Chest Exercise Tier List (RANKINGS)

There are so many chest exercises to choose from that you can include in your chest workouts, but which ones should you focus your efforts on if you want build a bigger chest and increase your strength? I’ve created a chest exercise tier list to help you sort through your best (and worst) options.

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In the F tier we have the single plate pressout. If you’re going to do this you want to use two plates so you have to isometrically squeeze with more force to keep the plates from falling. Even then, you want to press up and out to engage the upper pec fibers more. Doing this straight out in front of you is almost entirely a front delt exercise and doesn’t do anytihng to build your pecs.

In the D tier we have the dumbbell chest fly. While Arnold may have loved these for the stretch, there’s better ways to get it without compromising the health of your anterior shoulder capsule.

In C tier we have the pushup. Whie it may be the gold standard for bodyweight chest exercises and I think everyone should be doing pushups, if you can do 30 or more pushups in a single set, I would say that you need to find a different variation that challenges you enough to where you fail under 30 reps if you are looking to grow your chest.

In B tier we have the cable bench press. This overcomes the limit of the dumbbells losing tension at the top of the rep. The only drawback is that the ability to load this exercise is compromised a bit because of the process of getting setup in place to perform the press with the cables.

In A tier, we have the bench press but not just any type of bench press. I prefer the dumbbells vs the barbell due to improved shoulder health while still being able to be overloaded. You can also do this from a flat or incline bench position for more variety and the ability to target chest development weak points.

To make this S tier, throw in a superset with the cable crossover. Now you get the stretch benefits from a safer shoulder position that we alluded to earlier, the missing adduction that isn’t in the bench press, and the classic overload that causes growth. That’s stretch, plus strength plus squeeze for the combo that belongs at the top of the tier.

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Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS served as both the head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Jeff earned his Masters of Physical Therapy and Bachelor’s of Physioneurobiology from the College of Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).