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Before I get into how to create an effective calisthenics chest workout, I’ve got a confession.
I’ve never really had a problem growing my chest.
Maybe it’s because I had open heart surgery at a young age, and the swelling never went down.
Or maybe it’s because I carry a little excess fat in that area, and it just looks like I’ve got a muscular chest.
But to be honest, I’d be willing to bet my left nut that it’s because I’ve got my calisthenics chest workout nailed. And the fact that I do it 2-3 times a week without fail might just give me an edge.
Now I don’t know you, but since you’re reading this, it’s safe to assume that building a decent chest is near the top of your to-do lists.
But despite your best efforts, you might still be falling short of your goal.
If that’s the case, then you can do one of two things…
You could spend hours or even days browsing the internet, hoping that you’ll find some magic calisthenics chest workout that’s unknown to the masses.
But if you really want to chisel out a great chest. The type that gets the heads turning at the beach. Then you need to invest in a reputable calisthenics program that will show exactly what you need to do to build a ripped and ready chest.
WATCH VIDEO: How To QUICKLY Master The Planche, Muscle-Up, Human Flag, And Other Advanced Calisthenic Moves That Defy The Law Of Gravity
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Table of Contents
The 3 Main Movement Patterns
Now when it comes to calisthenics chest workouts. There are only 3 exercises you really need to be concerned with.
There are literally dozens of progressions for each of these exercises that you can adapt and use to really kick things up a gear. All of which I’ll be talking about in detail later.
But for now, I’m just going to take you through the 3 primary exercises you’ll be performing so you understand what you need to do to get results.
Chest Exercise 1 – Pushups
This is ground zero when it comes to building your chest with calisthenics.
Basically, if you don’t have pushups in your calisthenics workout. Then you don’t have a workout.
However, the problem is that a lot of people just tend to stick with the basic variation of the pushup and then get pissed when they don’t see any improvement.
So if you learn just one thing from this post, then let it be this…
If you’re not targeting your chest from every possible angle, you’re not going to see the results staring back at you when you look in the mirror.
I’ll be going into more pushup progression further down the page, but for now, just remember this fact, and you’ll be fine.
Chest Exercise 2 – Dips
Next on the list of calisthenics chest workouts, we’ve got dips.
I’m not talking about bench dips either. I’m talking about good old fashion parallel bar dips. The type that, when done correctly, will obliterate your chest in more ways than one.
Provided you do it correctly.
The problem I see most when people try to target their chest with this exercise almost always comes down to one of these two things.
- Hand position
- And Tempo
See if your hands are too close to your body, then you won’t actively be working your chest as well as you could.
This is because a narrower grip places more load on your triceps, while a wider grip places more emphasis on your chest.
Now, depending on where you work out, it’s sometimes not possible to adjust the width of the bars. So if they’re too narrow, it gets a little challenging to target your chest effectively.
Some people recommend flaring your elbows to compensate. But to be honest, it’ll place too much stress on your shoulders and probably cause injury further down the line.
So I wouldn’t recommend it.
The second thing you can do to get more chest activation is to control the repetition speed.
Some people complain that parallel bar dips do nothing for them. But in reality, they’re moving through the plain of motion so quickly, that they’re barely giving their chest any time under tension.
What I recommend you do instead is to bend your elbows slowly during the negative (lowering) phase of the exercise. This will make sure you’re effectively engaging your chest like you’re supposed to.
As you push yourself back up, do exactly the same. But as you near the top, don’t lock out your elbows.
Instead, hold the position just before elbow lockout for a brief second and then start your next repetition.
Again, this will increase the time under tension and give your chest (and triceps) a better workout by keeping them engaged for the entire set.
Chest Exercise 3 – Ring Flyes
And last but not least on the list you’ve got ring flyes.
Now, ring flyes are underrated and underused, to say the least. Maybe it’s because they’re too hard, or perhaps it’s because most people see them as an accessory exercise.
Whatever the reason, ring flyes are often the missing piece of the puzzle that turns a good calisthenics chest workout into a great one.
In the weight room, regular dumbbell chest flyes are often an afterthought or just something you’d superset with a bench press kick things up a notch.
But when it comes to ring flyes, it becomes a whole new ball game.
Because unlike dumbbell chest flyes, you’re now having to recruit a sh*t load more muscle fibers to keep your body in position.
Whereas with dumbbell flyes, your body’s supported by the bench.
So not only will ring flyes activate your core. It’ll practically rip your chest to shreds if you don’t treat it with the respect it deserves.
