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Everyone wants to build a strong, aesthetic body, but not everyone can afford a gym membership. A big part of working out is building a bigger chest, capable of benching 100 kilos.

Even if you don’t have access to a gym, you can still get a bigger chest at home, using dumbbells, resistance bands, and even your own bodyweight.

The process will take some time, but if you use all the exercises and tips we’ll cover, you can expect great results in just 2-3 months of training.

In this article, we’ll discuss 8 exercises with & without equipment, learn the technique of each one, and go over additional tips to accelerate your fitness progress. Let’s begin.

Exercises to Get a Bigger Chest With Equipment

The key to training the chest is doing exercises that involve pushing a weight away, which is either an external weight or one’s own bodyweight.

First, we’ll cover exercises to get a bigger chest at home with dumbbells, since they’re the most suitable for this purpose.

1: Dumbbell Bench Press

This is a classic chest exercise, proven to be effective in building pecs. It’s easy to learn, perform, and adjust based on your goals (strength, hypertrophy, or endurance).

Additionally, it’s also arguably better than barbell bench press, since dumbbells allow more flexibility and deeper lowering, allowing you to put more strain on chest muscles and get them to failure quicker.

There are several steps to performing dumbbell bench press:

• Take dumbbells in both hands
• Lie down on a completely horizontal bench
• Lower your elbows, so that dumbbells are on the chest level
• Lift the dumbbells upwards so that they touch each other
• Lower the dumbbells slowly for 2-3 seconds
• Repeat 8-12 times with according weights

By doing dumbbell bench press regularly, you’ll get a significantly bigger chest at home. There’s another effective exercise you can do with dumbbells: deep pushups.

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2: Deep Dumbbell Push ups

Regular push ups are great for building your chest, especially if you’re a beginner in fitness. However, if you want to target the chest more than triceps, depth of lowering is important when choosing exercises. This is where dumbbell push ups come into play.

Here’s how you perform them:

• Get into the standard push up position
• Put 2 dumbbells slightly wider than shoulder level
• Slowly lower your body below the dumbbells
• Extend your arms, keeping focus on chest muscles
• Repeat 15-20 times per set

This exercise is simple, but hard, which signifies its quality in building muscle. Do these push ups immediately after finishing dumbbell bench press to diversify your training.

Then, when you finish dumbbell push ups, you can move on to the incline variation of bench press.

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3: Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

Now, why get back to the bench press again? The main reason we do this is because the incline bench press specifically targets your upper chest.

A mighty upper chest contributes to the bulky upper body look, enhances your push strength, and prevents your pecs from sagging. In other words, the bigger your upper chest, the stronger and more attractive you become.

The technique is the same as in dumbbell bench press, except this time, you need to do it on a bench bent by 30-45 degrees.

Make sure to keep in mind these when performing this exercise:

• Keep your elbows at 45 degrees from your torso
• Lower dumbbells slowly after repetitions
• Inhale deeply when lowering, exhale when lifting
• If you do more than 15 reps, pick bigger weights

Following these tips will help you maximize chest growth, avoid injury, and maintain training momentum.

To build a bigger chest at home, you need to hit this area from multiple angles. Dumbbell flyes are a perfect way to expand and widen your torso.

4: Dumbbell Flys

Dumbbell flys are a perfect exercise to grow a bigger chest at home, because they target the whole chest and additional areas, like lateral and frontal deltoids.

This exercise needs more space than the previous ones, but it works wonders. As said before, they help widen the chest, improve its flexibility and coordination.

Here is a detailed guide to doing dumbbell flys at home:

• Lie down on a bench with legs bent at right angles
• Raise the dumbbells from the chest, slowly lower them to opposite sides
• Keep the arms relatively straight but slightly bent
• Maintaining the same arm position, raise the dumbbells until they touch
• Lower them back slowly for 2-3 seconds, pause for 2 more
• Repeat 8-12 times per set

An alternative to this exercise in the gym is the chest fly machine, which allows you to target the chest with heavier weights. Nevertheless, dumbbell flys are excellent for getting a bigger chest at home with minimal equipment, alongside bench press and deep pushups.

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Exercises to Get a Bigger Chest With Bodyweight

If dumbbells aren’t available or you prefer working with bodyweight, there are still some exercises you can do to make good progress.

This section will mostly focus on different variations of pushups, since they primarily execute the push movement the chest is designed to do.

The most effective bodyweight exercise for building your chest is wide pushups.

1: Wide Push Ups

While normal wide push ups don’t provide as much lowering depth as dumbbell push ups, they are still great for building your chest. This is especially true if you perform them 4-50 times per set.

The main feature of wide push ups is that they shift the load from triceps to chest, helping you target this area more effectively.

The technique is simple: get into the normal push up position, place your hands wider than the shoulders, lower your torso, and straighten your arms, mentally focusing on the chest’s work.

