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.

But we don’t want to shortchange ourselves. We’re in the gym to get some work done, and if we don’t put that time to its most effective use, we may as well skip it. So how do we get the most benefit out of the quickest possible chest exercise plan? Read on ,and I’ll show you how to do this.

Compound exercises use multiple muscle groups, so we naturally get more work done when we use them. With this in mind, we’ll put together a killer chest workout that will not only put your packs through the ringer, but also enable you to get some work done on your back, and the supporting muscles in your shoulders and torso.

Obviously, the first ever going to do his warm-up. I recommend a whole body warm-up for about five minutes to get the blood flowing and to prepare yourself for the work to come. Because were pressed for time, muscle group specific warm-ups will consist of are beginning work sets. For each exercise selected, before you do your work sets simply perform 2 to 3 sets with about half of your regular exercise weight.

Our first exercise is going to be inclined dumbbell presses. Three sets of eight, done with a 4X for tempo. This is a great exercise. Not only will work your pecs, but also interior deltoids your lateral deltoids and your triceps.

We’re going to follow that up, believe it or not, with dumbbell pullovers. If you’ve never done pullovers don’t sweat it. They are not that hard. Either lie crosswise or lengthwise on a low exercise bench. Place your hands on the inside of one and of a medium weight dumbbell. The dumbbell bar should actually fit between the index finger and thumb on both of your hands. Hold the bar in this fashion at arms length above your chest and then slowly lower it back in behind your head, towards the floor. Bring it back to the starting position and repeat.

This is a great exercise for stretching your entire upper body. Some people believe that will actually expand your rib cage. I think the jury’s out on that but the proven benefits of the exercise are enough to convince me to do it. Again three sets of eight with a 4×4 tempo should be fine.

I would like to note here that regarding rest periods there are number of different tack she could take at this point. One method would be simply to eliminate them altogether, but I think we all know what would happen to exercise performance and technique if we went that route. A better idea is to take very short rest, say 30 seconds and alternate are exercises. If we go this direction are workout routine looks like this:

• warm-up, 5 minutes, Stairmaster or similar
• incline dumbbell presses: 30 pounds for 8 reps x 2
• dumbbell pullovers: 20 pounds for 8 reps x 2
• Inclined dumbbell presses: 60 pounds for eight reps
• 30 seconds rest
• dumbbell pullovers: 40 pounds for eight reps
• 30 seconds rest
• inclined dumbbell presses: 60 pounds for eight reps
• 30 seconds rest
• dumbbell pullovers: 40 pounds for eight reps
• 30 seconds rest
• Inclined dumbbell presses: 60 pounds for eight reps
• 30 seconds rest
• dumbbell pullovers: 40 pounds for eight reps

This entire chest workout plan, including warm-up should take you less than 20 minutes.

You’ll be in and out of the gym and on your way secure in the knowledge that your upper body has been given a complete workout.

They give you a great pump. And no one can deny that they isolate the chest perfectly. It’s not too much to say that you will not put together your best chest workout without them.

I have a bit of a thing about how they should be done. I hate to see someone wasting their time in the gym with a fly machine, for example. What an incredible waste of time, compared to standard flys, not to mention that any machine is going to limit your range of movement, and lock you into a pattern. Why is this so bad? Do a Google search on repetitive movement injury and see…..

Here is how you should be doing your flys:

• Lay on a flat or incline bench while holding your dumbbells up close to your chest
• Extend your arms out and upward, keeping a bit of an arc in them. Your elbows should not be straight. If they are, you will be putting too much stress on them at the bottom of the movement.
• Lower the weights out to your side, at a deliberate pace. Exactly how fast depends on which school of thought you subscribe to vis a vis lifting speed, but most people find that a 2 count is good.
• Pause briefly at the bottom of the arc, then smoothly bring your arms together in front of (or above) your chest.
• If you like, you can pause here and “squeeze” the pecs in an attempt to create an inner chest workout but I have found that this gets me nothing except a sore chest the next day, if taken too far.

Remember that the fly is an assistance exercise. It is not going to replace presses, and it should probably not be the first exercise in your chest routine.

One variation that I have used in the past is the combination fly and press. This makes for a great finisher, and if you have been feeling like you’ve lost that “mind – muscle connection” with your chest exercises, this will bring it back big time.

• Set up to do your flys as above.
• At the end of your first rep, bring the dumbbells down to your side, to the beginning position of a dumbbell press.
• Do one. At the top, do another fly
• Repeat until you cry