How to Do a Chest Workout Without a Bench

A Get-Fit Guy listener named Duncan wrote to me the other day looking for some pec building advice. This is what he said:

“After 15 months of working out at home (due to the COVID-19 pandemic), I finally feel like I have a handle on it. But the one thing that still eludes me is how to do a good chest workout without a weight bench. I looked into buying one but they are way too expensive. I have resistance bands and dumbbells. Is there a way to use those effectively without a bench?”

No Weight Bench

I know exactly where Duncan is coming from. I too have dumbbells, resistance bands, yoga balls, and foam rollers galore but no weight bench. And with a decent new one selling for $200 and used benches not being much cheaper, I am reticent to buy one. They also take up a lot of space and aren’t particularly attractive. So, what is a chest-focussed fitness fiend to do?

When you walk into a well-stocked gym, there are usually a number of different ways to get a good chest workout. There may be a chest press machine, a fly machine, a squat rack with a barbell and bench under it, and a few benches lined up near a wide array of different weight dumbbells. Then to top it off the benches also come in a variety of sizes and angles. Along with the requisite flat benches, there are incline benches, decline benches, adjustable benches, ones with slots for your legs to lock into, and even ones with fancy adjustable headrests. 

When that is what you are used to, it can seem hopeless to get a decent chest workout at home, laying on your linoleum floor, hoisting a hand-me-down dumbbell. But I am here to tell you that it is far from hopeless. In fact, it can be kind of ideal. 

I mean, let’s face it, most of us are pretty bored of the regular old chest workouts anyway so why not mix it up? Your muscles and your brain will thank you!

Let’s face it, most of us are pretty bored of the regular old chest workouts anyway so why not mix it up? Your muscles and your brain will thank you!

Chest Workout Basics

As I wrote in my episode Want a Bigger Chest? although the chest is made up of one single mass of muscle that is broken into major and minor, we are actually best off training it like it is actually three parts - the upper, middle, and lower portions of the chest. The reason for this is that each region is stimulated best by changing the angle from which you exercise the muscle.

• Upper Chest: To stimulate the upper chest, we would normally perform exercises on an incline bench but we can also do the exercises in a standing position...

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