Best Middle Chest Workout For bigger & stronger Pecs

14 Best Middle Chest Workout For bigger & stronger Pecs

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If you want to get your middle chest to look more defined and strong, then this best middle chest workout is for you.

To get the middle chest to look more defined and better overall, you are going to have to grow the entire chest muscle. But for maximum stimulation of the middle chest muscle, you have to focus on horizontal motion.

To effectively train the middle chest, first, we will understand the chest anatomy, and then we will look at the execution technique and the best middle chest workouts and pro-tips.

The pectoralis major has three functional subdivisions –the upper, middle, and lower regions.

  • The upper chest region is referred to as the sternoclavicular head because of its attachment to the clavicle.
  • The lower chest regions are sometimes referred to as the sternocostal head because of their attachment to the ribs.
  • The middle region is referred to as the sternal head. It is the space between the sternoclavicular head and sternocostal head.
upper, middle, and lower Chest head

The list of the middle chest workout will give you numerous options to train your mid-chest.

You can train your middle chest at home with no equipment or need the best middle chest exercises you can perform with barbells dumbbells, or cables.

The best way to use this list of middle chest exercises is to take each move for a test drive and find the ones you feel the strongest to make mind and muscle connections on.

How To Train Middle Chest

If you want to develop the middle chest to get more defined pecs, you need to read this whole blog.

Here I’m going to show you the only way you can effectively improve the visual appearance of this portion of the chest muscle.

Here’s a twist, you cannot directly improve only this portion of the pecs, but because of the contrast this area provides, you can make it start looking better quickly if you do the proper things.

First thing again that you need to realize is that the middle chest is not something you can directly hypertrophy. This is simply the attachment point or the origin of the pec major muscle.

One of the most important things you can do if you want to build a bigger middle chest is to remember to not just focus on strength-building exercises, but also need to focus on isolation exercises.

When you are attempting to build the chest or any portion of your chest, really, you have to make sure you don’t forget to include some exercises that allow your hands the freedom of motion to do this.

That said, take an exercise like the cable crossover. Even if you perform this regularly in your chest workouts but stop your arm as soon as it gets to the point of your midline, you won’t get the type of results you would if you brought it all the way across your midline.

14 Best Middle Chest Exercises

The chest muscles cannot be worked isolated, but if you are looking to work more on the middle chest, the best way is to perform exercises that promote movement of your arms towards the midline of your chest.

Here is the list of the 14 best exercises that focus more on middle chest and helps to build well-developed chest.

Middle Chest Workout At Home Without Equipments

1. Narrow Grip Push-Up

One of the best bodyweight middle chest exercises is narrow grip Push-ups.

It is also good exercise to build your entire upper body, including shoulders, chest, and arms.

Take a narrower push-ups stance than you normally do, which is similar to a close-grip push-up that helps in building the middle chest.

Narrow Grip Push-Ups
Execution Technique
  1. Lay face down on the ground with your legs straight, palm near, and arms supporting the upper body. Keep your knees off the ground. Take a narrower pushup stance than you normally would.
  2. Now raise yourself off the ground, straightening your elbows and your arms but keep your elbows close to your body.
  3. Raise until your elbows are locked and pause for a moment at the top of the movement.
  4. Now lower your body under slow sustained motion, feeling the motion all the way down until your chest is very close to the ground.
Tips
  • Exhale while you exert.
  • For intensity and variation, do the decline variation.

2. Push-Ups

Push-Ups is the best bodyweight calisthenics exercise to build your entire upper body, shoulders, chest, and arms. Check how to do them correctly and blast your muscles at home or at Gym.

It is used to be done to build muscle and strength in the chest, shoulders, and arms. Push-Ups can be a real challenge if done in various forms.

Push Ups
Execution Technique
  1. Lay face down on the ground with your legs straight, and arms supporting the upper body. Keep your knees off the ground.
  2. Raise yourself off the ground straightening your elbows and your arms. But keep your elbows close to your body.
  3. Raise until your elbows are locked, and pause for a moment at the top of the movement.
  4. Now, lower your body under slow sustained motion, feeling the motion all the way down until your chest is very close to the ground.
Tips
  • Exhale while you exert.
  • For more variations, you do incline push-ups, decline ups.

3. Clapping push-up

Another good single-arm middle chest exercise is the clapping push-ups.

Clapping Push-ups aka Plyometric (plyo) push up is an advanced exercise that works your chest, triceps, abs, and shoulders. With this type of pushup, a “jumping” element is added to the exercise to make it more challenging and explosive.

Clapping push-up
Execution Technique
  1. Start in a standard Push-Ups with your palms flat on the floor, hands shoulder-width apart, shoulders stacked directly above your wrists, legs extended behind you.
  2. Your body should form a straight line from your shoulders to your ankles. Brace your core by contracting your abs.
  3. Start to lower your body as if you’re going to do a pushup until your chest is almost touching the floor.
  4. Reverse the motion by pushing hard through the palms, just as your arms reach full extension, pull your hands up off the floor. Rapidly clapping the hands together and placing them back in the original position before your body falls back to the ground.
Tips
  • Be sure to exhale when exploding off the ground and inhaling on the way down.
  • Do not let the elbows flare out. Keep the elbows close to your sides throughout.
  • Keep the core tight and back flat throughout the movement.

