If the sliding chest flys are too hard for you to do, or if you don’t really have a surface area where you can do them, then side-to-side pushups are a must.

This bodyweight exercise basically combines the stretch you get from chest flys with the pushing mechanism of the chest through traditional pushups.

How to:

Start off in your traditional pushup position. However, this time you want your arms to be a bit wider than shoulder-width.

When you lower yourself down, instead of going straight down, you want to lean towards either your left or right arm first. Stretching out the opposing arm but still using it to control your weight.

You want to lean to your arm to about the point where your elbow is almost touching your body.

There a lot of videos of a poor execution of the exercise.

A common trend that I’ve noticed in most instructional videos is that they go too wide. Again, remember this can potentially damage your shoulder and increases your risk of injury.

7. Decline Pushups

Last but not least is one of my favorite variations of the pushup is the decline one.

The main difference between the two is that the decline pushup targets the lower portion of your chest. This is what makes decline pushups one of the best bodyweight chest exercises. The lower portion is often forgotten by most and is probably why people who do not target it seem to lack definition and mass in their pecs.

Back when hodge twins used to make workouts videos and commentary, they always said that the decline variation of the bench or pushup is what really made their chest grow.

How to:

Instead of starting from the ground in a flat plank position you are going to want to find a place where you can elevate your feet.

Your goal is to achieve an angle where once you have your arms extended, shoulders are at the same angle as your feet.

Conclusion

Here are my top 7 favorite bodyweight chest exercises with no equipment necessary.

You can indeed build an impressive chest without stepping foot in the gym. Something worth noting is that these bodyweight chest exercises are not the only ones out there. There are tons to choose from, as a matter of fact here is an article written by Steve from ManvsWeight with 113 variations of the pushup.

The reason why I decided to write this article and include these 7 specific chest exercises is because of their effectiveness in promoting pectoral muscle growth by targeting your chest’s full range of motion and its functionality.

While there are tons of other bodyweight chest exercises out there, I personally believe that these 7 exercises need to be your foundation on which you add other exercises from other sources.

Remember, don’t over do it!

Ideally, you want to train your chest twice a week with a minimum of 48 hours of rest between each chest workout. This ensures that you are not overtraining and that you are benefiting from protein synthesis.

And another thing worth remembering is that exercise is just 50% of the work. You can do as much dips and pushups as you want but unless your diet is up to par, you are not really going to say any results.