The Ultimate Inner Chest Workout Guide (5 Proven Exercises)

Your inner chest workouts may not be yielding any results because:

• You’ve selected the wrong regime that focuses too much on the lower part of the chest and ignores the upper region.

• You’ve the right regime up your sleeves, but your technique is incorrect. 

Regardless of the scenario, we understand you want fuller, more chiseled pecs but are far from achieving the goal. 

The good news is: we’ve got a solution.

Continue reading the article to discover what’s in store for you. 

Foreword

Have a lackluster chest?

And, want to add some serious mass to your inner pecs?

We’ve curated a complete inner chest workout guide featuring 5 proven exercises to help you sculpt pecs that are bigger, rounder, and fuller.   

From push-ups to cable crossovers, our guide covers everything ‘actionable’ for that impressive chest.

So, without further ado, let’s take you inside. 

How to Workout Inner Chest? Best 5 Exercises That Work Like a Charm

• Target areas: Chest, triceps.
• Equipment: Not required.

Push-ups are one of the staple exercises for chest development. 

Close grip push-up, hence, tops our list of exercises for the inner chest. It targets the muscles in the center of the chest, also referred to as the sternocostal head of the pectoralis major. 

Here’s how to do the close-grip push-ups:

1. Assume the plank position.

2. Maintain a classic push-up posture with your thumbs touching each other and your hands placed directly under the shoulders. 

3. Lower your body, keeping your elbows tucked towards your sides, and push back to the starting position. 

4. While pushing up, focus on contracting your chest muscles and triceps. 

5. Do as many reps as possible. Start slow, pick pace, and maintain the rhythm.

The close grip push-up is a sure-shot bodyweight exercise to build a fuller upper chest and can be performed anywhere without needing any equipment. 

The following are its benefits: 

• A potent exercise for a sculpted, well-defined inner chest.
• Builds lean muscle mass around the chest, triceps, and shoulders.
• Enhances muscle endurance.

• Target areas: Chest, shoulders, triceps.
• Equipment: A barbell.

Being a compound exercise, the bench press specifically targets the pectoralis major muscle—the largest muscle at the front of the chest—responsible for a multitude of movements, including:

• Horizontal adduction: Moving arms across the body.
• Shoulder flexion: Raising arms above the head. 
• Internal arm rotation: Bringing arms toward the center of the body

Nevertheless, with a couple of customizations, it can be one of the best inner chest workouts you can ever try. 

Modification One:

One way to modify it is to use a narrow grip. By holding the barbell with your hands slightly close, you can place more emphasis on inner chest muscles. 

Modification two: 

Another way is to use dumbbells instead of a barbell, allowing yourself a greater range of emotions and focusing more on adding mass around the inner chest region. 

Note: Though these modifications are a great way to fuel the inner chest development, it’s crucial to combine a bench press with other exercises and techniques to ensure you’re working on all areas of the chest and avoid an unbalanced chest development. 

Also, make sure you’re doing it under expert supervision. The bench press is a heavy, daunting exercise that requires adhering to a proper form and technique. A minor mistake, and you can suffer an injury. 

Here’s how to do a typical bench press exercise.

1. Lie flat on a bench with your feet on the floor and your eyes directly under the bar. 

2. Reach up to hold the bar, settle your grip in a way that your hands rest slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, and your palms face away from your face. 

3. Lift the bar off the rack while keeping your arms straight and your shoulder blades retracted.

4. Slowly lower the bar towards your chest, keeping your elbows tucked in towards the sides. 

5. Hold for a beat until the bar touches your chest, push back to the starting position, and do as many reps as possible. 

The following are its benefits:

• Strengthens the complete chest area. 
• Facilitates the build-up of lean muscle mass around the inner chest area. 
• Fortifies bone health. 
• Cuts calories and supports weight loss. 

• Target areas: Chest
• Equipment: The cable machine.

The cable fly exercise ticks off all the right boxes for the right inner chest development.

When performed meticulously, the cable fly targets and builds the inner portion of the pectoralis major muscle, which, as mentioned above, is the largest muscle covering the front of the chest.

Cable exercises work like magic by building continuous tension. In other words, it drives muscle activation throughout the entire range of movements—thereby improving endurance and core strength.

What’s more, cable exercises pack versatility, which means you can leverage their potential for a range of fitness needs and enhance your full-body workout regime. 

