Beginner Chest Workout at Home – No Equipment

So you’re looking to build your chest muscles and increase your upper body strength. Or maybe you just want to tone up your muscles in order to add some definition and lose some fat in the process. But there’s one problem, you don’t have access to heavy weights. Don’t worry, you’ve come to the right place to get the best beginner chest workout you can do at home.

Why Workout Chest?

The importance of the chest muscles are to move the upper arm. In essence, they move the upper arm from the side of your body to the front of your body.

The benefits of chest workouts are generally to increase muscle size and strength but, like all workouts, they will contribute to calorie burning and fat loss. This results in better posture, reduced chances of injury, better breathing and whether you’re a man or a woman it results in a more aesthetically pleasing appearance.

Exercises for Home Beginner Chest Workout

Here are a list of easy chest exercises that won’t require any weights or equipment. But if you want a more comprehensive list of home chest workouts click here.

It’s important to note that, even though these exercises are easy, you’ll still need to challenge yourself during your workout so I’ve included a rating of how difficult each exercise is for your convenience.

This is the most important exercise in your home chest workouts. It’s great to build chest muscle and strength, but also has the added bonus of working your arms, shoulders, core and legs.

How to do Pushups?

1. Get down on all fours. Keep your feet close together and your hands shoulder width apart. Your hands should be under the level of your shoulders.
2. Bend your arm at the elbows so you lower your chest to just above the floor. Make sure your elbows don’t flare out so you avoid shoulder injuries. Try to keep them closer to your body, so your upper arm makes a 45⁰ angle with your body.
3. Pause at the bottom.
4. Contract your chest muscles and extend your arms at the elbows so you return to the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: You should aim to perform between 8-12 repetitions per set, while resting for around 1-2 minutes between each set. Make sure your reps are slow and controlled in order to avoid injuries and get the most out of the exercise. Keep your abs and glutes tight during the movement so your body remains straight.

Don’t worry if you can’t perform a pushup yet because there are easier variations you can do as alternatives and they’ll set you on the right path to doing your first pushup.

If you haven’t been able to master the regular pushup then this variation is a great alternative for you.

Similarly, it works the entire chest but it’s much easier as it reduces the amount of bodyweight you have to push up against. It also reduces the need for a strong core to keep your body straight. So this makes it a great exercise to build the strength to progress to doing a pushup.

How to do Knee Pushups?

1. Get down on your knees. Keep them close together.
2. Place both hands on the ground. Keep them shoulder width apart and just under the level of your shoulders.
3. Straighten your body at your abs and hips so your body is more or less straight except for your knees.
4. Bend your arms at the elbows so you slowly lower your chest to just above the floor.
5. Pause at the bottom.
6. Contract your chest muscles and extend your arms at the elbows so you raise yourself back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Perform sets of up to 8-12 repetitions while resting between 1-2 minutes between sets. When these sets become easy or you’re able to perform more repetitions you can advance to doing normal pushups during your beginner chest workouts.

This is another easy alternative to standard pushups, making it perfect for your beginner chest workout. It works the same muscles as pushups but you’ll focus more on your lower chest. Click here for more benefits of incline pushups.

Find a stable surface to place your hands and you’ll be all set for this exercise. During your home workouts this can be a chair, a table, the stairs or even a wall. Just note that the higher you place your hands the easier this exercise becomes.

How to do Incline Pushups?

1. Place your hands on an elevated surface, around shoulder width apart.
2. Move your feet backwards until your body is straight.
3. Bend your arms at the elbows so you lower your chest to above the elevated surface.
4. Pause at the bottom.
5. Contract your chest muscles and extend your arms at the elbows so you return to the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Perform sets of 8-12 repetitions with 1-2 minutes of rest between sets. Make sure your hands are always under your chest during the entire exercise. Tighten your abs and glutes in order to keep your body straight.

You can follow up a set of pushups with this exercise for an added challenge during your beginner chest workout.

