The Best And Worst Chest Exercises (Ranked By Science)

what are the best and worst chest exercises for muscle growth well for a chest movement to rank highly it needs to tick three boxes one a big stretch with high tension if it doesn't offer high tension in a deep stretch I'm putting in an F tier no exceptions two it needs to feel good it shouldn't cause pain and it should have a smooth resistance profile giving a good pump and a nice mind muscle connection would be nice too three it needs to have a simple progression if you can't progressively overload by adding weight or reps

that's not good and after ranking 20 of the most popular movements from s for super to F for fail at the end I'll Crown one exercise as the best of the chest raising it to S tier plus and one as the most inept for the pecs sending it to F tier hell all right let's get the worst out of the way the hex press I'm not a big fan of these first you never get a big stretch in your pecs because your arms never stretch out they stay tucked in the whole time and they don't

offer maximum tension because your triceps will take over there's no evidence that these Target the in incs in fact I think they'd probably be worse for the incs than a standard dumbbell press since the in PEC fibers aren't getting as stretched here the hex press is going in F tier the plate press is basically a hex press that feels even more Awkward with even less overload potential so it's also going in F tier the dumbbell pullover is a tricky one biomechanics tells us that the pecs do help perform this movement alongside the lats and triceps

and when you look at the activation data the pecs do activate on pullovers the problem is I simply don't feel my pecs when I do this movement whatsoever and more or less every client I've ever worked with says the same and I don't see many top bodybuilders putting these on their chest day so despite some theoretical Merit I think pullovers are a much better lat exercise than a PE exercise and for that reason I'm going to put them in D tier all right let's look at some better exercises the bench press my ranking might surprise

you here it offers high tension on the pecs as long as you bring the bar all the way down to your chest it's very easy to overload and you can always add some weight over time as you get stronger it feels good to me although many people do complain that the bench press makes their shoulders feel a little cranky I suspect that's because they're trying to lift more weight than they should be lifting but I still hear the issue commonly enough that I do count it as a slight negative so if it were just me

I think I'd probably put the bench press in s tier I credit most of my own PEC development to this exercise however it is true that the barbell won't allow the PEC to get in quite as deep of a stretch as dumbbells do since it'll come up solid against your rib cage and based on my coaching experience not everyone gets as much pack activation out of the bench press as I do so for thaton reason I'm going to hesitantly drop it back to a tier the incline bench press has all the same upsides as the

flat bench press except it slightly emphasizes the upper pecs now a lot of people think this means it isn't as good for the mid and lower pecs as the flat bench however a recent study found that the incline bench press caused the same lower and mid pek growth as the flat bench did plus better upper PEC growth so it's very close to S tier but I think I'm going to leave it in a tier as well the decline bench press doesn't have any long-term research comparing pet growth like the incline and flat bench however biomechanics

tells us that a decline angle should Target the mid and lower pecs a bit more however it has two minor downsides for one in my experience more people struggle with getting their upper pecs to grow than their mid to lower pecs so if you're trying to shift the bias I would shift it toward the upper pecs for most people second the decline bench does have slightly less range of motion than both the flat and the incline press so out of the three angle options I would say it's my least favorite I know some people swear

by it and it clearly isn't effective chest Builder it's very close to being in a tier but I'm going to put it in B tier all right the flat dumbbell press this offers a deeper stretch on the pecs than the barbell because the dumbbells can move freely past the rib cage they feel great you should get a great chest pump on these and because people are less likely to let their ego takeover on this exercise is less common for people to have shoulder issues as a beginner and intermediate level lifter you should be able to

progressively overload this movement just fine by either adding reps or increasing the weight of the dumbbells however once you get decently strong you may max out the dumbbell rack at your gym which usually stops at 100 lb also once you get that strong the dumbbells get so big and bulky that they can be quite awkward to handle so while the flat dumbbell press is just about an S tier it's getting knocked down to a tier for those potential overloading issues in more advanced lifters the incline dumbbell press is also going in a tier since the

same basic movement with the same upsides and downside except again it has slightly more emphasis on the upper pecs and I'm putting the decline dumbbell press in B tier since I do find it awkward to set up you'll probably need someone to hand you the dumbbells and again lower pecs rarely need any extra emphasis okay the machine chest press a good chest press machine will give a nice deep stretch on the pecs and provide high tension throughout the range of motion unlike barbells and dumbbells you're more locked in which should help increase the Mind muscle

