Push-Ups. Yes, a bodyweight exercise is superior to bench pressing a stack of weights. For one, most people are needlessly bad at groundwork (calisthenics and bodyweight training) because they haven't trained their muscles to work together and lack functional trunk strength.
As for alternatives to bench pressing, you can try dumbbell presses, push ups, chest press machine. Nothing, however, with the possible exception of dumbbell presses, will hit your chest and tris as good as bench press.
The Bottom Line
“Essentially, you can use the barbell bench press, pec deck or the cable crossovers interchangeably,” says John P. Porcari, Ph. D. “All three of those exercises are basically going to give you the same amount of muscle activation in the chest and are equally effective.”
Plate fed machines are the best, such as a hammer strength plate fed chest press, or incline press machine. Those are value, but a lot of commercial gyms run inferior machines. Its just up to experimenting to determine which are good, and what isn't worth your time.
2: A Chair Before I bought my home workout bench I always used a chair as my favorite bench substitute. Place your head and shoulders on it for bench press, lower you hips to turn it into an incline press, or put your feet on the chair in a bridge position for decline exercises.
1. Dips. A bodyweight movement that should be a staple in any gym-goers arsenal and an exercise to take seriously as a bench press alternative. Dips also pump up the triceps, and by using a weight belt or weight vest to add extra load, can easily rival the bench press as a heavy-hitting chest builder.
Our final exercise is the dumbbell floor press, which is another excellent way of working your chest without a bench. Start by lying on your back with bent knees and feet flat on a mat. With an overhand grip, hold the weights and extend your elbows at 90-degree angles. Your triceps should rest in a flat position.
While bench presses are effective in strengthening the chest muscles, incorporating machine exercises into your routine can offer a workout with increased flexibility. Ultimately, exploring alternatives to bench presses may result in chest development and muscle growth.
The bottom line. Push-ups target chest, arm, and shoulder muscles. The push-up is a foundational body-weight exercise that can help beginners build strength. The bench press is better for advanced athletes who want to increase chest muscle mass and strength because you can lift more weight.
Bench Press
But you can't avoid the exercise if you're serious about training—or even if you just step foot into any typical strength facility in the world. The move is standard for a reason: it works.
There's no magic number of push-ups you should do per day. Try working your way up to 1 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 repetitions to strengthen your upper body. If building bigger chest muscles is your goal, doing more push-ups might seem ideal.
This powerful duo targets the chest and upper back. Bench presses exercise the pectoral muscles in the chest, and the bent-over row works the upper back muscles, including the lats and rhomboids.
If your exercise requires you to use a barbell or bar, you cannot substitute. If you do not need to use either, you probably can substitute. This machine can be used to reduce the amount of stabilizer muscles needed to perform an exercise.
Low Incline Dumbbell Press
Throwing a mild incline into the mix allows for greater range of motion to attack the chest muscles far more effectively than the standard bench. Moreover, not having your hands tethered to a bar in a fixed position allows the wrists and elbows to move freely as the rep progresses.
For many years, the bench press has been considered the universal measure of upper body strength in nearly every sport. However, this popular exercise may not necessarily be the best tool for athletes because it neglects shoulder flexibility and even bears the risk of injury.
The Decline Position Is Not Great for Your Shoulders
That's not good for your overall well-being and training longevity. You want to avoid this as much as possible in order to protect your rotator cuffs.
"The best thing to do is literally roll the bar down your sternum, the middle of your chest, past your abdominals, and right besides your hips," says Cornier. At that point you can sit up, then deadlift the bar back to the ground.
Incline pushup
Pushups are a great multifunctional exercise because they work the entire upper body and back. Performing pushups at an incline will put more focus on the lower chest. Equipment: a flat workout bench, jump box, or step platform.
Most gyms have a chest press machine available, with instructions on how to perform the exercise properly. Constant tension throughout the movement provides more consistent muscle activation compared to the barbell bench press, which can have points of low tension during the exercise.
If, however, you are like me, find another movement or variation that works better. For me, flat benches are awkward and limiting; with my biomechanics, the target of the press is shifted away from my pecs and onto my deltoids. Sure, I developed great delts, but my upper chest was not being worked as I'd hoped.