Blast Your Chest With a Powerful Inner Chest Workout 

Create a definition in your pecs that everyone will notice. Boasting a nicely sculptured chest requires more than a few chest presses and hoisting of weights. 

You surely came here to learn efficient ways to hit your inner chest at the gym or at home. Wait, what the heck does inner chest mean?

The inner chest is made up of several different muscles that collectively we refer to as the pectoral muscles. If you want to train it, you should focus on whole-chest exercises. 

Many gymgoers are aware of the benefits of training the inner chest. You’ll end up with a bigger, more aesthetic muscle definition, and a stronger chest. Sounds captivating, right?  

Attaining this desired physique is not as simple as it seems, it requires targeted workouts that focus on progressive overload of the pectoral muscles. 

Whether you’re a newbie or an advanced gym goer, you know that sufficiently working the muscles with more loads and more reps is crucial for creating sculpted pecs. On top of that, your food choices play a crucial role in muscle development as well). Yet, I’m not here to dive into nutrition.

I’m here to uncover how to blast your chest with a powerful inner chest workout. You may find some trainers to be skeptical about attaining aesthetically focused fitness goals at home. In reality, it doesn’t matter the location of your workout, but your consistency, the mind-muscle connection, the right load, and the right movements. 

This is why I will share practical exercises on how to hit the inner chest at the gym and at home. 

How do I work the inner areas of my chest?

Achieving defined pecs is a long but engaging process demanding power, patience, and consistency. Here are a few factors that will affect your success in creating a defined and sculpted chest:

1. a firm closed grip
2. progressive overload
3. mind-muscle connection
4. practice patience

A firm closed grip

Your grip is crucial in completing safe and effective exercises that target the inner chest. Be sure to always wrap your thumb around the handle for a firm, strong grip. False grips (grips where your thumb does not fully wrap around the handle) are less stable and less safe due to an increased risk of the weight slipping out of your hands. Avoid using a false grip for all exercises completed overhead. 

Progressive overload

Challenging yourself with bigger loads will help put enough stress on the muscles to stimulate muscle growth during recovery from your workout. The load, or intensity, of your workout, can be increased in several ways including increasing weights, increasing sets or reps, and/or adjusting the tempo of an exercise. Besides, adding weights is vital for gaining muscle (1).

Mind-muscle connection

Without sounding vague, here’s a simple explanation. A mind-muscle connection requires you to feel the muscle work through its full range of motion, instead of focusing purely on moving big weights quickly. It’s about slowing down the movement, focusing on proper form, and focusing on the chest contraction. You feel how your muscles are working and help create more time under tension. If you feel nothing, then you’re probably failing in the technique. 

Practice patience

Growing muscle takes a lot of time and patience. You might see visible changes within the first two months but the real results come after at least one year of training under your belt. 

Okay, now you’re ready to dive into the top 7 exercises for the inner chest. I will start with the inner chest workout at the gym and in the next segment, I will switch to the Chest Workout At Home. 

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T-Bench Fly

The fly takes a crucial movement —adduction—and adds resistance. The standard dumbbell chest fly is a more tender option. That said, this variation allows you to use heavier weights while keeping your joints safe, which is a key to increasing gains.

How to Do It:

• Set up on a flat weight bench, and rest your shoulders on the pad to form a ‘T’ shape, holding a pair of dumbbells.
• Drive your shoulders into the bench, and lift your torso squeezing your glutes and abs. Form a straight line with your body from shoulders to knees with your feet flat on the ground.
• Keep the dumbbells straight up and shift them to a neutral position with palms facing each other.
• Lower the weight down with open elbows, taking 3 to 4 seconds. Pause briefly on the bench.
• Squeeze your chest to return the weights back to the original position.

Dumbbell Chest Fly

Being a part of the Chest Superset Workout flys are the most basic exercise for arms to midline motion, and this is another variation of the movement. 

How to Do It:

• Position yourself lying on the bench— dial in your shoulders, engage your core and glutes, and keep your feet securely on the floor.
• Press the dumbbells straight up. Raise the dumbbells firmly above your chest, and hold for 1-2 seconds.
• Arms extended, with a slight bend in the elbow, open your arms lowering the weights down towards the floor
• Keep your shoulders engaged on the bench and only move at the shoulder joint. Descend until you feel a stretch to your chest muscles.
• Squeeze your chest to return the weight to the starting position.
• Avoid touching the bells at the top. Instead, keep some space between them, and focus on squeezing your pecs as much as you can.

