Engaging the pectoral muscles from the comfort of your own home can be a rather difficult challenge. Traditionally, chest workouts are performed in the gym, where you either lift heavy dumbbells or push against the bar, lying flat on the bench. This one, however, is completely different.
The workout video below is part of the Fitness Updated library. It is our idea on how to create a chest workout at home without equipment. Consisting solely of push up variations, it is one long chest superset performed back to back.
This is perhaps the only 10 minute chest workout that you can do at home, that will induce such a serious pectoral burn. No dumbbells, no weights and no additional equipment. If you are wondering how to build chest muscles at home, this short chest workout might become your next favorite routine.
At home chest workout – the structure
Regardless of the muscle group in question, every workout session must begin with a short warm up. This is true for chest workouts as well. However, in the case of a chest superset, the warm up should focus on range of motion, stretching, and slightly elevating your heart rate.
Anything else and you’ll be unable to complete the intense circuit.
Many people believe that a short chest workout would warrant an even shorter warm up. But that is not the case. Push up exercises can become excruciatingly hard, so it is very important to prepare the upper body for what is about to happen.
In the video below, there are 5 warm up moves that will prepare your chest by stretching your pectoral area, your shoulders, biceps and triceps. You will warm up the entire body as well, since both the abdomen and quadriceps are involved to a certain extent.
These are chest exercises without weights, so most of the sets are performed in a rapid-fire sequence. The superset structure is as follows:
- 3 sets of 6 repetitions each
- 30 seconds pause
- Rinse and repeat for 6 times
This being a short chest workout, the push up variations must be hard enough to test your metal. If you are wondering how to build chest muscles at home, there is no better way than activating the pectoral area from every possible angle. Luckily, this is more than possible with an intense push up workout.
Changing the angular positioning of the arms, a garden variety of moves become available. You’ll be able to engage the upper chest, lower chest, and the four pectoral muscles: Pectoralis major, pectoralis minor, subclavius, and serratus anterior.
How to train your chest at home?
For the push up superset, make sure to maintain proper form. Keep your back flat, your butt down, and your neck in neutral position.
The wrists can hurt a bit, which is normal, but if you encounter sharp pain preventing you to complete a proper push up, stop immediately and try again the following day. Parallettes, or classic push up stands, can greatly alleviate wrist pain while performing a series of push up exercises, so consider ordering a pair.
The key for doing a proper push up is composure. You should have enough control to keep the same pace going down and up, adding a bit of explosiveness as you extend your arms fully. Imagine that your body is flat at all times, and all you have to do is push the ground away from you. This is an intense chest workout according to the structure, but you must maintain proper form in order to keep up the intensity.
So, how to build chest muscles at home without weights? Just make the sets extremely hard, and perform no more than 6 repetitions each. All of them must be different, as to engage your pectoral muscles from every conceivable angle.
But here is the 10 minute chest workout, so you know what we are talking about:
As you can see, there is the warm up section at the very beginning, and then 6 supersets, each consisting of 3 very hard push up exercises. You have wide push-ups, narrow push-ups, slow push-ups, jack push-ups and single arm push-ups, all mixed together in order to induce some serious pectoral burn. This is arguably the hardest at home push up workout under 10 minutes.
Chest exercises without weights
At home chest exercises are difficult to come up with if you are restricted to your bodyweight only. But if you follow the video above, you’ll count 18 different push-up variations, each more challenging than the next. Multiplied by 6, you’ll complete whooping 108 repetitions. Needless to say, your pecs will hurt the day after.
There are plenty chest exercises you can do at home without equipment, and our library of videos includes a decent variety of workout routines that target the upper body. This, however, is the crème de la crème of targeted chest training. Word of warning though – do not try to complete it if you cannot go through 25 ordinary push up repetitions without taking a rest. Chest supersets like these can cause debilitating pain for days to come, so make sure that you are in decent shape before committing to an intense push-up workout.
If you enjoy challenging workouts, make sure to check the rest of Fitness Updated where you will find engaging and complex circuits aplenty. We are obsessed with bodyweight exercises and have created some of the most innovative sequences available on the internet, wrapped in a very user friendly platform.
You can access the complete workout library at Fitness Updated, and enjoy a custom tailored workout program along with a personalized nutrition plan. The calendars change in real time, so your workout program might evolve according to your feedback. The interface is easy to use and makes daily exercise a real joy. You will be able to access the platform from any device, and stream the videos whenever you like.
The price is super affordable, and you will get support from our team as well.
In the meantime, enjoy this chest workout at home without equipment, and see how efficient our workout videos can be. Here is to flat chest and chiseled pecs! Now drop down and start counting.