Anyone could agree: Powerful pecs are huge for creating an irresistible physique. (That’s why they call it pectoralis major.)
But can you develop a bigger chest Greek gods would be jealous of with just your bodyweight?
Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: You ready to work?
You can most definitely create the chest you so desire with an arsenal of bodyweight chest exercises, and that’s what we’re here for.
In this guide, we’ll give you a full overview of exercises for that thick, manly chest, as well as how to structure your bodyweight chest exercise routine at home.
Why Bodyweight Chest Exercises?
Before the age of gym memberships and sweaty locker rooms, there was the great outdoors.
Somehow, in the early times, there were those who had unbelievable muscular development, especially in their chest.
How was this possible? One word: Calisthenics.
Bodyweight chest exercise has an impressive array of benefits:
Bodyweight chest exercises are cost effective
Today got away from you; it’s 11 PM, the gym is closed, you can’t get your workout in…oh, wait. With calisthenic training, you aren’t beholden to a time or place. Get your workout on at the park, at home, in the early morning or late at night. That’s why its called a bodyweight exercise – your body is the equipment and gravity provides the resistance.
Anyone can do them
It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, you can do these exercises. Push-ups on your knees, your toes, elevated, or one-handed – there’s a push-up for every individual. Bodyweight training in general is ideal for beginners, as it creates a strong foundation of functional movement and muscle activation before progressing to load-bearing exercises. Many of these foundational exercises can also be modified to add further resistance with a resistance band or weights when you want to take your training to the next level.
They’re a great way to stay injury-free
These exercises don’t require massive amounts of weights to get the desired effects. You still gain muscle mass, without the heavy bar suspended ominously over your neck. Sound good? As long as you’re adequately warmed up and practice proper form, you should avoid injuries and stay on track to build that kick-ass chest.
Injury reduction and accessibility go hand-in-hand. Seniors and people with underlying medical conditions often face limitations in regards to mobility and load-bearing. While some bodyweight training will be off limits, there are plenty of options and modifications to work around existing conditions.
You can do them anywhere
The global pandemic has forced many people to rethink their training protocols and find creative ways to stay strong during quarantine. Bodyweight training is ideal for those who want to incorporate resistance training into their home chest workout, but lack the budget or space for a full gym setup.
If that sounds good to you, then let’s proceed to the complete list of calisthenics exercises for killer chest training.
The Complete List of Bodyweight Chest Exercises
Below is a comprehensive list of all bodyweight chest lifts. For each exercise, we go into basic how-to, calisthenics equipment you may need to perform the movement, scaling for those below or above the classic version skill level, as well as variations for targeting the four different areas of the pecs.
Also, if you already have dumbbells in your home, and want to know more about how your can add variation to your workouts with dumbbells, read our post called 9 Dumbbell Chest exercises you can do at home.
As a quick note, you can adapt most of the original exercises (push-ups, dips, etc.) to hit all four areas of the chest.
For example, with the push-up you can target your upper chest muscle by elevating your feet, or lower chest muscle by elevating your hands, or inner chest by moving your hands closer together, or outer chest by spreading your hands wide.
The cool thing is, with bodyweight workouts you get complex movements that hit multiple areas simultaneously. This is why we don’t need to focus on inner or outer chest; you can simply alter hand placement for most of the exercises and you can focus on one or the other.
Keep this in mind when you’re creating your calisthenics chest workout routine.
Bodyweight Chest Exercises for Beginners
These chest exercises are great if you’re just starting out with bodyweight exercises.
Standard Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Pectorals, triceps, biceps, shoulders.
What Makes Them So Effective:
The push-up is the classic bodyweight chest press exercise. They’re simple, require no equipment, and train the same muscles as a bench press or dumbbell chest press.
How to Do a Standard push-up:
- Start in a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Bend your elbows and descend toward the floor (keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle).
- When your chest touches the floor, pause. Keep your core and glutes tight.
- Push up from the floor back to the top of a plank. Repeat.
Scaling:
Perform push-ups from your knees, or practice push-up negatives.
(In a push-up negative, you start at the top of a push-up and descend to the floor as slowly as you can. This is a good way to “trick” your brain into getting the stimulus of a push-up before you can do the full range of motion.)
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
All you need is floor space. Start with 3 sets of 10 and work your way up, adding 2 to 5 reps each time you workout.
Slow Motion Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Pectorals, triceps, biceps, shoulders.
What Makes Them So Effective:
The slow motion forces your shoulders, chest, and triceps to stabilize your body as you descend to the floor and return up. The smaller muscles in your upper body get an extra workout and you may get an extra pump, too.
How to Do a Slow Motion Push-up:
- Start in a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Bend your elbows and descend toward the floor (keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle).
- In your head or out loud, count to 4. Do not touch your chest to the floor until you hit 4.
