Exercises to build chest muscles without weights
Many people think that building the bigger chest requires going to the gym or using equipment. There are, in fact, many exercises that you can do at home/outside without weights any equipment – your own body weight is your equipment.
Building chest muscles doesn’t have to be complicated, so let’s get back to the basics with these 5 bodyweight exercises that will give you excellent results at home.
Target muscle groups: chest, arms, shoulders and back
1. PUSH-UPS
Push-ups are a great bodyweight exercise that hits your chest and arms. The beauty of the push-up is that you can do it anywhere and anytime by using your own body weight, you just need a firm surface.
The push-up requires several muscle groups to work, unlike other exercises that require weights, it works the smaller muscle groups and uses them as stabilizers. This means that your core and hip flexors are also affected even though your chest is the main target.
Want more muscle in the upper body? Don't want to go to the gym or buy weights? Workout plans for building muscle at home without equipment are available in the Madbarz Premium.
2. DECLINE PUSH-UPS
The decline push-up is a more difficult version of the basic push-up. The difficulty is increased by placing your feet on a higher level than your hands. The higher your bench/chair/box is the more difficult and intense the movement gets, and consequentially you get better results.
3. DIAMOND PUSH-UPS
Diamond push-ups are another challenging variation of push-ups performed by placing your hands close together until your thumbs and index fingers touch forming a “diamond” shape. Having you hands in this position while doing push-ups will slightly alter which muscles are involved in the exercise - triceps and inner chest muscles will be affected more.
4. PUSH-UP HOLD
The push-up hold is an isometric (held) type of exercise that will improve your chest strength and definition and will also work your core, shoulders and arms. This exercise has another benefit apart from making you physically strong, it will definitely make you mentally “tougher”.
This is because you need to hold the push-up position (lowered down) for as much as you can. So if you think that doing push-ups is tough, think how tough this is. The main key here is to believe that you can do it and to push your limits.
Find various chest workout routines in the Madbarz Workout App for iOS and Android! You can also create your own workouts or filter out Madbarz workouts by the areas you want to focus on.
5. WIDE PUSH-UPS
Doing push-ups in a wide position is another variation that will put more pressure on your chest. This is because most of your weight is transferred to your pectoral (chest) muscles when you place your hands in a wide position. So the farther you put your hands out, the greater the challenge for your chest.
