Exercises to Help the Pectoral Muscles With Free Weights

In layman's terms, the pectorals are your chest muscles. Training with free weights can be a highly effective way to increase size and strength in your pecs, as free weights, namely barbells and dumbbells, work more muscle fibers and challenge your stabilizers more than machine training does. Your pectorals perform three basic movements -- flexion, adduction and medial rotation of your arms -- so any free-weight exercises you perform should cover these.

  1. Back to Basics

    • A staple free-weight pec exercise for many gym goers is the barbell bench press. To perform a bench press, lie on a flat bench and grab the barbell with your hands around shoulder-width apart and your arms straight. Lower the barbell slowly to your chest, pause and then push it straight back up. The only issue with the bench press is that it can take its toll on your shoulders. So, strength coach Tony Gentilcore recommends using a slightly narrower grip, switching to pressing on a decline bench and making sure you have a training partner help you with un-racking and re-racking the bar.

    Doing It With Dumbbells

    • Changing from a barbell to dumbbells makes bench pressing more challenging since it's harder to stabilize the dumbbells. So, while you have to go a bit lighter, it will make for a much tougher test on your chest. The same technique guidelines apply as with barbell bench pressing, but you should be able to get your hands a little lower with dumbbells, thus increasing chest muscle activation. For an even harder variation, trainer Ben Bruno recommends one-arm dumbbell presses with an isometric hold. Set up as you would normally, with the dumbbells just either side of your chest, but only press one arm up while holding the other arm in the bottom position. Do all your reps on one side, then switch to the other.

    Be Inclined to Incline

    • To hit the upper portion of your pectorals, perform your barbell or dumbbell presses on an incline. Inclines also recruit your shoulder muscles, according to coach Mike Robertson of Indianapolis Fitness and Sports Training. Going too high on the incline will turn exercise into more of a deltoid move, so keep your bench between 15 and 60 degrees. Bring the bar to a point slightly higher on your chest than you would when pressing on the flat, advises Robertson.

    Finish with Isolations

    • Between dumbbell and barbell pressing variations, you have a pretty solid chest workout. Adding an isolation exercise can really help bring up your pec development though. Make dumbbell flyes your go-to free weight isolation. Like presses, these can also be performed on a flat, incline or decline bench. Hold the weights straight above your chest with your palms facing in and lower them to your sides in an arc movement, with just a tiny bend in your elbows. Descend until you feel a big stretch across your pecs, then reverse the action to bring them back to the starting point.