- When your chest touches the floor, pause. Keep your core and glutes tight.
- Push up from the floor back to the top of a plank. Again, it should take 4 seconds to return to the top.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Start with 2 or 3 seconds on each rep, or start from the knees.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 6 is a good place to start. Add 1 rep per workout and build up over time.
Full Stop Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Pectorals, triceps, biceps, shoulders, core.
What Makes Them So Effective:
Stopping at the bottom of a push-up takes momentum out of the movement, making this one of the most effective bodyweight chest workout exercises. There’s no cheating the movement with this effective isometric exercise, and you’ll feel the burn.
How to Do a Slow Motion Push-up:
- Start in a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Bend your elbows and descend toward the floor (keeping each elbow at a 45-degree angle)
- Pause with your chest about an inch from the floor, keeping your core and glutes tight.
- Count to three. Envision each shoulder blade pulling toward the other to maintain tension.
- Push up from the floor back to the top of a plank. Pause at the top.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Start with 2 or 3 seconds on each rep, or start from the knees.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 6 is a good place to start. Add 1 rep per workout and build up over time.
Wide Grip Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Pectorals, shoulders, lats, triceps.
What Makes Them So Effective:
The wider grip works your chest muscles in a different way, and forces your lats to engage to keep you upright when you descend.
How to Do a Wide Grip Push-up:
- Start in a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Place your hands further than shoulder width apart (approximately 6 inches outside of shoulder-width)
- Bend your elbows and descend toward the floor (keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle).
- When your chest touches the floor, pause. Keep your core and glutes tight.
- Push up from the floor back to the top of a plank. Repeat.
Scaling:
Bring your hands in more (3 inches instead of 6), or start from your knees.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 8 reps. Add 1 rep each time you perform these in your workouts.
Pike Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Shoulders, lats, chest, triceps, core.
What Makes Them So Effective:
Great for training shoulder strength and upper body stability. These are also a great beginner exercise to get your first handstand push-up.
How to Do a Pike Push-up:
- Start in a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Bring your hips up in the air to a downward dog yoga position. Hold it. Look at your toes.
- Bend your elbows and bring your head and torso toward the floor (keep your elbows close to your body)
- When your head touches the floor, pause. Keep your core and glutes tight.
- Push up from the floor back to the top of a pike position. Repeat.
Scaling:
Limit the range of motion. Put an ab mat underneath your head and only descend to that at first.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
Ab mat or soft surface to perform reps on. Start with 3×3 and focus on form, then slowly build up over time.
Inner and Outer Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Pectorals, triceps, biceps, core, lats.
What Makes Them So Effective:
These alternate between working your chest muscles and really blasting your triceps. They also force your core to stabilize while you’re moving which is a good workout for your abs and obliques.
How to Do a Inner and Outer push-up:
- Start in a modified plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Place your hands approximately 6 inches away from each other (narrow-grip push-up).
- Do a narrow grip push-up.
- At the top of the rep, reposition your left hand so that it’s out wider than shoulder-width apart.
- Do a wide-grip push-up.
- Keep alternating reps.
Scaling:
Perform these from your knees, or do them in small reps until you get the hang of it.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 8 (4 on each side). Add 1-2 reps each time you do these.
Incline Push-up
Muscles Being Worked:
Shoulders, lower chest muscles, triceps, back.
What Makes Them So Effective:
The decreased angle of the reps target the lower chest muscles, which don’t get as much of a workout in a normal push-up. You don’t need an incline bench to complete this exercise— you can use everything from a chair to a stack of books against the wall.
How to Do an Incline Push-up:
- Start with your hands on a raised box at chest height, or other sturdy surface in a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Follow all the cues of a regular push-up; fight to keep your core tight and your hips from sagging as you fatigue.
- Repeat.
Scaling
Lower the incline or decrease the number of reps.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
Box, couch, or other sturdy elevated surface. Start at 3×5 and add reps accordingly.
Intermediate Bodyweight Chest Exercises
Once you’ve mastered the beginner exercises, or when you’re ready for a challenge, give these a try.
Floating X Plank
Muscles Being Worked:
Full-body (especially your core).
What Makes Them So Effective:
These floating x planks force your core to stabilize as your legs sway back and forth. They’re fantastic for a post-WOD ab/oblique session or for building your abs up for summer.
How to Do a Floating X Plank:
- Set your feet into the rings or TRX bands behind you. Get into a full plank.
- In your plank, bring your right arm across your body to touch your left side. This should be slow and controlled; avoid swaying.
- Return your right arm, then repeat on the left side.
Scaling:
Practice these on a stable elevated surface first.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
Rings or TRX bands. 3 sets of 8 touches (4 on each side) to start.
Decline Diamond Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Triceps, lower chest muscles, core.
What Makes Them So Effective:
Again, these target your lower chest muscles which are neglected in a traditional push-up.
