Chest Workout

Chest muscles, in my experience are comparatively easier muscle groups can be developed by body weight training. I keep challenging my muscles and brain by increasing the difficulty level. There are hundreds of varieties of pushups that work on our chest muscle group, depending on own level we can choose them and set our target. I have watched many chest workout videos using body weight and created the following plan for myself.

Standard/ Regular Pushups

This age old exercise is the proven way to test the muscle strength. Like any other body weight training balance and stability are the main factors here. Posture is very important, wrong posture can damage muscles and cause pain. Initially I used to go for more reps, but later I realised perfect pushups are way more effective. Our focus should be to keep our back straight and use our triceps and back muscles.

Standard pushups are beneficial for building upper body strength. They work the triceps, pectoral muscles, and shoulders. When done with proper form, they can also strengthen the lower back and core by engaging (pulling in) the abdominal muscles. This video from fitnessfaqs is a must watch.

Decline Pushup

Decline Pushup is the regular pushup only with our feet on an elevated surface. this variant mainly works on the upper chest and front shoulder muscles. A common mistake that I used to do is to bend my back. I had to work on my core to fix this. Here is a sample video for the proper posture

Pseudo Dips

Dips is the best exercise for shoulders, triceps and lower chest. I wrote pseudo because I use a resistance band to incline by body/ chest a little forward to maximise the effect on my chest. I have followed the video below, it helped me a lot.

T Pushup

T pushup is a good all round upper body strength builder. It mainly works on middle chest, triceps, deltoids, shoulders. This exercise also requires stability, coordination and balance. It strengthens lower back, abdomen and obliques as well. A quick video for reference.

Chest Stretch Against Door

Some Common Mistakes

Pushups are the most widely used exercise. But the chances of mistakes in terms of posture and reps are also high here. There are specific pushups for specific muscle groups. If we are into regular workout we understand if the exercise is involving the desired muscle groups or not and adjust the positions accordingly, this is how I learnt. Wrong postures can happen due to a lack of strength in muscles, but this should not be the reason for bad posture, which might lead to injuries. Here is a video that talks about some common posture mistakes.

Read more about my other physical activities from “Staying Active“.