Squeeze Press

The squeeze press, also called the Hex Press (likely because it’s easier to perform this move with hex dumbbells), you should squeeze the dumbbells together as hard as possible during every single rep, holding tension on the inner chest.

How to Do It:

• Lie back on the bench with dumbbells in your hands.
• Squeeze the weights together on your chest.
• Press the loads straight up slowly, maintaining the tension between the weights.
• Return to the starting position.

Single-Arm Chest Fly

This exercise is super effective at increasing hypertrophy, and muscular endurance. Plus, it doesn’t put a lot of stress on the shoulder joints that a chest fly with a dumbbell would.

This version of the movement is perfect for the upper inner chest workout, as it emphasizes the upper inner pec region. Still, this emphasis brings the resistance further across the body and past the midline, which extends the range of motion in the inner pec.

How to Do It:

• Grab the handle of a cable machine or resistance band that is fastened to a secure object.
• Put yourself in an athletic, standing position.
• Create tension by keeping your glutes and abs engaged.
• Squeeze your chest while abducting your arm from extended out from your side to the midline of your torso. Pause for a few seconds and release back to starting position.
• After the countdown reps, perform five to six standard fly reps.
• Repeat with the other arm.

Read more: Thigh Workout Guide: 7 Effective Exercises for Building Leg Strength

Half Kneeling Decline Fly

Jazz up your single-arm flywork by getting on your knees. This will add more movements and challenge your core. As a part of the lower chest workout, this exercise will benefit your lower chest and obliques.

How to Do It:

• Get in a half-kneeling position with a cable machine positioned in its lowest setting near the floor.
• Grab the handle starting with your hand low and with a squeezed chest perform a fly rep from your hip across towards your opposite shoulder.
• Release back to starting position
• Keep your chest and shoulders square throughout the movement by resisting the rotational force with your pecs and core.

Inner Pec Push-Up

This specific type of push-up will target your inner pecs.

How to Do It:

• Get in a tall plank position with hands and toes on the floor, body in a straight line
• Move hands close together on the floor.
• Flex the inner pecs when lowering down and then return to the starting position with a forceful contraction.

Plate Squeeze Press

For this exercise, you’ll need a weight plate to get a good squeeze.

How to Do It:

• Take a 10 to 45-pound weight plate and squeeze it with an open palm in the center.
• It’s recommended to hook your fingers in the hole since it’s a metal plate you’re most likely to have sweaty palms.
• Raise the plate in front of your chest, pressing it away from yourself. Perform this movement with slow, controlled pacing. Then slowly move it back to your chest, and repeat.
• Strive for a high number of reps and keep tension in your pecs throughout.

How can I target my inner chest at home?

Hitting the inner chest is also possible at home. You can build an impressive-looking chest without special equipment by incorporating bodyweight exercises. To do this, your job is to stay motivated, and creative, and focus on the work in your chest muscles. 

I’m presenting to you the key 5 exercises that target not only your inner chest but various chest regions aiming to shape up your upper body physique. 

DeclinePush-Ups

The decline push-up is a variation of the regular push-up, as your lower body will be placed on an elevated surface. The higher the surface, the more difficult it will be to perform the push-up. 

Here’s how you do it:

1. Place your feet on the bench or another elevated surface, approximately 12-24 inches off the ground.
2. Put your hands on the floor shoulder-width apart.
3. Engage your core, glutes, and quads.
4. By bending your elbows, lower your chest to the floor, keeping your back and neck straight.
5. Push into the floor to return to the starting position, extending your elbows.
6. Complete 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 20 repetitions.

Inner Chest Push-Ups

This push-up variation will mostly target your inner chest, as you’ll keep one of your arms on the elevated surfaces and then press to push. 

Here’s how you do it:

1. Get in the standard push-up position and place your right arm on the elevated surface (for example, a pile of books).
2. Perform the push-up.
3. While pressing up, rotate your body towards that elevated arm which will enable your arm to move across your body to a greater degree. This consequently, will activate your inner chest better.

Beginners can perform this training on their knees. 

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Alternative Bodyweight Chest Exercise: Bed Sheet Flies

Interestingly, your cozy sheets can have versatile purposes, one of them is reaping your chest muscles. All you need to do is tie two knots together and throw them over the door. 

Then wrap the bedsheets around your hands and perform the fly movement.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Spread your arms out while letting your body fall forward.
2. Bring your arms back inward by squeezing that chest to get in the original position.

Chest Fly Crossover

Another effective home chest workout with no equipment. 

