The 15 Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises to Maximize Gains

Barbell bench pressing may be considered the de facto chest-builder, lauded by gym bros worldwide, but you can build a strong, defined chest with nothing but a pair of dumbbells. Dumbbells are a versatile and accessible tool that allow you to achieve a deep stretch in your muscles, adjust your exercise path for joint comfort, and promote more joint stability. 

I interviewed Harrison Elias, a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS) and the owner of Elias Sports Performance in Glastonbury, CT, for his favorite dumbbell chest exercises and a handful of muscle-building tips.

The 15 Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises 

• Dumbbell Bench Press
• Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
• Dumbbell Fly
• Dumbbell Fly-to-Press
• Deficit Push-Up
• Decline Deficit Push-Up
• Dumbbell Floor Press
• Banded Dumbbell Floor Press
• Incline Single-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press
• Dumbbell Pullover
• Dumbbell Decline Bench Press
• 1-1/4 Rep Dumbbell Bench Press
• Eccentric Dumbbell Press
• Alternating Dumbbell Bench Press
• Squeeze Press

Here's how to perform each of these exercises with perfect form and incorporate them into your next upperbody workout.

1. Dumbbell Bench Press

Elias says the dumbbell bench press is a great chest exercise because, compared to its barbell counterpart, it allows you to achieve a greater range of motion while allowing your joints more freedom of movement. 

“The Barbell bench press can be limiting for people with upper body mobility issues,” Elias explains. “Dumbbells are also a great option because they’re less stable than barbells, better engaging the smaller stabilizer muscles in your chest and shoulders.”

How to Do it

• Sit on the edge of a flat weight bench with a dumbbell in each hand, resting on your knees. Kick each dumbbell toward your chest, simultaneously lying back to get into position. (If you’re using a relatively heavy weight, have a spotter help you get into position.)
• Maintain a slight arch in your lower back and push your chest toward the ceiling, with your feet planted on the floor. Point your elbows out about 45 degrees with the end of each dumbbell touching the outside of your chest muscles. 
• Press the dumbbells up until your arms are fully extended. 
• Lower the dumbbells in a controlled motion, taking about two seconds to get them back in place. 

2. Incline Dumbbell Bench Press

All chest presses engage the upper chest somewhat, but incline presses more effectively target the upper pec fibers that run horizontally along your clavicle. These fibers help draw your arms out and up, and incline presses allow for a pressing motion that moves upward and inward, making them a slightly better variation for targeting the upper chest than flat or decline presses.

“When it comes to training your chest, you want to aim to train your entire chest,” Elias advises. “Training your pecs at different angles is a requirement for a comprehensive approach to growing your chest.”

How to Do it

• You can set the bench to any incline you like. A low incline is typically between 20 and 30 degrees. The standard incline setting is 45 degrees, and a high incline is around 60 degrees. Try pressing from different angles and find which feels good for you. 
• Once you’ve selected an angle, grab a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing forward, and lie back on the bench using the same technique as for the flat dumbbell bench press.
• Lower the dumbbells toward the upper part of your chest, keeping your elbows pointing outward diagonally, at about a 45-degree angle, and your chest puffed up. You should feel a deep stretch in your pecs at the bottom of every rep.
• Press the weights back up, fully extending your arms.

3. Dumbbell Fly

“One key to growing your chest is working your pecs through full, deep ranges of motion,” Elias says. “This means fully stretching your pecs eccentrically (the lowering portion of the movement) and then flexing them fully concentrically (the lifting/flexing portion of the movement).”

The dumbbell fly has you draw two dumbbells out to your sides, stretching your chest just as Elias recommends. Go as deep as you comfortably can, focusing on obtaining a deep stretch at the bottom of each rep. 

How to Do it

• Lay back on a weight bench—set flat or on an incline—with a dumbbell in each hand. Press both dumbbells up over your chest.
• Turn your hands so your palms are facing, and lower the dumbbells out to your sides, maintaining a slight bend in your elbow. As you lower the dumbbells, think about pressing your knuckles toward the wall and your elbows to the floor. Go as deep as your shoulder mobility allows, stopping if you feel any discomfort. 
• Bring the dumbbells back together in a wide arc, like you’re hugging a tree, squeezing your chest at the top.

4. Dumbbell Fly-to-Press

The fly-to-press is a compound movement of the dumbbell bench press and fly. “The weight stays closer to your body so it’s more of a wide pressing motion,” says Elias. “The main benefit of this variation is that you can lift more weight since the weight is drawn closer to your body than with a traditional fly.”

At first, the fly-press may feel awkward, but once you perfect the form, you'll achieve a highly effective stretch.

