6 Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises for a Powerful Chest

Dumbbell chest exercises can provide you with wide ranging benefits that primarily includes increased strength, better posture and greater aesthetics.

The chest is the largest muscle group in the body, so you need to balance your workout with different types of exerises. Some benefits of dumbbell chest exercises are increased muscle definition and greater upper body strength.

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Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises to Build Strength

We have curated a list of six fabulous dumbbell chest exercises to build a powerful chest:

1) Dumbbell Bench Press

It can not only help in increasing strength but also allow you to get defined pecs and increased range of motion.

How to do a dumbbell chest press:

• Begin by lying down on a flat bench while clutching the dumbbells in your palms in a pronated grip and thumbs angled to each other.
• Position the dumbbells right over your shoulders, keeping the elbows bent.
• With engaged chest muscles, press the dumbbells straight upward, and bring them close to each other.
• Squeeze your chest at the top position before reversing the movement. Repeat.

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2) Dumbbell Chest Fly

Dumbbell flyes exercise (Image via Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio)

It's an effective dumbbell chest exercises that can help in maintaining tension in the muscles throughout the movement.

How to do a dumbbell chest fly:

• Start by lying down on a flat bench while clutching dumbbells in both palms.
• Push the weights straight above your chest, with your palms slightly turned inward from the pinky fingers.
• While keeping your elbows slightly bent, bring your arms downwards to your shoulders.
• Squeeze your shoulder blades together to drive the weights back to their starting position. Squeeze your chest at the top position.
• Repeat.

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3) Incline Dumbbell Chest Press

Dumbbell exercises (Image via Pexels/Andrea Piacquadio)

This dynamic dumbbell chest exercise can strengthen the chest by engaging muscle groups like the pectoralis major, serratus anterior, biceps, triceps, and deltoids.

How to do an incline dumbbell chest press:

• Begin by lying down on the bench with an incline of 45 degrees before clutching a pair of dumbbells in your palms.
• Position the weights over your chest with your arms extended and palms angled to your feet. The feet should be pressed onto the ground.
• Make sure not to arch your back, and keep your core tightened.
• Drive the dumbbell straight over your chest before reversing the movement. Repeat.

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4) Dumbbell Pullover

It can help you to get a stronger back.

How to do a dumbbell pullovers:

• Start by laying down on the top of bench right off the edge while clutching a dumbbell in both palms.
• The shoulder blades should be on the bench surface as you lie across the bench. Keep your feet firmly pressed to the ground.
• Make sure your fingers are wrapped around the dumbbell edge. With slightly bent elbows, press the dumbbell straight above your head.
• Bring the dumbbell at the back of your head so that your hands are in line with your torso.
• Squeeze your chest at the top position before reversing the movement. Repeat.

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5) Dumbbell Incline Fly

It's another efficient dumbbell chest exercises that can engage the deep muscles and enable you to build powerful chest.

How to do a dumbbell incline fly:

• Begin by lying down on an incline bench at an angle of about 45 degrees while clutching the dumbbells in both palms.
• With slightly bent elbows, position your hands to the sides at shoulder height.
• Bring the dumbbells together above your head while keeping your arms extended.
• Reverse the movement, and repeat.

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6) Reverse Bench Press

This is another decent dumbbell chest exercise that places greater emphasis on the upper chest muscles.

How to do a reverse bench press:

• Start by lying down on a flat bench while clutching the dumbbells in an underhand grip.
• Position them with bent elbows over your shoulders.
• Drive the weights straight to the ceiling while maintaining good posture.

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Bottom Line

The aforementioned dumbbell chest exercises provide many benefits in terms of aesthetics as well as functional fitness.

Effectively training your chest muscles can help you get a toned body and greater muscle definition. Meanwhile, working on the chest muscles can help you develop functional fitness, which can help with everyday movements.

It's also recommended to balance the aforementioned dumbbell chest exercises with a proper back workout routine.