How to Do a Decline Diamond Push-up:
- Start with your feet on a raised box or other sturdy surface in a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- Bring your hands together close, so that together, your fingertips look like a diamond.
- Follow all the cues of a regular push-up; fight to keep your core tight and your hips from sagging as you fatigue.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Lower the height of the elevated sturdy surface for your feet, or spread your hands slightly apart.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
Box, chair, or other sturdy surface.
Single-Leg Knuckle Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, forearms, core, hips.
What Makes Them So Effective:
These add a unilateral component to the traditional push-up, forcing you to maintain stability on one side of the body while you do your reps.
How to Do a Single Leg Knuckle Push-up:
- Follow all the cues of a regular push-up (several descriptions are listed above).
- Instead of having your hands on the floor, start on your knuckles with a closed fist.
- Without bending the knee, lift your right leg off the ground slightly.
- Bend your elbows and do a push-up. Keep the leg off the ground the entire time.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Put an ab mat or towel under you so you don’t have to do the full ROM at first.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
None, unless you’re scaling; then you’ll need a towel.
Sliding Fly
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, lats, biceps, shoulders, triceps.
What Makes Them So Effective:
These are incredibly challenging and truly will test your upper body strength and stability.
How to Do a Sliding Fly:
- Start at the top of a push-up with your hands on two 2.5lb plates or other slidable object.
- Instead of descending to the floor, slowly side your hands out laterally; go as far as you can before you fall to the floor.
- Return to the top of a push-up.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Limit your ROM; only move a few inches laterally at first if that’s all you can do.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
Sliding plates or other object that will move on a gym floor.
Uneven Push-up
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, core (especially obliques, triceps, biceps, shoulders.
What Makes Them So Effective:
Elevating one side at a time forces one side of your chest to work much harder than the other, which ups the stimulus you’re getting and drives gains.
How to Do an Uneven Push-up:
- Start in the top of a plank position (four points of contact with the floor: two hands, two feet).
- This time, start with your left hand on top of a box, yoga block, or other sturdy raised object (you can use a medicine ball if you’re really strong).
- Perform a regular push-up. Repeat the desired number of reps, then switch sides.
Scaling:
Use a smaller object so the difference isn’t quite as stark. Even a small plate is a good way to practice these.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
A small raised object (25lb plate, yoga block, medicine ball, box, etc.)
Wide Grip Crucifix Push-up
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, lats, biceps, shoulders.
What Makes Them So Effective:
These are the widest of the wide push-ups; they’ll really blast your chest muscles and force the rest of your upper body to work together.
How to Do a Wide Grip Crucifix Push-up:
- Start in a very wide push-up position (four points of contact still, just with your hands out as wide as you can go; you should look like a cross from the top).
- Descend down like a normal push-up. You’ll only be able to go a few inches.
- Push up, then repeat.
Scaling:
Bring the arms in or just try wide-grip push-ups to start.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 6 to 8 is a good place to start.
Advanced Bodyweight Chest Exercises
If you’re a push-up guru, these will be in your wheelhouse. Good luck!
Extended Arm Push-up
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, lats, shoulders, core.
What Makes Them So Effective:
You’re essentially forcing yourself to do a push-up and a pull-up like motion at the same time (the contraction of your lats is insane during this exercise).
How to Do an Extended Arm Push-up:
- Start in an extended arm push-up position—four points of contact still, but with your arms (straight) way out in front of your head.
- Perform a push-up like regular.
- Since your hands are out way in front of your head, your elbows will only bend slightly and should not flare out at all.
Scaling:
Crawl your hands in closer to a normal push-up.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 3 to 5 to start.
Grasshopper Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, triceps, abs, obliques, lower back, and hips—pretty much everything!
What Makes Them So Effective:
These turn an upper body chest workout into a killer core and cardio training session.
How to Do a Grasshopper Push-up:
- Start in the top of a plank or push-up position (four points of contact).
- Do a regular push-up; at the top, bring your right leg off the floor and underneath your body, touching the outside of your shin and thigh to the ground.
- Return your right leg.
- Do another push-up, then repeat the movement with your left leg.
- Continue alternating.
Scaling:
Bring the leg off the ground but don’t tuck it underneath.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 8. Progress in even numbers so you do a rep on each side.
Clapping Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, triceps, core, shoulders.
What Makes Them So Effective:
Clapping push-ups help develop the fast-twitch muscle fibers in your upper body. You’ll be a more explosive athlete from doing these.
How to Do a Clapping Push-up:
- Start in the top of a push-up or plank position (four points of contact).
- Descend to the bottom of a push-up like normal; at the bottom, push up explosively. Your arms should leave the ground.
- While you’re momentarily off the ground, clap your hands together. Quickly return your hands to catch yourself in the top of a push-up.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Practice explosive push-ups (no clap) first.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of 5 to 8 with good form. If you can’t clap or have to “kip” your way up, reduce the reps.
