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Upper Body Workouts

6 BEST Chest Exercises For Women (25-Minute Dumbbell Chest Workout)

By: Lindsey Bomgren, CPT | June 26, 2023

Build upper body strength and support good posture with this workout: the 6 best chest exercises for women. This chest workout requires just a set of dumbbells to build strength in the chest and arms. Reach muscle fatigue in under 30 minutes with this strict set format — a set of push ups breaks up each strength set in this workout!



 
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Improve posture and build a strong chest with six dumbbell chest exercises.

Chest exercises are often skipped by women in particular. There’s a misconception that since women have breasts, they don’t need to train the chest muscles or pectoralis muscles.

This isn’t true. A strong chest supports good posture and helps build upper body strength, which can improve your workouts in the long run. Chest workouts are just as important for women as they are for men. 

This 25-minute chest workout at home uses a set of dumbbells to tone the arms and build chest muscles. We’ll hit muscle fatigue with the strict set format and add a set of push ups between each strength exercise for good measure.

two women performing a dumbbell chest press in a chest workout for women

Chest Exercises for Women FAQs

What Are The Best Chest Exercises?

The best chest exercises include chest presses, chest flys and push ups. Today’s workout includes several variations of dumbbell chest presses and chest flys to target the chest muscles from different angles. The strict set format will challenge your muscular endurance, and each strength set will be followed by a set of push ups for a total chest burnout.

What Are The Benefits Of Chest Workouts For Women?

The primary functions of your chest muscles are to: flex your upper arm (raise), adduct your upper arm (bring back) and medially rotate your upper arm (turn inward). You use your chest muscles every time you pick something up, hold something, or push something, so a strong chest makes everyday activities easier.

Can Chest Exercises Improve Your Posture?

Yes! Chest muscles play an important role in maintaining good posture and upright stability. Your pecs support your shoulder blades (scapula muscles). If your pec muscles are shortened (common if you sit at a computer all day), they’ll pull down on the shoulder muscles, creating bad posture.

Can You Workout The Chest At Home?

While many traditional chest workouts rely on gym equipment, such as bench presses and cable machines, you can target all the muscles in your chest using just a set of dumbbells. For more of the best chest workouts at home try our: Chest and Back Workout, Chest and Arm Workout, Upper Body Push Workout or Chest and Legs Workout.

two women performing a standing chest fly in a dumbbell chest workout

25-Minute Dumbbell Chest Workout

Sculpt your upper body and build strong, toned arms with these six chest exercises for women.

This chest workout for women specifically targets the pecs, but also engages the shoulders, triceps and back muscles.

Add upper body workouts like this one to your home training program 1-2 times a week to build muscle mass and increase endurance.

Workout Equipment:

Medium to heavy set of dumbbells. I suggest anywhere from 8-25 lbs. I used 15-30 lb dumbbells for this chest workout.

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woman performing a standing chest fly in a dumbbell chest workout

Workout Instructions:

Follow along with the guided Chest Workout video on YouTube, led by certified personal trainer, Lindsey Bomgren. 

Your Workout Looks Like This:

  • 6 Dumbbell Chest Exercises
  • Timed Intervals (40 seconds of work per exercise, followed by 20 seconds of rest)
  • Strict Sets (repeat each chest exercise x 2 sets, back-to-back)
  • Perform 10 Push Ups After Each Chest Exercise

Note: we re-filmed this chest workout to improve video and sound quality (and changed up some of the moves). You can find the original best chest exercises for women video here if you’d like to compare them.

4 Best Chest Exercises for Women!

Workout Outline

  1. Dumbbell Chest Press
  2. Dumbbell Chest Fly
  3. Standing Chest Fly
  4. Dumbbell Svend Press
  5. Diamond Chest Press
  6. Alternating Reverse Grip Chest Press
two women performing a dumbbell chest press in a chest workout for women

Prefer to Watch On YouTube?

youtube icon Chest Workout

6 Best Chest Exercises For Women

Dumbbell Chest Press

Targets: Chest (pecs), shoulders (deltoids) and triceps.

two women performing a dumbbell chest press in a chest workout for women

How To Do A Dumbbell Chest Press

  1. Lay flat on your back (on the ground, on a bench, incline bench, or on a stability ball) with knees bent and feet flat on the floor. Hold one dumbbell in each hand (palms facing knees), elbows bent at a 90-degree angle.
  2. Exhale as you push both dumbbells overhead at the same time; dumbbells stacked over shoulders at the top of the press. Make sure your wrists are strong and in line with your shoulders.
  3. Lower the dumbbells back towards your chest with control.