Dumbbells & Barbell Middle chest workout

4. Dumbbell Squeeze Press

The dumbbell squeeze press is one of the most effective chest pressing exercises which target the middle chest. You can perform to induce functional hypertrophy in the middle body, particularly the pectorals.

During the squeeze press, the dumbbells are kept in contact with each other at all times, and you’re actively squeezing them inward (against each other) as hard as possible.

Dumbbell Squeeze Press
Execution Technique
  1. Take the dumbbells in each of your hands, and lay down on the bench.
  2. Place the dumbbells together side by side, and lift them up over your chest.
  3. Lower them down together, touch the chest, and then push the dumbbells back up.
  4. Repeat for the desired number of repetitions.
Tips
  • Breathe out on the way up.
  • Maintain more tension through the pecs by not locking out the elbows entirely.

5. Dumbbell fly

If you’re looking for a straightforward middle chest exercise to add to your routine, dumbbells fly is a great staple exercise to get you started.

The dumbbell fly utilizes a chest fly movement pattern to isolate the muscles of the chest, helping the muscles to grow better and become stronger. It is often thought of as a classic bodybuilding movement, as the goal of the exercise is to isolate the chest for aesthetic purposes. The dumbbell fly targets all areas of the pecs but most significantly the middle and inner chest.

Dumbbell Fly
Execution Technique
  1. Lie on the flat bench with your feet flat on the floor.
  2. Lift your arms straight up from your shoulders and the dumbbells directly over your upper chest.
  3. Slowly lower your arms out to your sides until your wrists come to about shoulder level or slightly above.
  4. Bring your arms back toward the midline of your body, focusing on using your pec muscles to draw them back together.
Tips
  • Perform press in a controlled manner.

6. Plate Squeeze Press

If you’re looking for a way to get more creative with your middle chest workout, why not try plate squeeze press?

Plate squeeze press is an alternative and free weights exercise that primarily targets the middle chest, and to a lesser degree that also targets the shoulders and the triceps.

This Exercise can be integrated into the chest workout to increase muscle hypertrophy, and create chiseled and defined pectorals.

Plate Squeeze Press
Execution Technique
  1. Grab 2 plates and squeeze them together with your palms.
  2. Bring the plates to the middle of your chest, extend your arms forward and slightly upward.
  3. Contract your chest as hard as possible.
  4. Reverse your arms in the exact same movement pattern.
Tips
  • Use a controlled tempo to push your arms up and forward.
  • Remember to breathe properly.

7. Dumbbell Bench Press

Dumbbell Bench Press is a great way to add muscle mass to the chest. Barbell Bench Press has a limitation that it does not involve the full range of motion, a limitation dumbbell bench press overcomes.  

The dumbbell bench press provides an extra range of motion at the top for complete chest development. Also, Dumbbells demand better coordination, forcing the stabilizing muscles to assist as well.

Dumbbell Bench Press
Execution Technique
  1. Lie flat on the bench keeping your feet on the floor for better balance with a dumbbell in each hand.
  2. Hold the Dumbbells straight overhead, palms facing forwards.
  3. Now, lower the weights to your outer chest stretching the chest to the maximum at the bottom.
  4. Now, raise it until your arms are nearly locked out, keep dumbbells very close to each other.
Tips
  • Keep a controlled motion, and avoid jerky movements.

8. Bench Press

Bench Press is one of the best chest muscle-building exercises. This exercise should be the center of all your chest workouts.

It is the fundamental exercise for the upper body and should be a part of any best chest exercises regime. That’s why, for overall chest development, the barbell press always remains on the top of the list. Must add this exercise to your Middle Chest Workout arsenal.

Bench Press
Execution Technique
  1. Lie flat on the bench keeping your feet on the floor for better balance.
  2. Lift the bar off the rack and hold it at arm’s length above you.
  3. Now lower the bar under controlled motion until it touches above the chest (around the nipple area).
  4. Now raise it until your arms are nearly locked out.
Tips
  • Keep a controlled motion and avoid jerky movements.
  • Do not bounce the weights off the chest.
  • Avoid too much arching of the back.
  • For heavyweights, use a spotter.

Machine Middle chest workout

9. Cable Pec Fly (Middle Chest Cable Fly)

Cable Crossovers are the best exercises for really focusing tension on the middle chest

The Cable Pec Fly aka Cable Crossover fly exercises helps to build massive Pectorals. Crossover provides constant tension in helping build massive chest.

Standing Cable Crossover Exercise helps to develop and define the middle chest muscles.

Cable provides constant resistance and helps develop the lower and the central chest muscles by providing the much-needed stress in the middle and the inner pecs.

