5 Effective Chest Workout Variations That You Must Try STAT

While everyone dreams of possessing a well-toned body, only a few manage to achieve it. And those, who have worked hard to gain the body of everyone’s desire, leave no stone unturned in flaunting it. Well, you can drool over those well-toned muscles, but it takes a lot of hard work and dedication to achieve your fitness goals. From maintaining a strict diet to being regular with your daily fitness routine, one needs to pay attention to minute details to gain a ripped body.

The upper body muscles play a vital role in making or breaking your overall look, so one needs to focus on their pectoral muscles to achieve a well-toned chest. While a chiselled chest would help shape your upper body, it would also give you the much-needed confidence to go shirtless. Having strong pectoral muscles will not only enhance your upper body strength but also improve flexibility and overall health as well.

The daily chest routine can get monotonous after a while, AskMen India shares a list of effective workout variations that will keep you excited throughout the workout session.

Diamond Push-ups

Push-ups is touted as a compound exercise that targets multiple muscle groups at the same time. Apart from strengthening your core, push-ups do wonders on the chest, back and shoulder muscles as well. And one can always innovate the exercise by trying various variations like the clap push-ups, superman push-ups, double knee tap push-ups, diamond push-ups and many others to focus on the chest region. These variations are easy and don’t require much space, so you can add them to your daily fitness routine to improve your overall body strength.
Steps to follow:

• Lie down on the floor with your back facing the ceiling.
• Place your thumb and index fingers in a position that they form a diamond.
• Raise your upper body by extending your arms.
• Bend your elbows and lower your body.
• Try to maintain a straight body posture.
• Return to the original position.
• Repeat.

Reverse grip press

If you feel bored doing the regular incline bench dumbbell press every chest day, then you can try its alternative, the reverse grip press, also known as the underhand press. Apart from being more effective, the reverse grip press focuses on the upper chest muscles while taking off the pressure from the shoulder muscles. A great way of building upper body strength, the reverse grip press is a good workout variation that would help you achieve great chest muscles.
Steps to follow:

• Lie on a flat bench and grab the dumbbell.
• Switch your grip from an overhand to a reverse grip position.
• Hold your arms straight up.
• Bend your elbows and lower the dumbbell.
• Return to the original position.
• Repeat.

Dips

Dips may look easy, but they are one of the toughest workouts that target your upper body muscles. Dips mainly focus on the tricep muscle, but one can shift the focus to the pectoral muscles by just changing the angle of his body weight. Apart from leaning forward, make sure that you look downwards so that all the pressure is focused on the chest muscles.
Steps to follow:

• Push yourself up onto the parallel bars.
• Straighten out your arms.
• Lower yourself down with your arms.
• Make sure you lean forward with your face looking downwards.
• Keep your head and shoulders straight.
• Go back to the original position.
• Repeat.

One arm cable crossover

One arm cable crossover is a good exercise that concentrates on the pectoral muscles. Apart from strengthening your chest muscles, the one-arm cable crossover variation is a good workout to gain instant results. It targets both: upper and lower chest muscles, thus helps you achieve a well-toned upper body.
Steps to follow:

• Set the cable pulley at chest height.
• Hold the cable in one arm.
• Stand at approximately 30 degrees from the cable.
• Pull the cable but make sure you keep your elbow straight.
• Return to the original position.
• Repeat.

Partial bench press

A partial bench press is said to be more effective than a complete bench press as the former focuses only on the chest muscles while the latter brings in the shoulder muscles into play. Just make sure that you don’t allow your elbows to bend more than 90 degrees or else the pressure is transferred from the chest to the shoulder region.
Steps to follow:

• Lie with back on the bench.
• Position the bar at elbow length on the pins.
• Lower the bar slowly until your elbow forms a 90 degree.
• Push the bar up again.
• Return to the original position.
• Repeat.

These simple variations will add the much-need spice to your monotonous and boring workout.

Cover artwork by Dhaval Punatar/AskMen India

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