Written by Garett Reid | NSCA, CSCS, CISSN, M.S.E.S.S
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
"You can't build muscle mass with calisthenics!" said no one who has ever used calisthenics to build their chest muscles.
As long as you know how to load your movements correctly, all you need are calisthenics. The biggest problem isn't so much that people don't know what to do, but it's that they don't know how to alter movements like push-ups and dips to continue growing and building more muscle.
If your chest workouts have been lackluster or you're struggling to continue making progress using bodyweight only, you'll want to try this calisthenics chest workout routine.
Table of Contents:
- What Is Calisthenics?
- Calisthenics Chest Workout Routine
- Programming Tips
- 12 Best Calisthenics Chest Exercises
What Is Calisthenics?
Calisthenics is a form of resistance training that primarily uses natural movements with only your body weight for a load. Many of the top calisthenics exercises are well-known, including:
- Push Ups
- Dips
- Squats
- Pull Ups
Depending on how much of a purist someone is, they may allow minimal equipment to assist with the movements or add a load to the body. Resistance options include bands or another external loading apparatus such as dumbbells.
The Best Calisthenics Chest Workout Routine
I'm going to jump right into it. I first want to give you your chest workout so you can see how it looks. I'll then go through the individual exercises and explain the programming.
Your chest workout will be composed of three slightly different workouts.
Two of these will focus on improving muscular strength and muscle hypertrophy training. The third session will focus on ballistics (power production) and will be shoulders and triceps focused. You will then simply alternate these sessions, ideally doing each strength/hypertrophy chest workout 2x a week and one ballistics session a week.
Before you begin, it would also help to make sure you have access to any equipment you might need, such as a weighted vest or parallettes. Take a look at our recommendations for the 8 Best Calisthenic Equipment For Your Home Gym to determine what your home gym needs!
Session 1
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
|
Weighted Push Ups/1-Arm Variation (Heavy) |
5 |
5 |
|
Weighted Chest Dips |
5 |
10 (drop set) |
|
Incline Close Grip Push Ups |
4 |
Failure |
In this table, the "drop set" notation indicates that for the Weighted Chest Dips, you would start with a heavy weight and then decrease the weight for subsequent sets if needed.
Session 2
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps/Duration |
|
Dips (Heavy) |
5 |
5 (EMOM) |
|
Wide-Grip Decline Push Ups |
4 |
10 |
|
Core |
3 |
20 |
|
Diamond Shape Push Up |
4 |
Failure |
|
Fly Isometric |
4 |
4 with 5 sec iso hold |
Session 3
|
Exercise |
Sets |
Reps |
|
Ballistic Push Ups |
5 |
3 |
|
Chest Dips |
5 |
5 |
|
Incline Push Ups |
4 |
12-15 |
|
Triceps Push Ups |
4 |
12-15 |
How To Run This Program
Calisthenics is a bit different from free weights as it relies on relative strength and uses your body as a load. Therefore, progressions aren't as specific.
1) Progressive Overload:
You should run a calisthenics workout in the same manner as you would any other workout. Progressive overload is still your primary concern, but your muscles won't react to the stimulus in the same way as they would with weight lifting. Simply adding reps isn't going to elicit much muscle growth or strength. All it will do is increase muscular endurance.
Therefore, you must gradually use the more complicated variations and progressively work towards a 1-arm workout, especially for your primary push-up and dip. After these exercises, you can use a mixture of higher reps and RPE. For example, do an easier push-up variation for an RPE of 8-9, which may allow 15 reps. The most important thing is to bring the movement close to failure.
The highest amount of reps you ever want to do an exercise is 15-20, and that's pushing it. At this point, you should have moved on to a more challenging progression.
2) Progression On Push Ups:
You ideally want to transition your body weight to one arm to progress on the push-ups. Move toward gradually placing a larger percentage of your body weight on that one hand, which will increase the load. The following guidelines can apply to standard, incline, and decline push ups.
- Normal hand position
- Bring your body down to one hand. Do this until you can bring the middle of your chest down to each hand.
- Slowly start to extend one hand out to the side
- Once the arm is totally extended out, place it on an elevated surface.