Dumbbell Chest Fly

Targets: Chest muscles, both the larger pectoralis major and the smaller pectoralis minor.

two women performing a dumbbell chest fly in a dumbbell chest workout

How To Do A Dumbbell Chest Fly

  1. Lay flat on your back (on the ground, on a bench, or on a stability ball) with one dumbbell in each hand, arms extended above your shoulders, palms facing in towards each other. Press your feet firmly into the floor.
  2. Inhale as you slowly open your arms, lowering the dumbbells in a wide arc until they reach shoulder level (or the ground). Your elbows should remain soft and not over-extended (slight bend in the elbows).
  3. Exhale as you pull the dumbbells back to starting position, squeeze your chest muscles together. Keeping your chest puffed out and your elbows slightly bent.

Standing Chest Fly

Targets: Upper arms, chest, shoulders, abs and core.

two women performing a standing chest fly in a dumbbell chest workout

How To Do A Standing Chest Fly

  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hold one dumbbell in each hand at your sides; palms face out away from the body (underhand grip). Shoulder blades pulled down towards your hips.
  2. Squeeze your chest as you lift your right hand across your body bringing the dumbbell in the right hand parallel to your left shoulder. Think “right pinky finger to left shoulder”. Palm faces up towards the ceiling.
  3. Keep a soft bend in your elbow as you lower the dumbbell back to starting position with control.
  4. Repeat on the left arm, alternating arms with each rep.

Dumbbell Svend Press

Targets: All heads of the shoulder muscles including the anterior deltoid, medial deltoid and upper portion of the pecs (chest muscles); AND abs and deep transverse abdominal core muscles.

two women performing a dumbbell svend press in a chest workout at home

How To Do A Dumbbell Svend Press

  1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart, knees slightly bent. Hold one dumbbell in each hand at your sides vertically; palms face in towards the body. Shoulder blades pulled down towards your hips. Press the heads of the dumbbells together so they’re touching.
  2. Press the dumbbells straight out in front of you at shoulder height, keeping a slight bend in the elbows.
  3. Hold for a moment, then pull the dumbbells back in towards your chest. Brace your core tightly as you push the dumbbells away and pull them back.

Modification: Option to hold one dumbbell vertically with both hands.

Diamond Chest Press

Targets: Chest, shoulders, triceps, upper back, mid-back, abs and core muscles.

two women performing a diamond chest press in a chest workout at home

How To Do A Diamond Or Narrow Chest Press

  1. Lay flat on your back (on the ground, on a bench, or on a stability ball) with one dumbbell in each hand, elbows pinned at your sides, dumbbells at mid-chest point, and palms facing in toward one another. Press your feet firmly into the floor.
  2. Exhale as you press the dumbbells up in a straight line, ending with your arms straight overhead, wrists over shoulders.
  3. Lower back to the starting position and repeat.

Alternating Reverse Grip Chest Press

Targets: Pectorals (chest), deltoids (shoulders), and triceps.

two women performing an alternating reverse grip dumbbell chest press in a chest workout for women

How To Do An Alternating Reverse Grip Chest Press

  1. Lie flat on your back (on the ground, on a bench, incline bench, or on a stability ball) with knees bent and feet flat on the floor.
  2. Hold one dumbbell in each hand in a reverse grip (palms facing in towards you), arms extended and dumbbells in line with shoulders.
  3. Inhale as you lower the dumbbell in your right arm towards the ground, elbow bent at a 90-degree angle.
  4. Exhale to push the dumbbell overhead, returning to starting position.
  5. Repeat, this time lowering the dumbbell in your left arm towards the ground. Then exhale as you push it up, returning to starting position.

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8 comments

  1. Awesome chest workout!!! Wicked core workout with the standing chest moves! This is definitely a new fav! Although I loved the OG, I think this one tops it. Thanks Lindsey and Rachel. 🙂 And P.S. I did all pushups from my toes…whoop whoop! You gals rock! Thanks for the great pump up!

  2. Just finished this workout before my kids woke up and feel so proud (and shocked!) to report I did all 60 pushups from my toes!! Caveat being, I did drop to lighter weights for sets 3, 4, and 6. Even so — I didn’t think I had it in me. Thanks for showing me I’m stronger than I think 🙂

  3. You are the BEST trainer!!
    I have been following you since Covid-19 won I set up a small ‘gym’ in my family room at home. I’m a competitive runner and built strength in my upper body doing your videos— which really helped my running. Thank you!!!!!!

    • Barb! You are so kind! I’m so glad you’re loving the workouts and love that you’ve set up a home gym too! You are so awesome. Keep up the great work and keep coming back for more! -Lindsey

  4. Ugh, pushups! 🙂 Thank you for this post. How would you incorporate this with your workout calendar? Just after all the upper-body only videos? Thanks!

    • Hi Karen…I had to laugh, you’re not alone in disliking push ups that’s for sure. But I’m glad you find this post helpful. Fortunately, most of these exercises are included in the ‘arm’ and ‘total body’ workouts on the 30-Day Calendar so GOOD NEWS, you’re covered! That said, if you’re specifically striving to get off your knees with push ups or improve push up form you could tack-on an additional set of push ups (10-20 reps) daily or every other day. I hope that helps + keep up the great work! -Lindsey

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