6 Best and Effective Dumbbell Exercises For Chest (2024)

According to conventional belief, the key to developing a large chest is to load up a barbell with all the weight you can find and dumbbell bench press it repeatedly until you’re completely exhausted. As the craze of a well-built chest is trending, today we will tell you the best and most effective dumbbell exercises for chest at home.

A dumbbell workout is a solution, though, if benching bothers your shoulders, you train alone at home without a reliable spotter, or you’ve discovered that barbell training just doesn’t give you a bigger chest.

Training with dumbbells may not be as pleasurable as lifting the bar until it bends, but for the majority of individuals, it’s a better path to bigger, stronger pecs with a lower risk of injury.

What dumbbell exercise is good for the chest?

The best dumbbell chest workouts and routines to build your chest from top to bottom are about to be revealed to you.

But not every chest exercise should aim for the same results. Every Monday, many guys celebrate International Chest Day on the bench press with the specific mission of lifting the most weight they can. We’re here to tell you that a chest workout doesn’t start and end with heavy barbells, which is a good objective to have, especially if you’re a powerlifter and large bench reps are a component of your sport.

The chest, however, is one muscular area that is preferred over all others for achieving the ideal summer figure. Increasing your chest gives you a gigantic appearance and makes you look stylish in your summer training attire. 

People only choose to add barbell exercises to their repertoire when thinking about developing their chest. They enjoy doing bench presses and pushing themselves to the limit in the gym. That, however, doesn’t apply to everyone.

You’ll need to try further exercises involving a variety of methods if you want to completely train the specific muscles. As variety is one of the main factors in muscular adaptation, testing your chest in various ways will be an important factor in growth. Some of these dumbbell exercises for chest can be used to develop a new strategy while also promoting muscle growth and enhancing your strength. Before you pick up a weight, it is helpful to first comprehend the muscle group.

Important Dumbbell Exercises For Chest

With dumbbells, you can perform any chest exercise that you can with a barbell. Here are some of our favorites from Rusin, many of which are well-known movements that have been given a smart twist to produce even bigger rewards. We grouped them according to the part of the chest they accentuate the most.

Comparing Chest Muscles 

The chest is less complex than other big muscle groups like the legs and back. The pectoralis major, a single muscle, is typically mentioned when discussing the chest or pecs. 

Three more bundles are formed by the muscle: 

Greater Chest (Clavicular Part) 

The Center or Middle (Sternal Part) 

Reduced Chest 

The smaller muscle group (pectoralis minor) that lies beneath the larger muscle group (pectoralis major) isn’t as important to our muscle-building gang because there aren’t any exercises specifically designed to target it. 

Inflammation of this muscle, however, is commonly misinterpreted as shoulder pain. Knowing the exact source of the issue can therefore help avoid spending money on non-essential items.

Also Read, Best Dumbbell Exercises For Chest To Gain Muscles

Dumbbell Exercises For Chest are divided into 3 parts

Upper Chest

Middle or Inner Chest

Lower dumbbell exercises for the chest

Upper Chest Exercises

The following men’s dumbbell chest workout is for your upper chest.

1. Slightly inclined dumbbell bench press

Place two or three heavy barbell plates, a small box, or a step to elevate one end of a flat workout bench. The optimal angle is 30 degrees or less. 

Hold two dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest while lying back on the bench with your head at the elevated end. 

Lower the dumbbells until they are just above the sides of the chest. Do this while slowly bending your elbows and pulling your shoulder blades together on the bench. Your elbows should be at a 45-degree angle to your body when you are lying on your back, not straight out to the sides. 

Hold the stretched position for a moment, then push the dumbbells back up while stretching your chest.

According to Rusin, standard incline bench presses cause your hips to be flexed or bent. Your entire lower body is essentially removed from the exercise as a result, which isn’t necessarily what you want. Leg drive can be incorporated into the activity in the same way that a flat barbell bench press is performed (or should be performed) by slightly elevating the bench. This essentially makes the exercise a full-body workout, increasing your ability to support more weight. 