How to Do it

• Start by lying flat on a bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand, palms facing each other.
• Perform a fly by lowering the dumbbells out to your sides. 
• Go as deep as you can without feeling any discomfort in your shoulders. Then, reverse the motion to bring the dumbbells back over your chest.
• Next, move into a traditional chest press and return to the starting position with arms and weights overhead.
• Start back at the top and repeat for desired number of reps.

5. Deficit Push-Up

Elias claims that the traditional push-up is the gold standard of chest exercises. He likes the push-up for its accessibility (you can do it anywhere with zero equipment) and its different variations. 

“One of the best variations for growing your chest is the deficit push-up,” he says. To do it, you’ll elevate your hands a couple of inches. “It allows you to fully stretch your pec muscles at the bottom of the movement, therefore strengthening the entire pec.”

• Get into a standard push-up position with your hands set on an elevated surface, such as hex dumbbells, bumper plates, or push-up handles.
• Lower your chest until it goes below your hands, keeping your back straight throughout the rep.
• Push through your hands to raise yourself back up to full extension.

6. Decline Deficit Push-Up

Like the deficit push-up, but harder. With your feet elevated, the difficulty level skyrockets. Make sure to keep form tight to prevent injury.

How to Do it

• Get into a standard push-up position with your hands set on an elevated surface, such as hex dumbbells, bumper plates, or push-up handles.
• Move your feet to an elevated surface, such as a bench or plyo box.
• Lower your chest until it goes below your hands, keeping your back straight throughout the rep.
• Push through your hands to raise yourself back up to full extension.

7. Dumbbell Floor Press

The dumbbell floor press is mechanically the same as the flat dumbbell bench press, but with a shorter range of motion as you’re pressing your arms from and lowering to the floor. 

“It’s one of the best chest pressing variations for people who are working with some sort of shoulder injury or who tend to fail their presses halfway up,” Elias says. “It also forces you to come to a full stop at the bottom of the movement, so you have to overcome inertia which requires more force than utilizing your body’s stretch-shortening cycle at that specific sticking point.”

How to Do it

• Lie face-up on the ground with a dumbbell in each hand.
• Set your feet firmly on the floor, knees bent, and bring the dumbbells back so the bottoms of your upper arms rest on the ground with your elbows bent at 90 degrees.
• Press the dumbbells up, keeping your elbows pointing outwards about 45 degrees, until your elbows lock out.

8. Banded Floor Press

Extra tension at the top of this movement requires control on the way day, and explosive power on the way up.

How to Do It

• Place a band on the ground and loop each end around a dumbbell.
• Lie face-up with the band settling around mid-back.
• Rack the dumbbells so you're holding one in each hand (note, this can be awkward). The band should come up under your armpits.
• Set your feet firmly on the floor, knees bent, and bring the dumbbells back so the bottoms of your upper arms rest on the ground with your elbows bent at 90 degrees.
• Press the dumbbells up, keeping your elbows pointing outwards about 45 degrees, until your elbows lock out.

9. Incline Single-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

You’ll get all the same benefits of a two-arm incline bench press (chest growth and strength) with the added benefit of more core muscle recruitment. 

“This is a great variation to train core stabilization during bench press movements,” says Elias. 

“Whenever you lift weight on just one side, that weight pulls you down to that side, so your core on the opposite side must stabilize to keep you on the bench.”

How to Do it

• Lie back on a bench set to about a 45-degree incline holding just one dumbbell.
• Tuck your elbow in so it's pointing out about 45 degrees (or just think diagonally) and position the head of the dumbbell so it sits next to your chest.
• Squeeze your abs, glutes, and leg muscles to prevent your body from tipping over to the side you’re holding the weight on. Press the dumbbell straight up until your arm is extended. Tense up your other arm and either hold it out to the side or press it up and down alongside your weighted arm (as if you were doing a two-arm dumbbell bench press).
• Slowly lower the dumbbell back to your chest under control.

10. Dumbbell Pullover

The pullover stretches your chest’s muscle fibers back more vertically and engages your lats. At the apex of the movement, you should feel a deep pec stretch and then a solid contraction as you draw your elbows forward and over your torso. 

Elias thinks of the pullover as a core exercise, too, as you have to stabilize your body to prevent yourself from falling off the bench as you lower the dumbbell behind your head. 

How to Do it

• Lie perpendicular to a bench, with only your upper back and shoulders resting on it.
• Hold a dumbbell with both hands over your chest, arms almost extended, keeping a slight bend in your elbows. 
• Lower the dumbbell in an arc over your head, feeling a stretch in your chest and lats.
• Pull the dumbbell back over your chest, squeezing your lats and chest as you return to the starting position.

11. Dumbbell Decline Bench Press

“Pressing from a decline angle is going to train your lower pec muscles, an area often ignored or forgotten about when training the chest,” explains Elias. 

The angle of the press also reduces the stress placed on the shoulder joint, making this a smart variation for people with a preexisting injury or who simply don’t like how other chest presses feel.