Decline Wall Push-Up
Muscles Being Worked:
Shoulders, upper pecs, triceps. Your core does a lot of work here to stabilize, too.
What Makes Them So Effective:
These are a great way to start working on your handstand push-ups.
How to Do a Decline Wall Push-up:
- Start with your feet flat against a wall in the bottom of a push-up; climb your feet up the wall so that they’re above your head.
- Maintain a tight core here; no sagging of the hips.
- Perform regular push-ups like usual—bend the elbows 45-degrees, and touch your chest to the ground on each rep.
- When you’re done, slowly climb your way back down the wall.
Scaling:
Start with your feet lower on the wall.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
3 sets of as many good reps as you can do with perfect form. Don’t compromise technique or safety here to get a few extra repetitions in.
Chest Dip
Muscles Being Worked:
Triceps, chest, forearms, biceps.
What Makes Them So Effective:
Besides push-ups, these are the single best chest workout you can do without equipment meaning dips can easily be carried out at home. Get ready to really target your triceps, too, which are essential for developing a strong chest.
What’s the difference between a chest dip and a tricep dip? Your positioning. With a chest dip, you’ll lean forward more and allow your upper arm to become parallel with the floor. With a tricep dip, you maintain an upright chest for a more acute angle between your upper arm and forearm.
How to Do a Dip:
- Place your hands on a set of rings or parallettes; bring your feet off the ground and position your head in front of the rings.
- Bending at the elbows, descend to the bottom of the dip. Keep your feet in front of your body for balance.
- Drive up to a lockout. Once your arms are straight, the rep is complete.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Scale to box or chair dips.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
Rings, parallettes, or a box or sturdy chair. 3 sets of 8 dips is a good place to start, whether on the rings or with parallettes.
Ring Chest Flys
Muscles Being Worked:
Chest, triceps, biceps, shoulders.
What Makes Them So Effective:
This is a great exercise for packing on serious amounts of muscle in your chest. They’ll leave you quite sore the first time you do them, so start slow!
How to Do a Ring Chest Fly:
- Start from a standing position with your hands on the rings or TRX bands.
- Bring your body forward, slowly. Allow your straight arms to move out to the side, as if you’re forming a cross with your body (this happens slowly, too).
- Go as far as you can. You’ll feel tons of tension in your shoulders and chest as you descend toward the floor.
- Once you can go no further, “close the door” with your arms. Keep them straight, but bring your arms back together as you come back to a stand.
- Repeat.
Scaling:
Practice with dumbbells first, or only go down part of the way on the rings or TRX bands.
Equipment Required & Recommended Repetitions:
Rings or TRX bands. 3 sets of 3 to start, and work your way up slowly.
Bodyweight Chest Workout Example
If your goal is to build more lean muscle and get a bigger chest, you don’t need to spend hours at the gym or require specialized equipment. There are so many variations to the core chest exercises that you can make serious gains from anywhere without putting the same chest exercise on repeat.
Use this guide to create a simple— but not easy— bodyweight workout routine for a bigger chest.
Bodyweight Chest Workout
- Choose three base exercises from the list. Ideally, you’ll have a standard push-up, a dip exercise, and another variation.
- Start with three sets of each exercise, using the rep recommendations above. Feel free to scale your reps based on your goals— 8-12 reps for hypertrophy, 12-15 for muscular endurance. The varying intensity of each modification will also impact your overall reps. If you breeze through your reps and have energy remaining, it’s time to modify and intensify.
- Stick with the same exercises for 2-3 weeks, leaving rest days in between each chest workout session. Targeting the pectoral muscles 2-3 times per week is more than sufficient.
- Add another set to your bodyweight workout each week. By the end of the cycle, you’ll be completing 5-6 sets of each exercise.
- When the 2-3 week cycle is complete, choose three other chest exercise options and repeat the cycle.
Understand that the chest is a complex muscle group. While you can target the upper pecs or lower pecs, there’s no such thing as complete isolation with the pectoral muscles. Focus on improving the quality of movement before progressing.
This is only a sample workout; cater it to your own needs and goals.
Conclusion
Developing a bigger chest can be simple, yet challenging, with calisthenic training.
Using a few complex chest exercises – with only your body weight for the load – will give you consistent, injury-free muscle growth.
You can do this kind of workout wherever, whenever, which means no excuses! Get sore and sweaty with a workout that breaks your muscle tissue down and gets you out of breath.
And while there are multiple variations, if you stick to the basics and structure your exercises to your goals, you’ll be unstoppable, and you will notice increase in your chest strength.
Pair this with auxiliary triceps movements two or three times a week, and you’ll have a godly chest in no time!
Follow these guidelines, and your chest will attract the attention you deserve. Power up that Pectoralis Major!
