There are two ways to use benches for building your chest muscles. One way is to lie on the bench for support while doing chest exercises, such as flies and presses. The bench can then be adjusted to change the angle of the exercise. The other way is to use the bench to put your hands or feet on when doing the popular push-up exercise. A newbie will have an easier time doing a push-up with his hands on the bench and feet on the floor because more weight is taken by the legs. The reverse is true as well. Placing the feet on the bench and hands on the floor makes a push-up harder.
Lying Dumbbell Pec Fly
Step 1
Place a dumbbell on each side of the top of a bench. Lie on a flat exercise bench with your back flat and your knees bent. Place your feet on the bend of the bench or on the floor, depending on what feels better for your height and leg length. Put your feet on the bench if you have difficulty keeping your back flat on the bench when doing a lying dumbbell pec fly.
Step 2
Grab a dumbbell off the floor, one with each hand. Extend your arms straight out from your sides to make a "T" with the bench. Position your palms upwards as if holding a bowl of soup in each hand. Squeeze your pecs and raise your arms upwards and toward each other until they lightly touch above you. Do not engage your biceps and bend your elbows more than a centimeter as you lift.
Step 3
Return your arms slowly toward the starting position. Do not fully extend or lock your elbows when you lower your arms. Repeat for a total of 10 repetitions. Work up to three sets.
Incline Push-up
Step 1
Place your hands shoulder-width apart on the center of a flat exercise bench. Do not use an incline bench even though the exercise is called an incline push-up. Extend your arms straight for the starting position. Step back with your feet so that you can straighten your legs and look down to see your hands with your arms perpendicular to your trunk. Hold your body in a straight line with your heels off the floor.
Step 2
Lower your sternum to the bench, or almost touching the bench by bending your elbows. Do not tuck your elbows in since you are doing a push-up to target the pecs, not the arms.
Step 3
Push yourself up to the starting position. Perform three sets of 10 incline push-ups.
Tips and Warnings
- Add variety to your routine by performing a dumbbell pec fly on an incline or recline bench with the arms pointing straight toward the ceiling and lowering until they are parallel to the ceiling just like with the flat bench fly described above. Switch your hands and feet to do a decline push-up off a bench once you have mastered the incline push-up. The instructions are precisely the same, just with the hands shoulder-width apart on the floor instead.
Things You'll Need
- Exercise bench
- Dumbbells
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