Additionally, the inclination exerts an extra force on the pec muscle fibers that link to the clavicle.

2. Incline fly press

Place two or three heavy barbell plates on one end of a flat exercise bench to elevate it (the same as you did for the incline press described above). 

With the palms of your hands facing inward, hold two medium-heavy dumbbells at arm’s length over your chest as you recline back on the bench with your head at the elevated end. 

Squeeze your shoulder blades together while slowly lowering the dumbbells out to the sides until your chest is pleasantly extended and your elbows are at about a 90-degree angle. (Limit the range of motion if you have shoulder soreness in the fully extended position.) 

Reverse the motion and straighten your arms completely while squeezing your pecs to return to the beginning position. 

Standard fly dumbbell exercises for chest are hard on the shoulders but excellent for gaining muscle. According to Rusin, by bending the arms as you lower the weights, you can keep the force on your pecs while reducing the strain on your shoulder joints.

Middle Chest Workout

1. Crush press

Lie back on a flat exercise bench with your hands facing each other holding two heavyweights on your chest. 

In the middle of your chest, press the dumbbells together (this is your starting position). 

Slowly raise the dumbbells to arm’s length over your chest while maintaining their pressed-together position. Squeezing your chest muscles, pause a bit. 

Reverse the motion slowly to go back to the starting position. 

The pecs are made to compress tightly in a shorter position during crush presses. Flyes and dumbbell pressing routines, where the weights fall beyond your chest and emphasize a stretch on the muscles, provide a good counterpoint to this. Crush presses can be used to provide a similar effect to cable crossovers by applying intense pressure at the top, without using any different fancier station cables to do it.

2. Fly press

Lie back on an exercise bench with your hands facing inward while gripping two dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest. Your starting point is here.

Squeeze your shoulder blades together while slowly lowering the dumbbells out to the sides until your chest is pleasantly extended and your elbows are at about a 90-degree angle. (Limit the range of motion if you have shoulder soreness in the fully extended position).

Reverse the motion, tightening your pecs while completely extending your arms, until you are back in the starting position.

Flyes largely isolate the pecs and work them hardest in the fully stretched position, where the most muscle fibers can be recruited. This virtually eliminates the role of the triceps. 

Lower chest

1. 45-degree dumbbell floor press

This dumbbell chest workout at home without bench helps you lift efficiently.

Lie on your back on the floor and cross two dumbbells over your chest at arm’s length. You can either hold the dumbbells while lying back from a seated posture or have a partner hand them to you.

Rotate your wrists, as if you were gripping a steering wheel at 10 and 2 o’clock so that your thumb and pinky sides are closer together. Your starting point is here.

Reduce the weights gradually until your triceps just make contact with the floor while keeping your elbows close to your sides.

Push the weights back to their initial position. 

The floor press works the pecs in a posture where they are shortened, much like the crushing press does. They’re a fantastic option for persons with shoulder problems because the range of motion is condensed, causing a little stretch on the shoulders.

2. Decline Dumbbell Bench Press

Place two or three large, heavy barbell plates on one end of a flat exercise bench to elevate it.

Hold two large dumbbells at arm’s length above your chest while lying back on the bench with your head at the lower end. Lie flat with your feet on the bench.

Lower the dumbbells until they are just above the sides of the chest. Do this while slowly bending your elbows and pulling your shoulder blades together on the bench.

Holding the dumbbells stretched, press them back to the starting position.

With the shoulders in a neutral or centered position, the modest decline works the pecs. Your muscles can exert their maximum force in this balanced position, and the declining angle draws in more sternum-connected muscle fibers (targeting the lower chest). Want to add weight to your chest exercise? Pick this one. It’s safer than performing heavy-weight flat or incline presses.

These are all the best dumbbell exercises for chest. You can also mix these exercises with some barbell workouts for the chest. It will surely improve your strength and stamina in lifting heavy weights.