Anyway…
Using the three exercises above pretty much covers all your bases when it comes to creating a calisthenics chest workout.
All you need now are progressions…
WATCH VIDEO: How To QUICKLY Master The Planche, Muscle-Up, Human Flag, And Other Advanced Calisthenic Moves That Defy The Law Of Gravity
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Calisthenics Chest Workout Progressions
Pushup Progressions
I won’t bore you with a detailed explanation of every single pushup progression and how it’s performed.
I wrote a blog post a while back that talks specifically about executing the perfect pushup along with all the progressions you need to get started.
Here it is…
The Ultimate Pushup Progression Guide For Muscle, Strength & Power
Instead, I’d just going to give you a brief overview of each exercise, and then later, I’ll show you how to fit them into your workout.
As you can see, there’s quite a range of progressions to keep you occupied here.
And that’s just the start.
Each of these progressions can be made even more difficult by doing them explosively…
…Adding a weighted vest
…Or even performing them on a set of suspended rings to recruit more muscle fibers and engage your core.
The options a limitless if your willing to think outside the box.
Dip Progressions
Next up, you have dips.
Now I won’t lie. There aren’t nearly as many dip progressions as there is pushups progression. But that doesn’t mean they should be neglected.
In fact, dips are considered to be the ultimate chest builder as they’re capable of targeting your lower chest in a way that pushups can’t.
There’s also the added advantage that you’re holding your entire body weight off the floor (except bench dips, of course).
This makes them a lot harder than most pushup variations, which can help you pack on slabs of lean muscle mass if that happens to be your goal.
Again, you can make any of these progressions a lot harder by adding a weighted vest. Or even distributing your weight to place a higher load on one side of the body.
For instance, I personally like to tuck my knees up towards my chest and tilt forward slightly when doing parallel bar dips. I find it places more load on my anterior deltoids (front shoulder), which can sometimes get neglected in certain calisthenics workouts.
Ring Flyes Progressions
Lastly, you’ve got ring fly progressions.
Again, you can add weight to the exercise or perform them from a decline position.
If they’re too difficult, you could even regress the exercise, so you’re performing them from your knees.
Now, if there’s one thing you need to remember about ring flyes, it’s this…
…The straighter your arms are during the exercises, the harder it becomes.
But even though the exercise is harder, the downside is that it doesn’t target your chest nearly as much.
This is because you’re placing more of your weight on your arms.
So what I like to do is find a happy medium where my elbows are still bent, but most of the load is still on my chest.
It can be a pain at first to find the right balance, especially if you’re new to performing ring flyes. But once you get used to them, you’ll eventually find what works for you.
The Ultimate Calisthenics Chest Workout
Now when it comes to building an effective calisthenics chest workout. There are three things you need to do to get the best possible results.
You need to…
…Target your chest from every possible angle (I’ve talked about this multiple times already)
…Focus on both strength and endurance by changing up the exercise difficulty, repetitions, and tempo.
…Be consistent and work your chest 2-3 times per week. Obviously, this will depend on how you structure your routine. I usually do full-body workouts, including 3-4 sets of pushups, dips, and ring flyes each session.
However, if you’re only doing one chest session a week, you’ll need to up the volume to compensate for this.
Anyway, here are the workouts I personally use. Try them at your leisure and let me know what you think…
Pushup Finisher
The first calisthenics chest workout is a quick pushup finisher I often use to end my workout.
It’s a 4-minute circuit style workout based on a popular training method called Tabata.
Here’s how it goes…
- 20 Seconds of Wide Pushups
- 10 Seconds of Rest
- 20 Seconds of Close Grip Pushups
- 10 Seconds of Rest
Repeat x4 for a total of 4 minutes.
The idea here is to work as hard as possible every round and leave nothing left in the tank.
It looks simple, but give it a try and see how far you get before you’re lying face down in a pool of sweat.
I’ve also written a detailed blog post that goes into a lot more detail about Tabata Pushups. I’d recommend taking a look if you want a few more workout ideas.
Dropsets
If you’ve never heard of a dropset, it’s where you do a particular exercise to failure, and continue to decrease the weight your lifting when you can’t perform another rep.
It’s generally used in weight lifting routines as it’s relatively easy to keep working your way down a rack of dumbbells or change the pin position of a machine at the gym.
But it works equally as well with calisthenics, provided you structure it correctly.
Take dips, for instance…
If I wanted to perform a dropset routine with dips, there are one of two ways I could do it.