Here’s how you can do the cable fly exercise: 

1. Start with adjusting the height of the cables. The trick is to set the pulleys slightly below the shoulder level. 

2. Stand between the pulleys and grab each handle while maintaining a firm, overhand grip. 

3. Take a small step forward for a balanced posture and position yourself in a split stance with your feet shoulder-width apart.

4. Lean forward, keep your back straight, engage your core, straighten your arms, and pull the cable handles to bring them in front of your body. 

5. Hold for a second while squeezing your chest muscles. 

6. Slowly return to the starting position and do as many reps as possible.

Incorporating the cable fly exercise along with the step-up exercise, into your routine can be a game-changer. It has all traits of targeting your inner chest muscles and helping you achieve a full-rounded chest.

The following are its benefits: 

• Isolates muscles around the inner chest region for focused outcomes. 
• Stimulates growth and promotes endurance. 
• Ensures minimized chances of injury as it’s relatively easier on your joints. 

• Target areas: Inner chest, triceps, shoulders.
• Equipment: Dumbbells, bench, weight-lifting gloves. 

The dumbbell fly exercise is of cardinal importance for anyone looking to achieve serious pec gains. 

By taking advantage of arm rotations, stimulates muscle growth around the inner chest region and helps you gain that impressive built worth to die for. 

It is also referred to as ‘dumbbell chest fly’ or ‘dumbbell flyers.’

Here’s how you can do the dumbbell fly exercise:

1. Lie down on a flat bench and make sure your feet are flat on the floor. 

2. Your head, shoulders, and buttocks should touch the bench.

3. Now, pick and hold a dumbbell in each hand with your palms facing each other and your arms extended over the chest. 

4. Slowly lower the dumbbells out to your sides, keeping a slight bend in your elbows, until your arms are parallel to the ground.

5. Hold for a beat, and then use your chest muscles to return to the starting position while squeezing your upper chest muscles. 

6. Repeat the exercise for the desired number of times.

The following are its benefits: 

• Sculpts your chest appearance and adds a definition. 
• Accentuates core muscle strength. 
• Engages biceps, shoulders, and triceps for a full-body toned appearance. 
• Increases and improves the range of shoulder movements.

While the dumbbell fly exercise is the holy grail for anybody looking for a powerful inner chest workout, it’s still important to note that: 

“You’re working against the rule of gravity while attempting it.”

Ensure that: 

• You’re doing it under expert supervision. 
• You’re focused on making slow, steady progress. 
• You’re ready to customize it as per your body threshold.

• Target areas: Chest, arms, shoulders
• Equipment: Hexagonal dumbbells, bench

The hex press is a variation of the dumbbell chest press exercise that targets muscle building around the inner chest region. It’s also referred to as the squeeze press or the hexagonal dumbbell press.

You’ll need a set of hexagonal dumbbells to perform the hex press. 

What exactly are those?

Hexagonal dumbbells have flat sides that allow you to press them together without them rolling away. Refer to the image below. 

Here’s how to do the hex press exercise:

1. Lie down on a flat bench. Place your feet flat on the floor and your head, shoulders, and buttocks touching the bench.

2. Grab a pair of hexagonal dumbbells, hold one in each hand, and keep them at chest level with your palms facing each other and your elbows bent.

3. Press the dumbbells together in a way that the movement squeezes your chest muscles. Keep your elbows close to your body.

4. While keeping the dumbbells pressed together, extend your arms upward until they are fully extended above your chest.

5. Wait for a moment, and slowly lower the dumbbells back down to the starting position while keeping them pressed together throughout.

6. Repeat. 

The hex press is one of the foundational inner chest exercises, helping people build a well-defined, highly toned upper body. 

However, there are a few considerations to keep in mind.

• It’s always wise to use a weight that’s challenging but manageable.
• Control is the key. Maintain your posture and poise throughout the reps to avoid any kind of injury. 
• Hexagonal dumbbells are a ‘good-to-have’ but not a ‘must-to-have.’ You can perform hex presses with regular dumbbells and even on a cable machine with handles.

The following are its benefits:

• Boosts muscles’ strength and staying power. 
• Improves chest definition. 
• Works holistically across the chest area.
• Enhances mind-muscle connection. 

The Bottom Line

We’ve come to the end of this guide. 

We hope we’ve been useful in helping you decide on inner chest exercises that are proven to be effective and result-oriented.

Wondering if we’d help you further on how to prepare for these? 

Absolutely, yes!

If you’ve any questions about these exercises, feel free to connect with our experts today and choose a regime that fits your needs. 

Start a conversation today and drop in the queries below. 

May the force of fitness be with you!