How to Do it

• Find a weight bench that can adjust to a decline and set the angle to negative 15 to 30 degrees. Lock your feet into the pads, lay back on the bench, and have someone place a dumbbell in each of your hands.
• Perform a standard dumbbell bench press—keeping your elbows tucked in diagonally and pressing both dumbbells from the outside of your chest to full arm extension. 
• Lower the weights to your chest under control. 

12. 1-1/4 Rep Dumbbell Bench Press

Some research suggests that reps done in the bottom half of the range of motion, when the muscle is most stretched, are more effective for building muscle than the top-half range of motion. That’s why Elias thinks this specific rep variation is particularly effective for building muscle mass.

“You’re getting more time under tension and keeping the pecs engaged in a stretched position,” says Elias, “which will get you closer to failure sooner, recruiting more fast twitch muscle fibers with less weight.”

• Set up as you would for the standard flat dumbbell bench press, holding a dumbbell in each hand as you lie back down on a weight bench with a slight arch in your lower back. (Choose a weight about 10 to 15 pounds lighter than what you’d use for a standard dumbbell bench press.)
• Start with the dumbbells set to right outside your chest muscles. Press the dumbbells up just about six inches or so, and then lower them back to your starting position. You should feel constant tension in your chest throughout this rep.
• Then press the dumbbells up for a full rep, until your arms are fully extended. That’s one rep. 

13. Eccentric Dumbbell Bench Press 

If you've ever done eccentric movements, you know it's all about time under tension and feeling the burn.

How to Do it

1. Lie back on a flat weight bench with a dumbbell in each hand, elbows tucked in at about 45 degrees, and the dumbbells set to the outside of the chest. 

2. Lower down slowly for about three seconds then press the weight back up.

3. Repeat for desired number of reps.

14. Alternating Dumbbell Bench Press

“For this variation, you will only press with one arm at a time while holding two dumbbells,” Elias explains. “While one arm presses, the other arm will be paused at about 90 degrees, keeping tension on the pec, and forcing you to do an isometric rep on one side while the other side lifts. This is another great option for stimulating muscle growth and strength with less weight in less time.”

How to Do it

1. Hold a dumbbell in each hand while lying face-up on a flat weight bench.

2. Press one dumbbell up while keeping the other set just outside your chest. You should feel a slight muscle stretch on your stationary side. 

3. Alternate arms with each rep, keeping tension on the paused side.

15. Squeeze Press

A squeeze press, also known as a close-grip press, provides more triceps and chest activation through the added force of squeezing dumbbells together during the movement. Go lighter than you think and make sure to keep the pressure strong witht he squeeze.

How to Do it

• Lie face-up on the floor or a bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Bring the dumbbells together as if you were going to fist bump yourself.
• From this position, actively squeeze the dumbbells together as you press up and lower back down. Keep the dumbbells together the entire time.

Muscles Worked When Training Chest 

The most common chest exercises are variations of presses (think the bench press, machine press, or dumbbell press), and flys (with cables, dumbbells, or the pec deck machine). And all of them recruit your pecs, shoulders, and triceps to a degree, along with a few ancillary players. Here’s a full list of the muscles worked during most chest exercises:

Primary Muscles

• Pectoralis Major & Minor: Your chest muscles consist of two main muscles. The pectoralis major is a triangular-shaped muscle that spans from your shoulder joint horizontally across your clavicle (aka your collarbone) and down the length of your first six ribs. Your pectoralis minor is a similar shape, but attaches to just your third, fourth, and fifth rib; it sits under your pec major. Together, these muscles are primarily responsible for bringing your arms in toward your chest (like you’re hugging someone) and extending them out in front of you (like you’re pushing someone)

• Anterior Deltoids:  Your shoulder consists of three parts—a posterior (rear), (medial) middle), and anterior (front) head. The anterior deltoid head raises your arms forward, brings them inward, and helps move them across the body, all the main movements involved in chest exercises like presses and flys. 

• Triceps Brachii: Located on the back of your arm, your triceps consist of three heads—a long, medial, and lateral head. The triceps' main function is to flex your lower arm. It’s most active during the top half of chest presses when your upper arm goes from 90 degrees to fully extended. 

Secondary Muscles

• Core

• Shoulder Stabilizers

Training Tips to Build More Chest Muscle

If your goal is to build muscle, try adhering to these three science-backed strategies using the exercises provided above. 

Keep Your Intensity High

You don’t need to reach failure to gain muscle, but you should push every working set close to it. A recent study published in the Journal of Sports Medicine found that “that changes in muscle size increased as sets were terminated closer to failure”. 

Reaching complete muscular failure isn’t always feasible or safe. Instead, lift weights that allow you to finish every set within the prescribed rep range, feeling you could do two to three more reps if you had to. “The last few reps of your sets should be a bit of a grind (with good technique),” says Elias.