- Once you can knock out 8+ of these, you should be strong enough to knock out some solid reps of one-hand push-ups.
You can also use weights if needed, especially for your dips, or follow the same idea and favor one arm. Play around and see if you like it. Check out out article on the 33 Best Push Up Variations for more inspiration on how to make this move harder!
3) Special Rep Schemes:
Even though we love calisthenics, sometimes we're in a hurry. Or maybe we just want to give our body an extra stimulus. Here are some surefire ways to blow up your chest muscles.
Drop Sets:
Typically with drop sets, you will drop the load so that you're able to perform more reps. For example, you may do bench press with 215lbs, then drop to 185, then 165, 135... and continue until you're done. We can also do this using calisthenics, but using different exercises from most challenging to easiest. Your exercise order will be:
- Dips
- Decline Push Ups
- Push Ups
- Incline Push Ups
Another way to run this is to do some dips between each set of push-ups. However, you're just doing a few, so you shouldn't become too close to failure
- Dips
- Decline Push Ups
- Dips
- Push Ups
- Dips
- Incline Push Ups
EMOMs:
Every. Minute. On. The. Minute. We. Love. EMOMs.
These are great for the beginner or advanced who want an incredible way to improve their strength and anaerobic endurance. To perform these, you choose a specific number of reps and do that amount every minute. For example, if you do a 5min EMOM w/ 5 reps, your set looks like this:
- 0:00-:059 - 5 Reps
- 1:00-1:59 - 5 Reps
- 2:00-2:59 - 5 Reps
To be clear, you don't need to do them in a row. They just must be completed within the minute. The best way to start is to take your max reps, take 50%, and do that for 5 minutes. This will give you an idea of what they are and where you stand. A fundamental rep pattern looks like this:
- 5 Minutes: 70-75%
- 10 Minutes: 50-55%
The total amount you do makes a significant difference. If you can do 30 push-ups, doing 15 can take a while. However, if you can only do two push-ups, performing one rep will be much easier as you have more rest.
You can also use these toward the end of your session. If you're exhausted, just do an EMOM using a few reps.
12 Best Calisthenics Chest Exercises
Here are the best calisthenic exercises you can start doing today to build the chest physique you've always wanted.
1) Push-Ups:
Regular push-ups are the bread and butter of a calisthenics chest workout. Everyone has done them and knows what they are, but you need to use proper form to get the most out of the standard push up. With tiny tweaks, you can progress and regress to optimize your training fully.
The starting position for normal push ups is vital to lock in your form and make any needed adjustments. Get in your push-up position, which is basically the plank position yet on your hands. Push-ups are an awesome core exercise, as they're essentially just planks that go up and down!
Place your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart and rotate your hands out slightly. Your hands should be directly below your shoulders so that your arm is straight and in a straight line.
Be sure to keep your body straight and tight. The most crucial part is your hips! Keep them locked and straight. Many people tend to let their hips sag due to poor core and glutes.
On the other hand, make sure not to raise your hips, which can happen if your core or upper body is weak. Letting your hips rise puts your body at an angle, taking some force off your upper body muscles.
Instead, let your body drop down in a straight line. As this happens, push your elbows back at a 45-degree angle. Going too far inward is significantly better than going too far outward. When your elbows go out, we call it "flared," which can cause shoulder impingement. It won't do anything if it happens once, but after repeating it many times, you can cause significant damage to the connective tissue.
2) Close-Grip Push Ups:
Close-grip push-ups are one of our favorite push-up variations as they're going to be similar to the close-grip bench press.
Move your hands closer together, but keep them a few inches apart, at about shoulder width or slightly narrower. This grip causes our elbows to come down even closer to the body, putting more weight on the triceps and the inner chest.
3) Diamond Shape Push Ups:
These push-ups put your hands close enough to touch while making a diamond shape. They're an extreme version of the close-grip push-ups that really isolate the triceps (and possibly the inner chest).
4) Wide-Grip Push Ups:
Wide push-ups are going to have you use an exaggerated wide grip. There's no specific distance, but it's usually about 1.25-1.5 times as wide as regular push-ups. This starting position will extend the arms out and reduce elbow flexion.
