

Which Exercise Is Best For Chest Growth?

There is no single best chest exercise. Experiment with various movements to see which ones target your chest best, lead to a decent pump and cause at least some soreness in the following days.

Is 3 Chest Exercises Enough?

For most trainees, yes. You can do three exercises for balanced chest development: a flat barbell press for the middle and lower chest, an incline press for the upper chest, and an isolation movement, such as a high cable fly.

Is 12 Sets Of Chest A Week Enough?

Twelve sets of chest weekly is a good starting point for most trainees and is generally enough for beginners. However, you may want to add additional sets (to around 15-16 per week) if you recover well and feel you can handle more work without overtraining.

Citation:

1. Gomes, W. A., Soares, E. G., da Silva, J. J., de Freitas, F. S., Magalhães, R. A., Lopes, C. R., & Marchetti, P. H. (2018). Elbow wrap improves bench press performance in trained subjects. Rev Bras Med Esporte, 24(4), 291-294.