The bench press is probably the most well-known weight training exercise amongst gym regulars and those with no interest in fitness and judging by how busy the benching equipment in gyms around the world is you could safely say it also the most popular.

When most people start working out with weight their initial goals are to gain muscle on their chest and arms as these are the two most prominent muscle groups of the body. As people become more experienced trainers they start to focus on other muscle groups in order to achieve a more well-rounded and aesthetically pleasing physique but this still means they train their chest muscles regularly and we all know that one of the best exercises to develop our chest muscles in the pressing exercises.

How to Train Your Chest Muscles at Home

If you are training at a well-equipped gym then training your chest shouldn’t be a problem (apart from perhaps the queues for the benches on a Monday) but what if you are weight training at home?

You could go all out and build a home gym with all the best gear such as a power rack, an Olympic bar and a full set of weights but for those of us with more modest home setups this isn’t a viable option.  You could get a single bench and some dumbbells which would allow you to perform the dumbbell bench press which is just as good, if not better than the barbell bench press due to the extra stabiliser muscles that are used to keep the individual dumbbells steady. But to do this exercise you would still need a bench of some kind which can be a problem if you are short of space or storage facilities.

Bench Press without a Bench

So if you don’t have the room or the desire to get a weight training bench for your home training space then you might be wondering how you can give your chest muscles an effective workout in order to achieve your goal of a great body.

Well the good news is it can be done and it is possible to perform the chest press exercise much more easily than you might have thought without the need for a bench.  In order to do this exercise you simply lie on the floor and start the exercise from the mid-way position to perform a dumbbell floor press.

The other bit of good news is that you can do these dumbbell floor presses one arm at a time if you only have one weight and you can do it with a dumbbell or a kettle bell which means you need even less equipment to be able to train at home.  If you use a set of adjustable dumbbells you can reduce the number of home weight training equipment you need even further making muscle gains with minimal gear even easier.

If you want some tips on how to train at home without any equipment at all check out our guide to training at home without any equipment now.