Chest
25 pieces
- Exercise19 October 2026Smith machine incline pressThe incline press with the bar on rails. The bench tips you back so the upper chest does more, and the machine fixes the path and gives you stops to press against. It is a way to press an incline hard on your own.
- Exercise19 October 2026Smith machine bench pressThe bench press with the bar on rails. The machine fixes the bar path and gives you hooks and stops to rack on, so you can press hard without a spotter. The weight you can move was close to a free bar's in trained lifters[1].
- Exercise19 October 2026Close-grip bench pressThe bench press with your hands in to about shoulder width. It is still a chest press: chest activity was much the same across grips, while the triceps worked harder than on a wide grip[1]. The weight comes down a little[2], which makes it a second bench for the week rather than a triceps lift in disguise.
- Exercise14 October 2026Single-arm high-to-low cable flyOne pulley set high, one handle, and that hand swept down and across your body toward the opposite hip. Bringing the arm down from a raised position is the action that, in a small EMG study, drew most on the lowest part of the chest muscle[1]. Working one arm at a time also gives your trunk a job: in a chest press, one arm raised trunk muscle activity over two[2].
- Exercise14 October 2026Decline machine chest pressA chest press whose handles travel down and away from you, so the line of the press matches a decline bench without anybody lying head down. The library rates it the easiest of the decline presses to learn, and like any machine it holds the path for you, so you can take a set close to its end with nobody standing over you.
- Exercise14 October 2026Decline dumbbell pressThe decline press with a weight in each hand. With a barbell the decline asks less of the front of the shoulder than a flat bench does[1], and dumbbells let each arm find its own path on top of that, so this is the decline for a shoulder that does not like a fixed bar. The hard part is getting two bells into place while you lie head down.
- Exercise14 October 2026Decline barbell bench pressThe bench press with the bench tipped head down and your feet hooked under the pads. It is sold as the lower chest press, and measured against a flat bench the lower chest worked about the same[1]. What does change is the front of the shoulder, which did less on the decline than on a flat, incline or machine press[2]. That makes it a shoulder friendly swap for the flat press, never a replacement for one.
- Exercise12 October 2026Machine pec flyThe pec deck: a seated machine whose arms swing in to meet in front of your chest. It is a fly with the path built in, so the machine holds the arc and your job is to move through it under control. It is also one of the few chest exercises tested on its own for growth, and in that trial both the upper and the lower chest grew[1].
- Exercise12 October 2026Low-to-high cable flyBoth pulleys set at the bottom, a handle in each hand, and your arms swept up and together until your hands meet in front of your chin. It is the cable fly turned upward, and the rising path is the whole point of it.
- Exercise30 September 2026Dumbbell squeeze pressTwo dumbbells held together over your chest, palms facing each other, and pressed up as one while you push them into each other the whole way. It is a bench press with a second job added: your arms push inward as well as up, from the first rep to the last. Some gyms call it a hex press or a crush press, and it is the same lift.
- Exercise25 September 2026Dumbbell pulloverOne dumbbell held over your chest in both hands, lowered back over your head in a long arc and brought back again. It has a reputation as a lat exercise, and when it was measured the chest did more of the work than the lats did[1], which is why Reckoner records the chest first and the lats beside it.
- Exercise24 September 2026Cable flyTwo cables set at chest height, a handle in each hand, and your arms swept together along a level arc until your hands meet in front of your breastbone. It is the straight across version of cable work for the chest, and the setup is the whole difference from a crossover: the pulleys stay level with your chest, so your arms travel across your body rather than down it.
- Exercise31 August 2026Vest push-upThe push-up that goes back to being a lift you add weight to. Once the reps and the sets have run out, a vest is the only thing that puts a number back on the movement, and the number behaves the way a bench press number does.
- Exercise31 August 2026Machine chest pressThe press that holds the bar path for you. Nothing here is spent balancing, which makes it the press you can take closest to the end of a set with nobody standing over you. The library also rates it the easiest chest press to learn, and skill is one of the few things Reckoner will not let a plan overrule.
- Exercise31 August 2026Incline push-upThe push-up with your hands up on something. Raising the hands takes weight off them without taking anything out of the movement, so you keep the whole line and the whole range while you get strong enough to do it on the floor. It is a staircase, not a lesser exercise.
- Exercise31 August 2026Incline dumbbell pressThe incline press for a gym with no free incline rack, which is most gyms at six in the evening. Two bells let you set the angle you actually want rather than the angle the rack pins allow, and the hardest part of the set happens before the first rep.
- Exercise31 August 2026Incline barbell pressThe bench press with the angle as the variable. Tilting the bench moves work up toward the collarbone end of the chest, and tilting it too far hands the lift to the front of your shoulder instead. The angle is the decision. Everything else is the flat press again.
- Exercise31 August 2026Fist push-upThe push-up for a wrist that does not want to bend backward. On your palms the wrist is held near the end of its range while it carries a large share of you. Closing your fists takes that angle out and leaves the pressing exactly as it was.
- Exercise31 August 2026Dumbbell flyThe chest movement with no elbow work in it. Nothing here ends because the triceps gave out, which is the whole reason it exists beside a press rather than instead of one.
- Exercise31 August 2026Dumbbell floor pressThe press with a bench made of floor. Your upper arms stop when your elbows land, so the shoulder never travels below your torso, and that is the one thing this movement is for. It is also the only press in the library that needs nothing but two bells and a room.
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