The Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises To Try At Home
Building chest muscles is vital to maintaining a good physique. A wide range of exercises allows you to build your chest. Therefore, it’s essential to choose a type of exercise that suits you and is feasible.
Dumbbells are popular for chest workouts. You can easily do them at home with minimum equipment. Learning how to use dumbbells is also not all that difficult.
Let’s look at a few dumbbell workouts that are great for building your chest and a few tips on using dumbbells and doing exercises correctly.
Benefits Of Dumbbell Chest Exercises
Dumbbell exercises are trendy because there are so many benefits to doing them. Here are a few of those:
- It allows a more extensive range of motion which helps more muscles grow.
- It provides you with strength and balance in both arms.
- It places less stress on the joints.
- It activates more chest muscles than any other chest exercise.
Warming Up Before Doing Dumbbell Chest Exercises
Warming up is vital before doing any exercise. Similarly, you need to warm up before starting dumbbell chest workouts properly.
Warming up before working out gives you time to prepare your body for the workouts you are about to do. It also helps you to give your best while performing workouts. Warmups also help prevent injuries that could happen while doing exercises.
Before doing dumbbell chest workouts, you can try doing warm-up exercises like carrying low weights or jumping on the treadmill.
You also need to keep your energy levels high before working out. It means you need to get the required nutrients through a healthy and nutritious meal before you start exercising.
Homemade meal replacement shakes are great for getting the required essential nutrients to keep you fit while working out. In addition, whipping up your shake will save you a lot of money and ensure that you are drinking something healthy.
7 Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises To Try At Home
There are so many types of dumbbell exercises that you can try out. Some are great to try at home, while others are better to try out at the gym. The home workouts are simple, and you can do them by yourself.
More complex workouts require you to get the help of an instructor, which is why you would want to hit the gym.
Let’s look at 7 dumbbell chest exercises that you can try to do at home.
Standing Chest Press
This exercise is aimed at pectoral muscles, which can help with new muscle growth and stimulation. The standing position allows this to happen. You only need one dumbbell to do this exercise.
How to do it
- Stand with your feet apart.
- Hold a dumbbell between your palms, in front of your chest.
- Squeeze the dumbbell with your palms.
- Push the dumbbell away from you and return to the starting position.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
Dumbbell Bench Press
This exercise is a favorite among many. It provides benefits to your chest as well as your shoulders.
How to do it
- Lie on the bench, face-up, while holding dumbbells with both hands at the outside corner of your shoulders.
- Press the dumbbells straight up, right above your chest.
- Stay in this position for a second and bring the dumbbells back to the starting position.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
Standing Dumbbell Chest Fly
It is one of the best exercises to do at home, focusing on the chest muscles alone. Its focus is on the upper chest to make it broader and more well-developed.
How to do it
- Stand, holding a dumbbell in each hand, with your palms facing upwards.
- Stretch your arms up and out to the sides, with your elbows straight.
- Bring the dumbbells back to the center.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
Reverse Dumbbell Chest Press
Hand and wrist positioning are vital in this exercise. In this exercise, you hold the dumbbells with your palms facing backward, hence the ‘reverse’ dumbbell chest press.
How to do it
- Lie on the floor with your feet flat and your knees bent.
- Carry a dumbbell with a reverse grip on each hand.
- Position your arms at 45 degrees from your body.
- Press the dumbbells from your palms and raise them above your chest.
- Bring your arms back to the starting position, at 45 degrees from your body.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
Bridged Floor Press
This exercise targets the pec muscles while activating the hamstrings and glutes. It is a great exercise that can improve your striking ability.
How to do it
- Lie on your back with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing each other.
- Position both hands over your chest.
- Lift the dumbbells up, ensuring your knees and shoulders are in one line.
- Lower the dumbbells back to the starting position.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
Stability Ball Dumbbell Chest Fly
You can do this exercise on a bench, stability ball, or floor. Doing it on a stability ball can be challenging when considering the balance and stability required. Doing this exercise on the floor allows you to use more weight.
How to do it
- Keep the middle part of your back on the stability ball and position yourself with your knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
- Push your hip upwards as much as possible.
- Hold the dumbbells together above your chest, keeping your elbows bent.
- Open your arms parallel to the floor and pull the dumbbells back together.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
Lateral Raise
This exercise is excellent for building not only your chest but also your shoulder. It also helps in developing a V-shaped body.
How to do it
- Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand, keeping your chest up and back straight.
- Raise the dumbbells to shoulder level until your arms are parallel with the floor.
- Stay in this position for one second and return to the starting position.
- Repeat at least 3 times.
More Dumbbell Chest Exercises To Try
You can also try doing these dumbbell chest exercises at home, apart from those explained above.
- One leg, one arm dumbbell row
- Close-grip dumbbell chest press
- Mixed-style incline dumbbell press
- Decline dumbbell press
- Dumbbell T push-ups
- Single-arm floor chest press
- Stability ball dumbbell pull-overs
- Dumbbell squeeze press
- Incline-bench dumbbell pull-over
- Dumbbell push-ups
How To Pick Dumbbells Up Safely
There is a proper way to pick up dumbbells safely. If you don’t do it correctly, you risk injuring yourself, which is the last thing you want due to exercising.
Place the dumbbells on your knees and sit back to grab the dumbbells with a hammer grip. It is ideal if you feel the dumbbells are very heavy. Remember to breathe while bracing your core, to pick up dumbbells safely.
Warming up your arms and doing a few jumps on the treadmills is also suitable before picking up dumbbells.
Tips To Follow When Doing Dumbbell Chest Exercises At Home
Here are a few points to remember when doing dumbbell chest exercises at home.
- Warm up before starting the workout session.
- Learn how to pick up dumbbells safely.
- Avoid the dumbbells for colliding at the end of each rep while working out.
- Maintain some tension in your abs and avoid putting pressure on your back.
- Keep movements slow and controlled. Don’t rush with the dumbbells.
Keeping these tips in mind will ensure a smooth workout session at home with dumbbells and prevent any injuries.
Conclusion
Dumbbells are great for various exercises and can help build a lot of muscles in your body. You can try out these dumbbell chest exercises at home, as they are pretty simple to do independently.
These exercises are primarily focused on building your chest muscles, while some of them can also be helpful for your shoulders and abs.
Remember to follow the above tips to have a successful workout session with dumbbells right in the comfort of your home.
FAQs
Is It Hard To Build My Chest Muscles?
The chest consists of the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor and is known to be a complex muscle to build. However, you can develop your chest muscles with the right type of exercise and dedication. For example, dumbbell chest exercises are proven to be successful at building your chest.
What Muscles Work When You Do Dumbbell Chest Exercises?
Dumbbell chest exercises work on the pectorals, deltoids, and triceps. However, it can also build muscle strength by working on your biceps.
What Are The Best Chest Exercises To Do As A Beginner?
Beginners may find it challenging to do specific dumbbell chest exercises. The best dumbbell chest exercises for a beginner are performing two sets of push-ups or the dumbbell bench press and following it with two sets of the incline dumbbell chest fly.
