Chest Workouts at Home: How to Use Exercise Bands for a Stronger, Toned Chest
Chest muscles facilitate your upper body movements, such as pressing, lifting, pulling, and pushing. As a result, chest training is vital in building the functional strength needed in your daily life; that’s where chest exercise band workouts come in.
Exercise bands are great training tools to work out your chest muscles from home or when you are on the go or have limited space. Unlike weight lifts or fitness machines, exercise bands are highly versatile, meaning they can be used in various configurations to work out different muscle groups.
Check out how to use exercise bands for a stronger, toned chest:
Floor Press
The resistant band floor press is an excellent exercise to work out your chest and triceps while causing minimal stress on your shoulders. The pressing movements are also ideal for reinforcing back tension and improving scapular retraction, which is the most used for push-ups or bench presses.
To achieve the most out of a floor press exercise, follow these steps:
- Wrap the exercise band around your upper back and hold the ends in both your hands.
- Lying on your back, bend your knees while your feet rest on the floor, and extend your elbow while holding the band above your chest with your palms facing upwards.
- Hold your resistant band with arms bending at 45 degrees and your elbows resting on the floor.
- Extend the elbows fully and hold for 3 – 5 seconds before lowering your arms to the starting position.
- Complete around 8 to 10 repetitions for each set.
Chest Fly
The Chest Fly is an excellent exercise for working out the chest and front deltoids. Unlike dumbbell chest fly, resistance band chest fly offers an evenly distributed resistance with a contestant load throughout the workout. They help open up your chest muscles, thus reducing tightness and pain in your upper body.
The following is a step-to-step guide on how to use an exercise band for chest fly exercise:
- Anchor your band around your hip or chest level.
- Grasp the ends of your band facing away from the anchor.
- Step away from the anchor, keeping one foot before the other for stability. Keep a distance so that you can feel some resistance in the band.
- Raise your arms to or slightly below your shoulder level while keeping your elbows slightly bent. Pull the band across your body to meet in front of your chest.
- Hold for a second, then go back to the starting position.
- Complete eight to ten repetitions for a set.
Seated Raw Band
This is an excellent exercise for building the upper back muscles. It targets latissimus dorsi and rhomboids and helps sculpt the upper and the middle back, thus promoting good posture. It can strengthen and give your upper body an excellent tone if done regularly.
Follow these steps for a seated raw band:
- Sit on a flat surface with your legs extended and feet close together.
- Place the exercise band around the feet, holding the ends with both hands.
- Hold the band ends tightly and pull your elbow back until your hands almost touch your torso.
- Hold for 3 to 5 seconds, then slowly return to the starting position.
Band Pullover
Band pullover is an old-school exercise and the most preferred by bodybuilders. When the band is anchored behind you, the movements target your upper chest muscles keeping tension on the muscles throughout the session. This tension is ideal for increasing your muscle mass, hence giving a fully-developed chest.
How to do band pullover exercise:
- Rest on your back with your knees bent and your feet flat on the ground.
- Anchor your exercise band behind you and grasp the ends on your palms (straight overhead).
- Pull the band forward to your hips, keeping your elbows straight.
- Hold for a second and return to the starting point.
- Complete eight to ten repetitions for a set.
Push-ups
This is the usual push-up, but when you do it, you place the exercise band behind your back. Less tension is on the band when you descend, but when you push yourself up, stress increases, matching your strength curves. The increased resistance helps create stronger muscle contraction and boosts triceps strength. When done from a deficit, it increases your motion range, thus enhancing strength and muscle growth.
Follow these steps when doing exercise band push-ups:
- Wrap the exercise band around your back, holding its ends in both hands.
- On a flat surface, position your hands shoulder-width away at chest level.
- Ensure your legs extend back straight.
- Push yourself down with your elbows slightly spread out until your chest almost touches the floor.
- Push yourself back to the starting position.
- Complete eight to ten repetitions for a set.
Banded Pull-ups
This is an assisted pull-up, meaning a banded pull-up can be your alternative if your upper body isn’t strong enough to take the typical pull-up. Like the usual pull-up, banded pull-ups strengthen multiple muscle groups, including shoulders and biceps. It is also an ideal way to increase your pull-up rep range.
This is the guide for banded pull-ups:
- Anchor your band on a pull-up bar (make sure it is looped).
- Step or bend your knee on the loop to load your weight.
- Grasp the pull-up bar with your palms facing out and arms at shoulder distance away.
- Perform the typical pull-up by bending your elbows to lift yourself up.
- Take 5 to 8 reps for a set.
Banded Bench Press
A banded bench press is an excellent workout for the chest muscles. It works out your entire pecs with an increased range of motion, thus increasing your chest muscles and, as a result, giving you a toned chest.
How to use exercise band for bench press:
- Lie on a bench with the band under your shoulders.
- Hold the band ends on both hands with your elbows bent to the side of your shoulders. Start with your band slightly stretched in the starting position for increased tension.
- Press your arms above your chest and hold for a second before returning to the resting position.
- Complete eight to ten repetitions for a set.
In Conclusion
Exercise bands provide an effective workout alternative for strength training. They are inexpensive, portable, and, most important, safer than many workout machines that pose a risk of injuries, hence the need for supervision.
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