The Dumbbell Chest Workout That Will Also Smoke Your Abs

For a well-balanced strength training program, you can’t forget about your chest muscles. This dumbbell chest workout gives the front of your upper body the attention it needs—not only does it focus on your chest muscles (the larger pectoralis major and the smaller pectoralis minor underneath it), but it also works the supporting muscles like your shoulders and triceps, too.

Building strength in these “pushing” muscles—chest, shoulders, and triceps—helps you perform everyday actions like pushing an object back on a high shelf, ACE-certified personal trainer Sivan Fagan, founder of Strong with Sivan in Baltimore, MD, tells SELF. It’ll also help you reduce your risk of injury, since it builds the strength you need to stabilize your shoulder joints and shoulder blades.

Another way it helps keep your muscles safe? Fagan’s chest workout relies heavily on single-arm dumbbell moves, which helps make sure you’re working each side of your body equally. That’s important, since it helps alleviate the muscle imbalances most of us have, says Fagan.

“When you push both dumbbells at the same time, your body just wants to get them from point A to point B. Your stronger side might take it through the full range of motion, but the other side might take it on a short cut,” she says. “It’s really hard for you to notice it on your own until you isolate your sides, and then you’re like, ‘Hold on, I can’t do it on this side.’”

Single-arm work also comes with a happy bonus: It really challenges your core stability, which turns these upper-body exercises into abs exercises, too. As you push each dumbbell, your core muscles have to fire to keep your body from rotating in the opposite direction, Fagan says.

“You’re combining the ‘push’ muscles with core stability and core strength in the workout,” she says.

The dumbbell chest workout starts with alternating-arm versions of the most challenging, compound moves—the chest press and shoulder press—in a superset. You’ll keep the rep range lower here than throughout the rest of the workout, so don’t be afraid to challenge yourself with heavier weight (as long as you maintain proper form).

Then you’ll finish with a triset. You’ll hit your chest and triceps with a close-grip chest press, go right into shoulder taps—which work your chest with an isometric contraction while you hold yourself up in a high plank—and end with overhead triceps extension, which isolate the muscles in the back of your arms that also fire in all pressing movements.

Ready to get started? Here’s what you need for an amazing, at-home dumbbell chest workout.

The Workout

What you’ll need: Two sets of dumbbells: one heavier and one lighter. You can challenge yourself with heavier weight for the first superset. You’ll go lighter with the next triset. (If you don’t have dumbbells, you can use equipment from around your house, like water jugs, water bottles, soup cans, boxes of cat litter, or laundry detergent bottles.)

Exercises

Superset:

• Chest Press (Alternating Arms)
• Shoulder Press (Alternating Arms)

Triset:

• Close-Grip Chest Press
• Plank Tap
• Overhead Triceps Extension

Directions

• For the superset, perform 8-12 reps per arm of each exercise. Try to complete the superset without resting in between the exercises. Complete 3-4 rounds.
• For the triset, perform 12-15 reps of the chest press and triceps extension, and AMRAP (as many reps as possible) of the plank shoulder taps that you can complete with good form. Try to complete the triset without resting in between the exercises. Complete 3-4 rounds.

Demoing the moves are Harlan Kellaway (GIF 1), a trans bodybuilder based in Queens, New York; Rachel Denis (GIFs 2, 3, and 5), a powerlifter who competes with USA Powerlifting and holds multiple New York State powerlifting records; and Amanda Wheeler (GIF 4), a certified strength and conditioning specialist and co-founder of Formation Strength, an online women’s training group that serves the LGBTQ community and allies.

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