connection with your pecs and give them massive pump machines are very easy to overload you can always add some weight or a rep from week to week and they have the advantage of being a little safer to push to failure than free weights assuming you have a good chest press machine that takes all those boxes is I really can't think of a downside from a muscle building standpoint and so the machine chest press is our first exercise getting awarded to S tier all right dips let's see massive stretch on the pecs possibly the best compound

exercise I'm aware of for getting into a deep PEC stretch they offer high tension and there's many ways to apply Progressive overload you can do assisted dips and reduce the assistance weight over time or you can do body weight dips and add reps or you can slow down the negative a bit more from week to week and then as you gain more strength you can use a weight belt to add external load the only downside of dips is that some people find that their shoulders get cranky if they do them too much although I've never

actually experienced that personally but I will say I don't think dips have the smoothest feel so despite many upsides they are taking a slight hit in the feels good department for me and for that reason I'm going to put them in a tier instead of s tier they're definitely an exercise worth including though okay what about push-ups body weight push-ups are nice because you can do them anywhere without any equipment however assuming you do have gym access I think there are far better options for chest growth the problem is that once you get decently strong

you'll need to do at least 30 plus reps to get close enough to failure to maximize muscle growth which isn't ideal I do think that's fine if you're doing them as a end of workout finisher but otherwise doing all those reps can be exhausting for no added benefit you also come up solid against the floor before your pecs are fully stretched and they're not that easy to overload while you can have a partner add some weight to your back the weight always feels a bit unstable for me they are a decent beginner exercise but I'm

still putting body weight push-ups in tier banded push-ups do add some extra tension to the movement however almost all of that tension is added to the top half rather than the bottom half of the push-up so tension still isn't being maximized while the pecs are stretched I still think they're a decent finisher though so I'll put them in B tier deficit push-ups fix the problem of not getting a deep stretch on the pecs and even though they're still a bit tricky to overload you can make the exercise more challenging by pausing for 2 to 3

seconds in the bottom I think that if you're going to do push-ups this is how you should do them deficit push-ups are going in a tier I used to do a lot of plyometric push-ups in my early powerlifting days to build up explosive chest power for the bench press but I've fallen out of love with them s they're just not great for maximizing tension on the negative or in the stretch and even though there is some research supporting more explosive training I'd rather use an explosive Tempo on a weight loaded exercise like the bench press

if bodybuilding is the goal I'm going to put these in D tier as a chest Builder speaking of less conventional exercises the guillotine press is basically a normal flat bench press except you shrug your shoulders up flare your elbows out and lower the barbell down to your neck a lot of people kick up a big fuss about this exercise causing shoulder issues but there's no direct evidence or even strong rationale to support that you can listen to Dr Mike if you don't believe me some people will bench press Guillotine style where they take a higher

position on the chest and they let their elbows come up they feel a huge stretch in the pecs their shoulders feel amazing no problem correct answer other folks will touch a little bit below the nipple line actually on their abdomen and they will tuck their elbows on the way down if that is what hits your peex the most and it makes your elbows and shoulders feel nice and comfy and safe beautiful right answer what I don't want you guys to get caught up in is people on the internet who say this is bad because biomechanics

I don't know where the they say that because if you go out here notice my pecs are getting more stretched as I pull out that said I do believe that for some people especially those with pre-existing shoulder issues flaring the elbows might hurt so in that case I just wouldn't bother with these however Gill presses will stretch the pecs better than any of the other barbell presses we've discussed and it also has a cool history in lifting culture I am a fan and I would put it in a tier however because it's potentially very dangerous

dropping the bar on your neck would be lights out I'm going to go ahead and put it in F tier I just don't think the potential Hazard risk is worth any potential marginal gains you'll get from it that said if you modify the exercise to do the same basic movement with dumbbells it suddenly becomes much safer and in that case I am going to put these in a tier again these may fall in D tier or F tier for those of you who get shoulder pain from it but in my experience the majority of lifters

can flare their elbows without issue just start light and build up your tolerance to round out the dumbbell press variations I guess I'll cover the one arm dumbbell press I still see this quite a bit at the gym but doing one arm at a time has no Advantage because each PEC has to work individually in a dumbbell press anyway so doing them one arm at a time just makes it harder to keep your balance which disperses tension away from the PCS maybe a bit harsh but I'm going to put these in F tier the Smith

machine gets a lot of hate for some reason but studies consistently show that it is effective at building muscle across a variety of different exercises I think it's a great alternative to the standard bench press with all the same upsides plus I find I'm more confident pushing the Smith machine press closer to failure these are going in a tier along with the other barbell presses and the incline Smith machine press is the same basic movement except with a little more upper peack emphasis so they're also going in a tier okay so far we've been discussing

