by James - This article may contain affiliate links.
When we think about chest training, bench press and push-ups are the first moves that come up in our minds. Without a doubt, they are excellent practices to develop the size and strength of the pecs.
However, you can perform chest exercises on your feet.
Standing chest exercises are great workouts, especially when you do not have a bench at home.
You might be wondering, “why do I need additional workouts if the traditional works for me?”
A specific answer to this is that adding resistance to your chest workout plan helps develop and engage your core and pec muscles more.
By incorporating standing chest exercises, your muscles “perceive” new motions. These movements let you develop muscle size and strength, making your chest more defined.
This way, they have to adapt to the new motions, develop in size, strength, or become more defined.
Further, standing chest exercises are an excellent way to get the benefits of progressive overload required to gain muscles.
Contents
6 Standing Chest Exercises for Your Pecs
1. Svend Press
This is a perfect move to isolate the pecs and pop them, creating a more defined chest.
Professional trainers and gym-goers usually finish their chest workouts with the Svend press, as it pumps their blood to their pecs.
Svend press tutorial:
1. Hold two small plates and sandwiched them together between your palms. Position your plates at your chest height.
2. Extend your elbows directly out in front of you until it is parallel to the floor.
3. Bring the plates back to your chest slowly. Repeat as needed.
While performing this standing chest exercise, focus on your pecs instead of your arms and shoulders.
If you want to make Svend press more intense, you can add resistance by squeezing the plates more, increasing speed movement, or using heavier plates.
2. Standing Dumbbell Chest Fly
Standing dumbbell chest fly is a good workout to target your upper chest.
With only a pair of dumbbells, you can make your chest area broader and more developed.
Similar to the first standing chest exercise, this dumbbell chest fly is pretty straightforward.
1. Stand at a shoulder-width distance on your feet.
2. Hold one dumbbell in each hand. Bring your arms to your front until they are at your chest height. Make sure your palms face each other.
3. Lower the dumbbells slowly with your arms slightly bend. This moves the weight behind you, which increases the motion.
Obviously, your arms and shoulders will work, but most of the work should be done with the pecs.
You can also perform the standing flys with one arm in an alternate way.
Enjoyed exercises with dumbbells?
We have a guide for the best dumbbells that are worth the buck.
3. Resistance Band Flys
The resistant band chest fly is an excellent alternative to cable machine chest press.
Compared to cables, the resistant band fly requires more control since the cable pulleys do not drive the rubber bands.
Workouts get harder but provide you with more activated muscles and stabilized motions.
Here’s how you can do resistance band flys as part of your chest workouts.
1. Stand upright while holding the resistance bands.
2. Pull your arms slowly without locking your elbows. This movement keeps your core engaged and tight.
3. Straighten your arms to your front. Repeat as needed.
When you pull the bands in front, the band retraction increases drastically, maximizing muscle contraction.
You can start with lighter bands and have high reps. A good resistance bands trainer is the Whatafit resistance bands.
4. Cable Crossover
From the list of standing chest exercises, this workout is quite flexible.
You can hammer your chest muscles from different angles when using different variations.
Additionally, this technique lets you perform a wide range of movements and does not require a lot of adjustment.
You need to adjust the crossover cable, allowing you to work faster and save time. It will also ensure that your muscle development is balanced. It might seem hard when you first start with it, but it will start to get easier with time.
Here’s the instruction on how to perform cable crossover correctly.
1.Position the cables in an erect position to engage the upper chest muscle, or you can position the cables near the floor to focus on the lower chest muscles.
2. Bring your arms in an ‘X position.
3. Bring your arms towards each other at the end of each repetition to work on the chest’s inner area.
5. Dumbbell Front Chest Raises
This is one of the most fundamental exercises, and it’s good for beginners.
A dumbbell front chest may be recommended for those who are recovering from shoulder surgery or injury.
Moreover, it focuses on your chest, arm, shoulders, and arms. To perform this standing chest exercise, you need to:
1. Start by standing with your feet about shoulder-width apart, keeping your feet on the ground.
2. Bend your knees a little by leaning back and down to your hips. Hold your dumbbells with your palm facing the ground.
3. Then, place your hands in front of your thighs.
4. Lift your arms and make them fully extended while in front of you until the dumbbells are in a straight line with your shoulders. Pause when you get to this position.
5. Lower your arms slowly and get them back into the start position without bending your elbows.
You can start this exercise with 1 set of 10 reps, but you can increase it to 3 sets of 12 reps as you get better.
6. Low Cable Crossover
Another standing chest exercise that uses a cable crossover is the low cable workout.
This workout is a good and effective exercise that works and defines your pectoralis major (chest muscle).
The cables give enough tension to the muscles, which is important for your muscles to develop. It also allows for a faster switch of weights from drop sets.
Meanwhile, you can also customize the heights of the cable to target specific areas of your chest. Before you start, make sure that you do a proper warm-up. Here’s the tutorial to do it correctly.
1. Start by placing the pulley at the low position, chose the resistance you want, and grip the handle with your hands.
2. Gain tension in the pulley by moving forward. You are in the starting position when your hands are below your waist, palms facing forward, and arms as straight as possible.
3. Lift your arms from the height of your waist into the front of your chest, then bring your hands together. Make sure you flex your pecs as you bring the two handles together.
Conclusion
If you want to get well-developed pecs, you need to target that area with various moves.
These standing chest exercises are, without a doubt, will be beneficial to your chest workout. They are also useful for someone who does not have a weight bench at home.
Try these standing chest exercises and tell us how they work for you.