Cable Crossovers
Execution Technique
  1. In a standing position, grab and holds the handles of overhead pulleys on both sides.
  2. Bend slightly forwards and extend your arms, feeling a good stretch in your chest muscles.
  3. Now flex your arms with elbows slightly bent and get a good chest contraction.
  4. Unlike chest pec fly, you can cross over the center to get full Pec contraction.
Tips
  • Breathe in on the relaxation phase and breathe out when contracting, keeping your head up at all times.
  • Squeeze your chest at the end of the movement.

10. Seated Cable Pec Fly

Seated Cable Pec Fly provides constant tension in helping build massive pecs.

Cable provides constant resistance and helps develop central chest muscles and provides the much-needed stress on the chest for which bodybuilders crave.

Seated Cable Pec Fly.
Execution Technique
  1. Seated on a bench, take hold of each cable and position the handles directly in front of your chest
  2. Extend your arms, feeling a good stretch in your chest muscles.
  3. Now flex your arms with elbows slightly bent and get a good chest contraction.
  4. Unlike pec fly, you can cross over the center to get full Pec contraction.
Tips
  • Hold and contract the chest muscles when hands are together.
  • Always keep your arms bent to protect the shoulder joint.
  • Breathe in on the relaxation phase and breathe out when contracting, keeping your head up at all times.

11. Seated Machine Fly

Machine fly is a machine exercise that primarily targets the chest. You really need the machine fly equipment. There are many different machine fly variations that you can try out, which require different types of machine fly equipment or may even require no equipment at all.

Machine Fly
Execution Technique
  1. Sit on the machine, taking care to place your back flat against the pad.
  2. Grab the vertical handles with elbows slightly bent.
  3. Squeeze the handles together until they touch in front of your chest.
  4. Let your hands move back to the starting position, keeping your elbows up.
Tips
  • Your upper arms should be parallel to the floor.
  • Keep your eyes straight ahead while performing the exercise.

12. Standing Cable Chest Press

Standing cable chest can increase the range of motion to where your hands meet as compared to the convention bench press.

Unlike a standard bench press where you’re lying on your back, which limits the involvement of the core, the standing bench press engages your core and stabilizer muscles far more as you are having to control every angle that the weight can potentially move in.

Standing Cable Chest Press
Muscles Worked

Primary: Pectoralis.

Secondary: Anterior deltoid, latissimus dorsi (back), Biceps Brachii, rhomboids (back).

Execution Technique
  1. Stand in the centre of the two pulleys and grip the stirrups on both side.
  2. Step forward a couple of foot in front of the cable machine with one leg in front of the other to form a staggered stance or as comfortable to you.
  3. Move the handles forward through, extending via your elbows, until your hands meet in the centre.
  4. Briefly squeeze before slowly bring back to the starting position.
Tips
  • Ensure your head is up, core is engaged, and the rest of your body is stable and stationary.
  • Breathe in on the relaxation phase and breathe out when contracting, keeping your head up at all times.
  • Squeeze your chest at the end of the movement.

13. Single Arm Chest Fly

When doing a middle chest workout with a cable machine, there are plenty of single-arm chest exercises you can add to correct potential imbalances.

The one-arm fly is a unilateral variation of the fly. It is used by those who would like to focus on the middle pec.

During Exercise, emphasis is placed on bringing the resistance further across the body and past the midline, thus extending the range of motion to force an intense peak contraction in the middle chest.

Single Arm Chest Fly
Execution Technique
  1. Begin by moving the pulleys to the high position, select the resistance to be used, and take a handle in one hand.
  2. Extend your arm and make sure to have a slight bend in your elbow.
  3. Pull your hand to the midline of your chest while keeping your upper body straight.
  4. Hold for a second, and go back to starting position to complete one rep.
Tips
  • Always keep the elbows slightly bent for full middle chest activation.
  • Keep a controlled motion and avoid jerky movements.

14. Lying Cable Chest Fly

Finally, if you’re looking for one more effective cable middle chest exercise, try the Lying Cable Chest Fly.

It is an isolation exercise that builds muscle and strength in the Pectoralis Major (Chest).

Cables are a great tool for allowing you to keep tension on the muscle, and they are especially effective when training the chest.

Lying Cable Chest Fly
Execution Technique
  1. Attach stirrup handles to the low pulleys. Lie on the bench with your feet flat on the floor.
  2. Lift your arms straight up from your shoulders and hold the cable directly over your middle chest.
  3. Slowly lower the cable attachments outward to your sides, remember to keep your arms slightly bent until your arms are parallel with the ground horizontally,
  4. Bring your arms back toward the mid-line of your body, focusing on using your pecs muscles to draw them back together. Repeat as many repetitions as are desired.
Tips
  • Do not overstretch during the negative phase of the exercise.
  • Hold and contract the chest muscles when hands are together.
  • Always keep your arms bent to protect the shoulder joint.

Conclusion

Doing the exercises provided in this article will give your middle chest a complete workout, focusing on the middle section of your pectorals helps to improve performance and aesthetics.

For anyone interested to build body strength and gaining muscle, this Best middle chest exercise and workout plan is highly recommended.

Let us know, in the comment section below, your favorite middle chest workout!

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