The Chest Workout That Hits Every Angle
One complete chest session covering the upper, middle, and lower pecs, run twice a week for six weeks.
Program Overview
The chest is one muscle with three jobs. Its upper fibers press up and across, the middle presses straight forward, and the lower presses down, and a chest built on flat benching alone develops exactly one of the three. This session covers all of them: heavy flat and incline pressing while you are fresh, cable work that keeps tension where dumbbells lose it, and dips in Phase 2 for the lower chest that almost nobody trains directly. Around 12 to 14 sets, twice a week, on top of your normal training or inside an upper body day. Every exercise includes a form video.
If you would rather pair chest with the muscles that assist it, our chest and triceps workout and chest and shoulders workout do that. Dumbbells only? Our dumbbell chest workout has you covered.
Who Is This For?
This plan suits you if:
- Your chest lags the rest of your upper body
- You bench but rarely train the upper or lower chest directly
- You have access to a barbell, dumbbells, and a cable stack
- You have two sessions a week to give it
Slot this into a complete week from our muscle building programs page.
Weekly Schedule
Phase 1: Press Heavy, Then Chase Tension (Weeks 1-3)
The flat bench leads while you are freshest, the incline dumbbell press takes the upper chest through a longer range, then the cables finish what free weights cannot: tension that never drops off at the top. One or two reps in reserve on the presses, and a hard one-second squeeze on every cable rep.
Add weight to a press only when every set reaches the top of the range. The cable work progresses by squeeze and control, not stack pins.
Lower the bar to your mid chest with control and press it back to lockout.
Press dumbbells from an inclined bench, lowering to upper chest level.
Standing between low cables, press the handles forward and together.
On an incline bench, open the arms wide with a soft elbow bend and bring them back together.
Twenty to thirty minutes of easy walking, outdoors if you can manage it.
Five to ten minutes on hips, ankles, and the upper back.
Phase 2: The Angles Nobody Trains (Weeks 4-6)
The incline barbell press takes over as the heavy movement for the upper chest, the low cable crossover sweeps upward through the line flat pressing misses entirely, and chest dips arrive for the lower pecs. The alternating dumbbell press keeps one side under load while the other holds, which your core will notice immediately.
On dips, lean forward and stop at a comfortable stretch. Add reps before you even think about adding weight.
Press the bar from an inclined bench, lowering to the upper chest.
Press one dumbbell at a time while the other waits at lockout.
From low pulleys, sweep the handles up and together in front of your chest.
On parallel bars, lean forward and lower until the shoulders reach elbow depth, then press up.
With a soft elbow bend, bring the handles together in front of your chest.
An easy walk to move blood through the muscles you trained without adding fatigue.
Gentle mobility for whichever joints felt stiff getting into position last session.
Chest Workout PDF
Upper, middle, and lower chest in one session, twice a week for six weeks.
This is a single session you run twice a week for 6 weeks with full gym access, around 35 minutes. Phase 1 (weeks 1-3) runs 4 exercises for 12 sets: heavy flat benching, incline dumbbell pressing, and cable work that holds tension where free weights lose it. Phase 2 (weeks 4-6) moves the barbell to the incline, adds low-to-high cable crossovers for the upper chest, and brings in chest dips for the lower pecs, the angle almost nobody trains directly.
- All Three Regions, On Purpose Flat pressing for the middle, incline and upward cable sweeps for the upper, dips for the lower. The full muscle, not a third of it.
- Cables Where They Beat Dumbbells A dumbbell fly unloads at the top. The cable work here does not, and that constant tension is why it earns its place.
- Built To Slot In 12 to 14 sets a session sits comfortably on top of your existing training as a six-week chest block.
Get Your Chest Workout
Includes both training phases, the weekly schedule, and exercise cues for the full session. Download instantly after you submit the form.
Unsubscribe any time.
Nutrition Guidance
A lagging chest is sometimes a pressing problem and often an eating problem. Our macro calculator sets your targets and our recipes make them repeatable. For more depth, read building muscle while minimizing fat gain and how to tell if your training is working.
What Actually Matters Here
- Protein: 1.6 to 2.2g per kg daily. Pressing volume twice a week is a real recovery bill.
- Calories: At or slightly above maintenance if chest size is the goal. Pecs do not grow in a hard deficit no matter how well you press.
If the bench stalls in week four, look at food and sleep before your program.