To make the exercise harder, you can increase the number of reps per set and place additional weights on the back. You can also try doing wide push ups on knuckles, which will strengthen your bones and punches.

Another bodyweight exercise to get a bigger chest at home is tricep dips.

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2: Tricep Dips

Tricep dips are simple and difficult simultaneously – perfect for muscle hypertrophy. Although they mostly target your triceps, they are nevertheless good for improving the chest’s strength, flexibility, and growth.

All you need to do this exercise is a bench to lean on. Here’s the technique for dips:

• Stand still with your back facing the bench
• Place your hands on the bench at shoulder width
• Slowly bend your elbows until they form right angles
• Pause for 2 seconds, then press back up
• Repeat 15-30 times per set

Remember not to dip too low and keep your hands at the shoulder level to avoid injuries and maximize efficiency. Lean a bit forward if you want to target your chest more than the triceps, and keep your elbows slightly soft at the upward position.

Getting back to pushups, another effective exercise for building the chest at home is diamond pushups.

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3: Diamond Push Ups

Diamond push ups are considered a higher level exercise, since they’re much harder to do. In return for that, they greatly accelerate your fitness progress.

When you do diamond push ups, you place your hands so that the fingers form a diamond shape, hence the name. This push up variation is excellent for increasing your workout difficulty and strengthening both your chest and triceps.

To perform this exercise, follow the steps below:

• Get into the standard push up position
• Place your hands so that your index fingers and thumbs form the diamond shape
• Lower your torso while moving the head and shoulders toward the hands
• Stay near the ground for 2 seconds
• Press the body back up
• Do 15-30 reps per set

Make sure to move your head and shoulders towards the hands when lowering to avoid injury. Additionally, you should avoid placing your elbows too far away from the torso, and try to point them towards your feet instead.

Finally, if you’re willing to get a bigger chest at home, the last bodyweight exercise you can incorporate is archer push ups.

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4: Archer Push Ups

Remember when I told you diamond push ups were a high-tier exercise? Let me tell you: archer push ups are on a whole new level.

With each rep, they target each one of your pecs separately, maximizing the load they experience. Additionally, archer push ups also build your core strength, which is great if you want to learn certain calisthenics elements.

If you’re a newbie, I recommend trying this exercise at least a month after training, since it puts a lot of stress on muscles and can cause injuries with incorrect form.

With that being said, here’s how you do archer push ups:

• Get into the standard pushup position
• Place your hands wider than shoulders and outwardly rotated
• Tighten your core and lower the upper body to the right side
• Hold this position, keeping the left arm straight
• Press the upper body back up
• Repeat the same movement on the left side
• Do 12-20 pushups per set

When doing archer push ups, remember to keep your legs in line with the body and perform the exercise slowly. This way you’ll maximize difficulty, and therefore, make bigger gains in less time.

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Additional Tips to Get a Biggest Chest at Home

There are some additional tips I can give you to improve your chest growth:

• Avoid processed meals. Abstain from consuming foods with excess calories (chips, sweets, various junk food), as these calories get stored as fat in your body. You should also avoid drinking and smoking, as they badly affect your organs, endurance, and testosterone.
• Eat a high-protein diet. Consume eggs, beef, chicken breasts, salmon, bulgur, lentils, nuts, dairy products, and veggies. Eat whole meals instead of pre-made alternatives, as many of the latter contain excessive amounts of preservatives and other chemicals.
• Maximize your sleep quality. Sleep is the period when your body restores its fibers and produces valuable hormones, like testosterone. Ventilate your room, avoid overstimulation, stay away from caffeine, and you’ll be sleeping fine.
• Finally, keep the rep range between 8 and 12, while resting for 2 mins between each set. This way you’ll maximize hypertrophy and ensure stable chest growth.

The Bottom Line

A bulky chest is a dream of many men. Not only does it look aesthetic, but it also allows you to grow upper body strength, perform various tasks easily, and get more respect from others.

There are 8 best exercises to grow a bigger chest at home, 4 with bodyweight and 4 with dumbbells:

• Dumbbell bench press
• Deep dumbbell push ups
• Incline dumbbell bench press
• Dumbbell flys
• Wide push ups
• Tricep dips
• Diamond push ups
• Archer push ups

Train your chest 1-2 times per week with these exercises, resting for at least 2 days between chest days. Cut down on processed foods, and pick lean alternatives with high protein content. Avoid scrolling in the evening and go to bed early to improve sleep.

These simple actions are enough to get a bigger chest at home and make your future self proud. Make the little wins today, so that they eventually compound into bigger achievements.

Lift weights, read, work hard, and be a good man. Take care, and good luck with your fitness journey, brother.

If you liked this article and found it useful, make sure to share it on social media and leave a comment below. See you next time.