only compound chest exercises presses dips and push-up variations that will smash the pecs but also Target the front delts and triceps sometimes you want to isolate the pecs and for that we've got a bunch of PEC fly variations there's Cable Crossovers seated cable PEC flies the pec deck machine and dumbbell flies let's start with Cable Crossovers these do provide a big stretch on the pecs with nice smooth and even tension throughout the range of motion they feel good to me and usually give me a solid chest pump they're not quite as conducive to Progressive overload

as pressing movements simply because you can't go as heavy but you can still add a rep here and there and focus on technique so that's not a deal breaker the only downside to these is that by doing them standing you may find that the cable pulls your body back especially as you get stronger which can make it less stable you can correct for this by bending forward and flying downward so while it's close to being perfect it's not the most stable fly variation and for that reason I'm putting it in a tier the seated PEC

fly has all the same upsides as the cable crossover but by sitting down you get rid of the balancing component and increase the stability of the exercise which will make sure that all the tension coming from the cables is being applied directly to the pecs this is my favorite chest isolation movement at the moment and so I'm going to make it my second addition to S tier the PC Tech Machine shares many of the same benefits as you're also seated so it's nice and stable and you'll be able to get a big stretch on your

pecs with high tension I just don't find it feels quite as good as the cables do the machine locks you into a very specific movement path whereas the cables allow your shoulder to move a bit more freely this means you may not be able to find that perfect line of pull for your PC specifically this is a pretty subjective one but I'm going to put the pec deck machine in a tier all right the dumbbell fly now a couple years ago I probably would have put this one in c-tier because you get literally zero tension

at the top of the range of motion when the pecs are most contracted however recent evidence has shown that the contraction is most likely not as important as the stretch is for muscle growth and so I've opened the dumbbell fly back up as a viable option I like to do these all as length into partials so I just cut out the top half of the movement alt together where there's no tension anyway but I still don't think they're quite as smooth as cable flies and so they're losing one point in the feelsgood department I'm putting

dumbbell flies in a tier okay let's finish off with three less common exercises one that I hate one that I love and one that's just okay the cable press around is probably the only exercise we've covered so far that gets the PEC fully contracted that's because the Press around is a rare exercise where you press the cable across your midline so I do like to include it periodically for this reason because even though the stretch literature is convincing to me I still think including some short length biased work isn't a bad idea until we get

more evidence some people do find the movement to be a bit awkward at first but once you get the hang of it it really is a great option I love the Press around and it's going in a tier the crossbody standing dumbbell fly is another exercise where you extend your arm across your body to get the upper pecs fully contracted but unlike the cable press around the dumbbell offers literally zero tension when the PEC is stretched this is also basically a front raise meaning the front delts will steal a lot of the tension from the

pecs even if you squeeze them at the top doing dumbbell flies lying down makes a lot more sense biomechanically and so these are going in F tier the floor press is mainly used for developing maximum bench press strength and it's an exercise that I include in a lot of my strength and power building programs as I think it's great for smashing the triceps and improving lockout strength that said The Limited range of motion makes it a less than ideal candid it for chest hypertrophy as you never get the pecs fully stretched so even though I

do love it for strength it's just okay for pet growth and I'm going to leave it in C tier now if I had to Crown just one exercise as the best of the best I'd probably go with a machine chess press this is a broad category and some machines are certainly better than others but if you can find one that feels good at your gym I definitely think it's worth including it takes all the regular boxes and you can safely push it to failure and if I had to pick one exercise as the worst of

the worst it probably be the plate press this is just one of those exercises that influencers do to be different but unfortunately it comes with a ton of downsides and no real upside also I just launched phase two of my pure bodybuilding program over on Jeff napper.com so that's available for pre-order right now phase one of the program got the highest praise I've ever received from a whole bunch of experts in the field and I've got a long list of amazing testimonials from people who ran the programs Phase 2 builds on that by introducing more

than 90 new exercises and plenty new intensity techniques many of which I've never shown here on the channel before if you pre-order you'll get all three versions of the program for the price of one so you'll get the Push Pull legs upper lower and full body versions of the program which is more than 6 months of training in total and the pre-order lasts for 1 week if you didn't run Phase 1 yet I would recommend starting with that one first and just for this week only I'm also going to knock phase one off by 30%

so now might be a good time to pick up both as this is the most discounted they'll ever be so I'll put a link to the new program over here next to my head if you want to check it out and there'll also be links to both phases in the description box down below as well as always thank you guys so much for watching don't forget to leave me a thumbs up if you enjoyed the video subscribe if you haven't already and I'll see you guys all here in the next one