The 6 Best Chest Exercises With Resistance Bands

Most people think you can only build a great chest with weight or bodyweight exercises. But this is simply not correct. Resistance bands is the answer. In this article I will show you the best exercises for training your chest and make progress.

In the first part, you will find some information about the anatomy of your chest muscles, and then you will find all the chest exercises with details.

How To Build Your Chest

Your chest consists out of two muscles parts. The Pectoralis Major and Pectoralis Minor. Both are involved in every pressing and fly movement you will see in this article. But you can slightly change the emphasis by choosing a certain exercise.

Pectoralis Major – This is the bigger part of your chest. By performing incline movement you can put a focus on the Pectoralis Major.

Pectoralis Minor – The little brother of the Major has to work way harder in any decline movement.

Deltoid Anterior – The front side of your shoulder muscles is always helping your chest while you perform any pressing or flying movements

Triceps – Also your triceps will be stressed while training chest. Especially in pressing movements.

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Important Tips For Chest Exercises With Resistance Bands

Here are some general tips that you should always keep in mind, no matter what chest exercise you will do:

Don’t Swing! Keep your body in a fixed position and don’t start swinging with your back. If you have problems doing an exercise you might rather use a lighter band.

Time Under Tension! Don’t just do your reps as fast as you can, you need to put your muscles under tension long enough to gain. Squeeze at the top of the movement and hold for a second there and when slowly return instead of “letting go” quickly. This will add more gains to every workout.

Take A Step Back/Forward – you can adjust the resistance simply by taking a step back or forward. This will stretch the band more or less and add or reduce resistance. The best thing about this tip is… You can do it mid set. Want more resistance? Take a step forward! You are at the end of your set and the form starts to get ugly? Take a step back! Easy.

Enough for the theory part, let’s get to work and jump into the actual exercises!

The Best Chest Exercises To Do With Resistance Bands

I have collected here all the exercises from compound to isolation exercises, the order is not a ranking from “best to worst”.

Compound Exercise #1 – Chest Press

The standard chest press is the bread-and-butter exercise for building a solid chest.

1. Fix the band by using a door anchor around the chest level
2. Take the band and step forward, so you will feel some stretch in your chest
3. Put your shoulder blades together and down
4. Now push your hands forward to full extension and also bring your hands together (make sure that your arms are in alignment with the band)
5. Hold for about 1 second and then slowly return your hands to the starting position

Find more tips to do this exercise in perfect form here.

Variations

Some great variation for the chest press especially if you don’t have a door anchor are the following.

You can find more details on the different variations for the chest press here.

Compound Exercise #2 – Incline Chest Press

Another great compound exercise that will target your upper chest but also the front of your shoulders really well. This is a great exercise to combine shoulder training along with your chest training.

1. Fix the band by using a door anchor around the hip level
2. Take the band and step forward, so you will feel some stretch in your chest
3. Put your shoulder blades together and down
4. Now push your hands forward to full extension and also bring your hands together (make sure that your arms are in alignment with the band)
5. Hold for about 1 second and then slowly return your hands to the starting position

Find more tips to do this exercise in perfect form here.

Variations

In case you don’t have a door anchor or simply want to try something new, give these variations a try.

You can find more details on the different variations for the incline chest press here.

Compound Exercise #3 – Decline Chest Press

The decline chest press is great to focus on your lower chest. You are also strongest in this variation of the chest press and can move the highest force.

1. Fix the band by using a door anchor around the head level or slightly higher
   
2. Take the band and step forward, so you will feel some stretch in your chest
3. Put your shoulder blades together and down
4. Now push your hands forward to full extension and also bring your hands together (make sure that your arms are in alignment with the band)
5. Hold for about 1 second and then slowly return your hands to the starting position

Find more tips to do this exercise in perfect form here.

Compound Exercise #4 – Push Ups With Resistance Bands

The push is one of the greatest exercise for general fitness. Adding a resistance band makes it even better.

1. Grab the band with both hands, bring it over your head and rest it on your upper back
2. In the starting position (top) place your hands shoulder wide apart or slightly narrower
3. Lower your body by bending your elbows
4. Stay in the bottom position for 1 count and then explode back up

Variations

The following variations are great if regular push ups are a challenge for you. Resistance bands can actually help you to build up the strength in your upper body to get your first regular push ups.

Isolation Exercise #1 – One Arm Press

The unilateral version of the chest press is great to get extra isolation work or to work on imbalances between your right and left side. You will also add some stability core work to your set by doing the press with one arm at a time. The steps are the same as in the regular two arm version, but you will only use one arm at a time.

Find more tips to do this exercise in perfect form here.

Variations

Of course, you can also perform the one arm press as an incline and decline variation.

You can find more details on these variations right here: Incline Chest Press and Decline Chest Press.

Isolation Exercise #2 – Chest Fly

One of the best isolation exercises for your chest out there. Especially if you have difficulty feeling your chest muscles working in the pressing exercises.

1. Grab the band with one hand and step away from the anchor point until you feel resistance
2. Align your shoulders with the band path
3. Upright position with straight back and head, chest up and tight core
4. Now bring in your arm and focus on keeping your upper body straight
5. Hold for about 1 second and then slowly return your hand to the starting position

Find more tips to do this exercise in perfect form here.

Variations

Play around with the anchor point position. The closer the anchor point is to the ground the more emphasis you put on the upper chest and shoulders. With increased height of the point you will put more focus on the lower chest.

You can find more details on the different variations for chest flys here.