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The Best Workout to Hammer Your Chest

Overhauling your chest training is fruitless. Instead, try this workout with slight tweaks on traditional moves.

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  • 30 min.

  • 4

  • Yes

Barbell Bench Press
Per Bernal
Barbell Bench Press
Per Bernal

When it comes to pumping up your pecs, a mix of bench press and flye variations has been the go-to formula for the past 50 years. And we’re not about to mess with a good thing.

If you want to change things up, you can reorder the exercises or add a fourth and fifth movement to the routine.

This modernized version of the classic chest routine subs in a standard barbell bench press for the dumbbell bench press, adds a Hammer Strength incline press, swaps out cable flyes for pec deck flyes, and utilizes a few different set/rep schemes.

It’s slightly different from the tried-and-true formula, but overall it’s just more of a good thing.

Routine

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Straight Up

Exercise
Equipment
Sets
Reps
Rest
Exercise 2 of 4

Dumbbell Press

Equipment
Bench, Dumbbells
Sets
4
Reps
10
Rest
--
Exercise 3 of 4

Bodyweight Dip

Equipment
Dip Station
Sets
3
Reps
To failure*
Rest
--
*On your last set, do one rest-pause set; after reaching failure initially, rest 10 to 20 seconds and rep out to failure one more time.
Exercise 4 of 4

Cable Flye

Equipment
Sets
3
Reps
12*
Rest
--
How to
*On your last set, perform one dropset after reaching failure with the original weight.

Level Up

Exercise
Equipment
Sets
Reps
Rest
Equipment
Barbell, Bench
Sets
2
Reps
12, 6*
Rest
--
Go light on the first warmup set for 12 reps, then add 20 to 30% more weight for the second warmup set.
Equipment
Barbell, Bench
Sets
3
Reps
5, 10, 15*
Rest
--
How to
Reverse pyramid; go considerably lighter on each set, starting with your estimated 6RM on the first set for 5 reps.
Exercise 8 of 4

Pec Deck Flye

Equipment
Sets
3
Reps
20
Rest
--
Exercise 9 of 4

Bodyweight Dip

Equipment
Dip Station
Sets
--
Reps
30-50*
Rest
--
Aim to complete in as few sets as possible. Complete 50 reps if advanced, 40 for intermediates, and 30 for beginners.
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