Further, as the arms are fixed to the ground and can't move in front of the body, the motion will begin to look more and more like horizontal abduction. If we take this to the extreme, you're almost doing chest flies.
The main difference between these and chest flies, however, is that you usually use lightweight and high reps with flies. It's much more difficult to knock out lots of reps with wide-grip push ups because you have to lift your entire body weight at a biomechanical disadvantage.
5) Decline Push Ups:
These would be the equivalent of the incline bench press. Therefore, declined push-ups are an excellent workout to hit the upper chest. In addition, they will also target the anterior delts to a greater degree.
When you think about it, a decline push-up or incline bench press is halfway to the shoulder press!
6) Incline Push Ups:
Contrary to decline push-ups, the incline push-up is equivalent to the decline bench press. These will then target the lower chest and possibly hit the triceps to a greater degree.
Aim to hit your lower chest when you bring your body down to the ledge. To do this, it may feel like you're up too far in the starting position. However, as you come down, your body will rotate backward some.
7) Triceps Push Ups:
As we just went over close grip push-ups, you may wonder what tricep push ups are. Also referred to as sphinx push ups, you begin by assuming a high plank position, with your body straight and supported on your hands and toes.
Lower your body down by transitioning from your hands to your forearms, maintaining a solid core and straight alignment. To return to the starting position of a high plank, rotate your shoulder blades outward and press the palms of your hands into the ground.
As you push yourself upward, engage your triceps and straighten your elbows, focusing on squeezing and activating the back of your arms.
8) Straight Dips:
Straight dips are what you typically think of when you think of dips. These are great for the triceps that's why they're in our calisthenics arm workout but they also hit the pectoral muscles due to the positioning of the muscle fibers, making it a calisthenics chest exercise as well.
To effectively perform this exercise, start by fully extending your arms at the top position. Then, initiate the downward movement by flexing your arms while ensuring that your forearms remain straight.
Simultaneously, allow your torso to lean forward slightly, enabling flexion at the elbow joint. Remember to keep your forearm straight and the elbow stationary throughout the movement, focusing on the region above the elbow.
9) Chest Dips:
Chest dips are slight variations of the dip that will activate the pectoral muscles to a higher degree.
Rather than maintaining an upright position at the beginning of the movement, you will slightly flex your hips and bring your chin toward your chest. During the descent, you will rotate your upper back forward, causing your chest to face more toward the ground.
Additionally, as you lower yourself, allow your elbows to move outward.
10) Ballistic Push Ups/Clap Push Ups:
Ballistic push ups are power exercises requiring you to throw your body into the air.
Sometimes people will call them clap push ups as they will clap while in the air, but the clap does nothing except show that you could throw yourself high enough to do so.
Bonus Moves:
These last two exercises are simply isometric holds. We like to use these as workout finishers at the end of our sessions. The goal is to hold and squeeze for as long as possible for 1-3 rounds.
- Isometric Fly: To do these, you will get into a very wide push-up position. You want to have your arms out as far as possible where you can still hold yourself relatively well. When ready, brace your core and pretend you're doing a fly by pushing down into the ground. You shouldn't move that much even if you are very fit, as any possible range of motion is very small.
- Isometric Squeeze: The isometric squeeze is the second finisher we like to use. Lay on your back and extend your arms straight up in front of you. Place your hands together with palms facing each other. Now, push them together as hard as you can. These get tough fast, but hold out for as long as possible.
The Best Calisthenics Chest Workout: Summary
I hope you now realize that using bodyweight exercises to train your chest isn't the easiest thing to do. That's why I've manipulated the variables to combine all the benefits of calisthenics in one excellent program to get you the absolute best chest workout.
Once you get the hang of it, you'll be on your way to building an impressive physique that can do all the acrobatic feats you've dreamed of.
For more calisthenic workouts, whatever your level, check out Calisthenics For Beginners: The Best Exercises & Workout, the Best Calisthenics Legs Workout Routine, and The Best Calisthenics Workout Plan.
And, don't forget to pick up the 8 Best Calisthenic Equipment For Your Home Gym so you've got everything you need for your workouts!
Garett Reid
Author