Speaking of, the lateral raise and triceps kickback round out the workout. Now, these don’t hit the pectorals directly, but “our shoulders and our arms assist our pecs whenever we’re pushing, so being able to strengthen them independently also can be advantageous,” Freeman says.
Quick caveat: If you’re new to resistance training in general, Freeman suggests starting with two to three total-body sessions per week, which means you wouldn’t slot in a chest day-specific routine like this into your workout plan. With that approach, they explain, you can build the habit without burning out and overtraining. Once you’ve gotten comfortable with that cadence and are ready for more gym sessions (or home workouts!), you could do this chest one. It’s a good beginner chest workout because it uses dumbbells (which are more newbie-friendly than barbells) and is packed with classic, foundational exercises you can progress over time.
Do it as a stand-alone routine if you really want to strengthen your chest. Or you can tack it on to leg and glute-focused exercises, like squats and hinges, to make it more of a full-body workout. Just make sure you’re also incorporating pulling exercises into your overall program to hit your back muscles, including your lats, so that you avoid creating or exacerbating muscle imbalances.
No matter how you slot this sequence into your routine, it’s sure to fire up your chest, arm, and shoulder muscles and improve your all-important pushing abilities. Here’s all you need to know to give it a whirl!
The Workout
What you need: Three sets of dumbbells. A heavy pair for the chest press, a medium pair for the overhead press, and a light pair for the pec fly, lateral raise, and triceps kickback. The right weight will depend on your current strength level and familiarity with these exercises, but as a general rule of thumb, aim to use weights that feel challenging but doable to complete the prescribed rep count with. If you can do more than 15 reps of a given exercise with good form, then that’s a sign to bump up your weight.
Exercises
- Chest Press
- Overhead Press
- Pec Fly
- Lateral Raise
- Triceps Kickback
Directions
- Do the following moves in the order listed below. For each, do two sets of 10–15 reps, resting at least 30 to 60 seconds after each set.
- Once you’ve completed two sets of an exercise, move onto the next exercise on the list.
