The best chest workout for beginners

If you desperately want huge, defined pecs but your chest is basically concave—or if you’re struggling to get rid of your man-boobs—this chest workout is the perfect starting point.

“A beginner’s chest workout needs to be well-rounded,” says Simon King, P.T., owner of Cre8 Fitness gym in London. As a beginner, you’ll want to use barbells, dumbbells, cables, and your own bodyweight—the full range of gym implements, basically—to challenge your muscles not only with varying degrees of weight but also different stabilization demands, ranges of motion, and levels of difficulty.

This routine hits all those marks. It comprises some of the best chest exercises for beginners.

“You hit all areas of your chest because each exercise targets a different angle—leaving no gaps in your muscular development,” King says.

Directions

During the workout, rest 90 seconds between exercises and 60 seconds between sets. Start off with lightweight dumbbells, no or very little weight on the barbell, and light weight on the cables. Focus on perfecting the movements before adding weight.

Once you find you’re not getting the same stimulation any more, shock your muscles with these 10 supersizing chest exercises to develop the best pecs in the gym, and/or start rotating through these 10 chest day workouts. For more mass-building options, try the ultimate dumbbell-only routine to build a colossal chest, the best bodyweight exercises for your chest, and the top full-gym chest workout.