It really is possible to get the job done without expensive equipment. We’re going to assume that you have already taken care of your full body warmup by running sprints, jumping rope or similar, and you have broken a light sweat. Now you are ready to get a great chest workout at home.

• The first exercise has to be pushups. But not just any pushups. We’re going to take these to the limit, and get the pectoral muscle from all the angles.

Start out by placing you hands against the back of your sofa, of other piece of sturdy furniture. About a 45 degree angle will be just right. Pump out 3×10 with a slow, deliberate pace. This should be enough for the muscle specific warmup.

Take about a 30 second rest, then drop to the floor. Do another 3×10 at this angle. Again, slow and focused reps. Use about a 2sec up 2 sec down tempo.  Rest for 2 minutes.

During your rest period, take advantage of the time by doing some stretches. Stand up, and reaching out to your side and slightly behind you, grasp a door jamb or similar. Rotate your body to the other side, pulling the muscle, and getting in a good stretch. Repeat for the other side.

Now let’s hit the lower pecs. You might think that we can’t simulate a decline press with push-ups, but here we go:

Put your feet up on the back of the sofa, and again – slow deliberate reps for 3×10.

At this point, your pecs should be pumped, but we have a finisher for you as well.

Take a towel, or T-shirt and fold it over the vertical edge of the door. Slide it down until you hit the knobs. Wrap around the knobs and pull the ends back towards you. Placing your feet at the base of the door, lean back while still holding the ends of the towel.

Congratulations! You just built your own portable rowing machine. Since we only have bodyweight to work with, I think that we need about 4 sets of 10 here to heat up the back and rear deltoids and balance out our work on the chest.

There you have it. At this point you should be nice and sweaty. You’ve gotten in a complete home chest workout, with no equipment, in just 20 minutes or so. This will also work well on the road, plus you can take a dip in the hotel pool when you are finished.

This will be the first in a series.

I like a chest workout that hits all areas of the chest in one session. I really do think that that is the best for growth and that also, hitting the entire chest in one session enables you to then give it a few days rest before you blast it again. More advanced trainees may want to do an lower chest workout to develop belly of the pectorals – but that is personal need and preference.

I start out with dumbbell bench presses.

Why not barbell, well it’s because I have some problems with barbells. I believe that using a barbell forces your arms and shoulders into a single position and reinforces a single movement grew. While this may not be an issue for younger letters, those of us who have been lifting for many years will start to feel a few twinges. I believe that a lot of the problems that we older lifters experience are due to what would be called if we were typing instead of what the lifting repetitive motion injuries.

Dumbbells remove this consideration completely. With dumbbells we are free to change hand position, elbow position, movement groove, beginning and end of rep positioning and really anything about the movement that we like. We are also free to adjust the movement as we wish to compensate for current or past injuries.

I start on a flat bench seated with my dumbbells resting on my knees. As I lay back, I bring the dumbbells with me so that when I am supine on the bench they are already correctly positioned for the beginning of the rep. I like to start my reps with the dumbbells supinated and as I press the weight up and back over to the finishing point which is just behind my forehead I turn my wrists so that the end of the rep has them pronated.

I like to use an amount of weight that enables me to get between four and six reps. I generally do three or four sets.

The next exercise in my favorite chest workout routine is the incline fly.

I like to set the bench about a 45° angle. I generally use about two thirds as much weight on the incline fly as I would on a flat fly. For this movement I’m more worried about the feel and muscle control than I am about pushing a lot of iron. I press the dumbbells overhead and careful to keep a bend in my elbows bring them down and out to the side. A brief pause at the bottom of the movement, and again keeping a slight crook in my elbows to bring the dumbbells together over my head. I like to do four sets of eight for this movement, as again it’s more about muscle feel and getting blood into the chest that it is about moving a lot of iron.

The final movement in the first of my favorite chest workouts is close grip bench presses.

I use the York Olympic easy curl bar. I’ve written about this piece of equipment before, and I have to say that it has completely changed my workouts. All of my old concerns about my rotator cuff tears, my supraspinatus tendon and so forth are done with. Just a great piece of equipment.

I like to use about 75% of my one rep max for this exercise. As this is a finisher, I don’t normally have a set number of sets for this exercise when I go into the gym. Instead, I go by feel. If it’s feeling really heavy, maybe I only get a few sets of six. If I’m feeling strong maybe I get 5×8.