Start with your hands in a higher position and gradually lower them as you get stronger and eventually progress to standard pushups.

Wide pushups are a slightly more challenging pushup variation as it puts more emphasis on the chest muscles than the triceps.

How to do Wide Pushups?

1. Get down on all fours, as if you were doing a normal pushup, but place your hands slightly wider than shoulder width apart.
2. Bend your arms at the elbows so you lower your chest to just above the floor.
3. Pause at the bottom.
4. Contract your chest muscles and extend your arms at the elbows so you return to the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Do these for an extra challenge during your home chest workout if you can already do pushups. Experiment with how wide you place your hands in order to find the right position where you feel your chest the most. Aim for sets of 8-12 repetitions with 1-2 minutes of rest between sets.

This is another more challenging pushup variation. This one works the triceps more but puts the chest through a greater range of motion. You’ll feel it work the middle and lower parts of your chest.

How to do Narrow Pushups?

1. Get down on all fours, as if you were doing a pushup, but place your hands less than shoulder width apart.
2. Bend your arms at the elbows so you lower your chest to just above the floor.
3. Pause at the bottom.
4. Contract your chest muscles and extend your arms at the elbows so you raise yourself back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

How to do Diamond Pushups?

1. Get down on all fours.
2. Place your hands close together so that your thumbs and index fingers form a diamond or triangle shape.
3. Bend your arms at the elbows so that you lower your chest to the floor.
4. Pause at the bottom.
5. Contract your chest muscles and extend your arms at the elbows in order to raise yourself back into the starting position. This is 1 repetition.

Tips: Do these as an extra challenge during your home chest workout if you can already do pushups. Aim for sets of 8-12 repetitions with 1-2 minutes of rest between sets. For more info on diamond pushups click here.

Beginner Chest Workout at Home

Now that we know how to do the chest exercises, let’s talk about some of the beginner workout routines you can do. I’ve included 3 beginner levels of home chest workouts, so no matter what type of beginner you are you can get started on your fitness journey.

Home Beginner Chest Workout – Level 1

This beginner chest workout is for those of you who are probably new to working out and have yet to be able to do your first pushup. This pushup workout for beginners doesn’t require any equipment and will create the muscle and strength gains needed to do a pushup.

Warm Up: Do some form of cardiovascular exercise to get your heartrate up, then do some arm circles.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest between sets
Incline Pushups	3	10	2 minutes
Knee Pushups	3	10	2 minutes

Don’t worry if you can’t make the number of reps here. Do as much as possible. You’ll get there one day.

Home Beginner Chest Workout – Level 2

This chest workout is for those of you who can perform a pushup but are still struggling to perform it for only a couple reps. This beginner pushup workout is designed to build your strength so you can build up to doing a pushup with ease.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest between sets
Pushups	3	5	2 minutes
Incline Pushups	3	12	1 minute
Knee Pushup	3	12	1 minute

Again, don’t worry about the number of reps of pushups you can do. Do as much reps as possible but focus on the other two exercises.

Home Beginner Chest Workout – Level 3

This chest workout is for those of you who can comfortably do pushups for sets of 8-12 and now you’re looking for an extra challenge. This beginner pushup workout is also a great chest and triceps workout.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Rest between sets
Superset: Wide Pushups Incline Pushups	3	12	2 minutes
Diamond Pushups	3	10	2 minutes
Pushups	3	10	1 minute
Incline Pushups	2	10	1 minute

For your superset you have to do 1 set of wide pushups followed immediately by 1 set of incline pushups, with no rest in between so it should be challenging enough.

Make the most out of these beginner chest workouts and you’re sure to build so much muscle that you won’t be a beginner anymore. When that day comes make sure to check out my guide on how to workout chest at home so you can continue making lots of gains.

References:

Ebben, W., Wurm, B., VanderZanden, T., Spadavecchia, M., Durocher, J., Bickham, C. and Petushek, E., 2011. Kinetic Analysis of Several Variations of Push-Ups. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 25(10), pp.2891-2894.