Use Various Rep Ranges

A position paper about muscle-building best practices published in the International Journal of Strength and Conditioning specifies that you can induce hypertrophy “across a wide spectrum of loading zones.” Exercise Scientist, Mike Israetel, PhD, has said on his YouTube channel that reps between five and 30 will induce hypertrophy. In his experience, Elias thinks the floor for effective muscle-building sets should be eight reps. 

• Generally, sets between eight to 12 repetitions are a good sweet spot for hypertrophy; you can still lift heavy to accumulate a lot of mechanical tension without risking excessive joint stress or injury. 

• For exercises that demand you to use less resistance, like dumbbell flys and push-ups, try sets between 12 and 20 reps. Aim to add reps, not weight, from week to week. Once you can perform hard sets of 20, increase the weight slightly (five pounds or so) and start the progression over. 

Own the Stretch

You undoubtedly should train every exercise with control through its full range of motion. However, some research—like this 2023 study that examined muscular adaptations from the biceps curl—suggests that the bottom half of exercises is marginally more hypertrophic. Another study compared the effect of full range-of-motion reps versus partial range-of-motion reps, performed in the muscle’s most stretched position, on muscle growth. The study found that lengthened partial reps were equally effective at building muscle. 

At the very least, it’s clear that achieving a deep stretch in the muscle elicits hypertrophy. There’s no need to fixate on training techniques like long-length partial reps. Instead, just make sure you perform your reps with a controlled tempo and get the deepest muscle stretch that your mobility allows during each rep.

Benefits of Training With Dumbbells

• Promotes Stability: Stabilizing a barbell is easier since your hands and limbs move in sync throughout every rep of bilateral barbell exercises like the barbell row and bench press. “With dumbbells, you are forced to control the weight in every direction, not just up and down or forward and backward,” says Elias. “This will recruit more stabilizing muscles, specifically in your back and shoulders.”

• Freer Movement: Dumbbells allow your limbs and joints to move in different directions compared to barbells. This freedom of movement means you can adjust the position of your presses and rows to feel more comfortable. “If you are someone who suffers from shoulder pain or impingements, dumbbells can be a great alternative to barbells or machines because they allow your shoulder to move freely, without restriction,” Elis explains. 

• May Correct Muscular imbalances: Even if you’re lifting dumbbells of the same weight, each side of your body supports and stabilizes that load independently. So, if your right side is stronger than your left, you may feel like you could do an extra rep of dumbbell presses with your right arm than your left. Because each side of your body has to work on its own to stabilize each dumbbell, your weaker side should, over time, catch up to your stronger side (though you may not feel a significant difference).  

Dumbbell Chest Workouts

Below are three different workouts written by Elias that train your chest, back, and core. Feel free to swap out the prescribed chest exercises for another option from the list above, but we suggest sticking with one variation for at least four weeks to give your body a chance to adapt and acclimate to it. 

• What You Need: To do any of these workouts, you need a weight bench and a pair of dumbbells (either adjustable dumbbells or traditional dumbbells work). 

• Optional Arm Work: Elias programmed three brief upper body workouts. They’re great options for when you’re on the road. Or, if you’re trying to grow your back and chest, you can perform all three in a week. Instead of programming a separate arm day, you can tack on one or two arm exercises to the end of each workout and follow the prescribed reps next to “optional arm work”. Select any of these exercises: Dumbbell lateral raises, incline dumbbell curls, dumbbell curls, dumbbell upright rows, overhead dumbbell extension, dumbbell skull crusher.

• Warm-Up: Before performing any workouts, walk on a treadmill for 5-10 minutes. Then, perform a quick circuit of: arm circles (forward and backward), torso twists, and bird dogs. 

Workout 1

• Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 8 reps
• 3-Point Dumbbell Row: 3 sets of 8 reps on each arm
• Dumbbell Pullover: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Optional Arm Work: 3 sets of 12 reps

Workout 2

• Partial Rep Dumbbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Chest-Supported DB Row: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Side Plank: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Optional Arm Work: 3 sets of 12 reps

Workout 3

• Deficit Push-Up: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Bent-Over Dumbbell Fly: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Ab Rollout: 3 sets of 8 reps
• Optional Arm Work: 3 sets of 12 reps

Your Takeaways

• You aren’t short of options when it comes to the best dumbbell chest consisting of presses and flys done from various angles. 

• To build your chest, aim for a minimum of six weekly sets. More advanced athletes can lift up to 12 sets per week (or even more) for chest gains.

• Do 8 to 12 reps for most chest exercise for muscle gains. You can go as low as five reps and as high as 30, though 8 to 12 is the sweet spot for most people.

• Rest at least 24 hours between chest workouts.