Here’s how you do it:

1. Stand tall on your knees with your torso upright. Lift your fists until your elbows are at 90 degrees. Engage your core and retract your scapulars to pull shoulder blades back together.
2. Slowly push your fists forward and exhale.
3. Extend your arms across your body to perform a crossover where your right and left arms move toward each other.
4. Squeeze your chest at the end position for 2-3 seconds.
5. Inhale gently returning to the starting position.
6. Repeat this movement for 40 seconds.

Staggered Push-Ups

An advanced variation of push-up is where you place one of your hands behind the other. If it feels too difficult, perform this exercise on your knees. 

Here’s how you do it:

1. Start with a staggered push-up position by placing your right hand 6 inches in front and your left hand is 6 inches behind.
2. Make sure your legs are straight, your feet are kept together, and your core, and glutes are tight.
3. Inhale and descend to the bottom of the push-up position until your elbows are at 90 degrees.
4. Push up back and exhale, returning to the starting position.
5. Perform 5-10 reps and switch hand positions so that your left hand is 6 inches forward, and your right hand is now 6 inches behind.
6. Repeat the same number of reps on the second switch.

This inner chest workout home routine will train your inner chest to a meaningful degree. 

Do diamond push-ups build the inner chest?

Inner chest workout push-ups engage your whole body working several muscle groups (3). Diamond push-ups, also known as triangle push-ups are an advanced variation of a classic version. 

This training engages multiple muscle groups across your upper and lower body. With proper form, diamond push-ups activate chest muscles like the pectoralis major, shoulder muscles, and leg muscles. 

Diamond push-ups are vital for your core and stability. The best part about this exercise is that it doesn’t require any equipment, which makes it an ideal home exercise. 

Check out the proper technique of diamond push-ups:

1. Get in the push-up position. Keep your hands slightly narrower than your shoulders. Connect your thumbs and index fingers in the diamond shape.
2. Inhale and pull your chest toward your hands, keeping your elbows close to the torso. Retract your shoulder blades as you lower to the ground.
3. Pause for a second at the bottom of the movement.
4. Exhale and move upward by squeezing your chest and straightening your elbows. Protract your shoulder blades as you push to the starting position.
5. Repeat this movement for 30-40 seconds, or as much as you can.

What are the benefits of the inner chest?

There are two benefits you can achieve while training your inner chest. The first applies to the sculpted physique as you will end up with increased muscle size and improved muscle definition. 

Both avid gym goers and newbies can expect to induce hypertrophy in the upper body with these inner chest exercises. 

Along with the aesthetic benefits, your next advantage is increased strength. The mentioned types of movements aiming at the inner chest are valuable for your heavy pressing movements. 

Addressing fly-style movements will help you to push more weight with these types of exercises, ultimately making you stronger and striving for more loads. 

Read more: Your Flat Tummy Workouts Just Got Better With This Guide

FAQs

• How do you build inner chest lines?

The most effective way to build your inner chest lines is to incorporate the inner chest exercises. Some of them require professional equipment while others are suitable for the home workout routine. Your main task here is to stay consistent, add more weight, and ensure your chest muscles are fully engaged.

• Can you fix bad chest genetics?

Certainly, you can’t fully fix your bad chest genetics, but with the proper diet and specific exercises, you’re going to develop and enhance your chest muscles. By doing this, you’ll promote their appearance and strength.

• Why is my chest so in?

Tightness in your chest can be a consequence of different health problems. They may include anxiety, infection, injury, muscle weakness, lung conditions, or digestive issues. Feeling discomfort in your chest is not okay. That said, you need to consult a doctor to unveil the reasons for this feeling and obtain the right treatment.

• Why can't I feel my chest?

The most common reason for people not to feel their chest while doing chest workouts is the wrong technique. A lot of men and women neglect the correlation between strength and muscle size. You must focus on the proper squeezing to make your chest training effective. Additionally, whether you’re a bodybuilder or desire to carve your pecs for an overall physique, a generous warm-up is a big must before your workout routine.

The Bottom Line

I hope you have a clearer idea of how to blast your chest with a powerful inner chest workout. You’ve learned about the award-winning gym and home exercises for your inner chest. 

On top of that, you’ve become aware of the benefits of a well-trained inner chest: a larger muscle size, a vivid muscle definition, and stronger muscles. 

While committing to inner chest training, be sure to feel the work of your chest muscles. If you feel nothing, there is a great chance you are performing it the wrong way. 

Remember, proper technique, consistency, and patience are your keys to stronger, sculpted pecs.