Firstly, if I wanted to focus on strength, I could load myself up with…
…A 45-pound plate attached to a dipping belt.
…A 25-pound weighted vest.
…And then a backpack with 30-pounds of weight plates or mini sandbags in it.
Then what I’d do is complete a set of parallel bar dips to failure…
…Remove the backpack
…Do another set
…Remove the weighted vest
…Do another set
…Remove the dipping belt
And finally, do a last set of dips with no weight attached.
Obviously, this isn’t something you want to try if you’re a beginner. But it’s easily adaptable to suit your individual needs.
Another way you could structure this is to perform harder progressions of an exercise and then regress to easier variations.
For example…
- Ring dips to failure
- Rest 10-20 seconds
- Straight bar dips to failure
- Rest 10-20 seconds
- Uneven parallel bar dips to failure
- Rest 10-20 seconds
- Regular parallel bar dips to failure
- Rest 10-20
- And finally, do a set of bench dips to failure.
The great thing is, you can adapt and use this method with practically any exercise you want regardless of where you are in terms of strength or fitness.
You could even increase or decrease the rest periods as you see fit to suit your own preferences.
It’s entirely up to you.
But regardless of how you set it up, it’s going to give you a kick-ass workout provided you put the work in.
Pushups And Ring Flyes
The last calisthenics chest workout I like to do involves both ring pushup and ring flyes.
It’s by no means a beginner workout, so if you’re not up to a decent level with your pushup game, then I’d leave this alone until you’ve got a little more training experience under your belt.
Now there are two ways I like to do this…
The first is simply performing both exercises back to back (superset style)
I’ll start by doing a set of pushups to 1-2 reps short of failure…
…Rest for 10-20 seconds
And then do a set of ring flyes until again, I’m 1-2 reps short of failure.
I’ll repeat this for 4-5 sets, resting 2-3 minutes between each set.
Depending on what I’m working towards on that particular day (strength or endurance), I’ll often strap a 30-pound weighted vest on and perform both exercises from a decline position.
But if I’m going for reps, I’ll max out unweighted, then do a mini dropset on my last set by performing both exercises again from my knees.
A Ripped Chest Vs A Big Chest
I sometimes get asked how I managed to build a decent chest using only calisthenics.
Now I won’t lie, I believe part of it is just down to genetics. I know people who put in hours of work every week on their chest and have little to show for their efforts.
But a crucial part of getting the chest you want ultimately comes down to diet.
If you want your chest to grow, then you need to be eating an excess amount of quality calories to give your body the fuel it needs to build new muscle.
On the flip side, if you want to lean out and reveal a ripped chest that looks like it was carved out of wood. Then you need to be eating in a calorie deficit to reveal the lean muscle underneath.
Ultimately the workout doesn’t change. It’s the diet that determines the results.
Remember this fact, and you’ll be able to build the chest you want in no time.
Quick Recap
To recap everything we’ve been through here’s what you need to know about creating an awesome calisthenics chest workout.
- Take advantage of ALL 3 movement patterns
- Use a wide range of progressions to target your chest from multiple angles.
- Mix things up by adding weight, changing the tempo, or increasing the workout’s difficulty using Tabata circuit, dropsets, or supersets.
And finally, be consistent and work hard. No one’s going to hand you the results. You’ve got to earn them.
Taking Your Calisthenics Chest Workout To The Next Level
Anyway…
I hope you’ve gained some sort of value from this rather long blog post.
But before you click the back button, I’ve got something that’s going to take your calisthenics game to an entirely new level.
It’s called Bar Brothers The System.
And it’s designed to get you up to speed with the most advanced calisthenics exercises known to man.
Take a look…
WATCH VIDEO: How To QUICKLY Master The Planche, Muscle-Up, Human Flag, And Other Advanced Calisthenic Moves That Defy The Law Of Gravity
(Video Will Open In A New Window)
For less than 50-bucks, you can get your hands on the entire bar brother system to keep you progressing with advanced calisthenics for years.
And what’s more, if you buy the program using any link provided on this page. I’ll also throw in my own personal collection of digital training material worth over $100 as a sincere thank you for buying the program.
This includes…
- HIIT to Fit
- Functional Strength
- And Kettlebell Transformation
Just send me proof (screenshot or receipt number) that you purchase the bar brothers program via the contact form on this website…
…Or by emailing me directly at Dan@Un-Ripped.Com
And I’ll send you everything you see above ASAP.
If you have any thoughts or comment about this post, feel free to drop them in the comments box below…
