Best Chest and Back Exercises

Training the chest and back together is an excellent idea. The chest and back can be considered an agonist-antagonist pairing, where the muscles of the back oppose the muscles of the chest and vice versa. This tends to result in reduced fatigue being carried over from training from one muscle group to the other, making it a great training body part split setup when people want to use heavier loads and higher volumes.

By contrast, a similar biomechanical (bench press and dumbbell press) split is likely to generate higher levels of fatigue during the workout. Both programming setups are likely to produce similar improvements in hypertrophy, but there might be a strength benefit to doing an agonist-antagonist setup if someone prefers body part training splits.

Of course, training both the chest and back doesn’t mean just targeting two muscles, but rather two areas of our anatomy—and we’ll get into more detail later. While we have exercises here that specifically target the pectoral muscle group, we’ve also included exercises that target the larger muscles of the back: the latissimus dorsi, teres major and minor, rhomboids,  and trapezius muscles.

Here’s how we’d program a chest and back workout for strength and size

1. Bench Press

Movement Category: Primary

Programming: 3 to 4 sets of 5 to 8 repetitions.

• Lay down on the bench with your head slightly in front of the barbell if viewed from the side. This helps ensure there’s enough room for the bar to move up and down without hitting the rack. Also, make sure the safeties are set such that the bar can be set down on them by relaxing at the bottom.
• Grab the bar with an overhand grip, using a grip width of about 1- to 2-hand widths outside your shoulders. (See below)
• Before lifting the bar out of the rack, fix your eyes on a point on the ceiling somewhere just in front (towards your feet) of the bar and pull your shoulder blades back into the bench. Push your chest up to the ceiling and arch your back.
• Lift the bar out of the rack and let it settle just over the shoulder joint.
• Take a big breath and hold it.
• Bring the bar down to touch your sternum, approximately 2 to 3” forward of where the bar started over the shoulder joint. In this position, the elbows and humerus should be angled at ~ 30 to 45 degrees relative to the torso.
• Press the barbell up and back so that it ends up directly over the shoulder joint. 

• Stand in front of a pull-up bar, reach up, and take an underhand grip, hands placed shoulder-width apart. Lift your feet off the ground by bending your knees or hanging from an elevated pull-up bar. This is your starting position.
• Take a deep breath and pull yourself up using your upper arms, aiming to pull the bar towards your upper chest until your chin is above the bar.
• Lower yourself back down slowly with as much control as possible.
• After holding at the lowest point of the range of motion for a second, repeat the motion and lift yourself back up to the starting position.

3. Dips/Bar Dips

Movement Category: Secondary (assisted or with added weight) or Tertiary (bodyweight)

Programming: 2 to 4 sets of 6 to 10 repetitions (secondary) or 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 15 reps (tertiary)

• Grip the parallel bars at the dip station slightly wider than shoulder-width, hands facing in.  
• Press up to support your body weight using your chest and arms.
• Tilt your body forward and lift up your legs. You may choose to cross your legs at the ankles, as this can improve balance for some.
• Start the dip by unlocking your elbows to allow your torso to move down and forward. The amount of forward lean of the torso used can alter how the exercise feels, though again, it’s unclear whether or not this produces different effects in strength and size.
• Continue downward until the front of the shoulder is below the top of the elbow, then raise yourself up until your arms are straight.

4. 1-arm dumbbell row

Movement category: Tertiary

Programming: 2 to 4 sets of 8 to 12 repetitions.

• Place your left hand and knee on a bench, tucking your toes under. Your right foot remains on the floor.
• Pick up a dumbbell in your right hand. Make sure your left hand is under your shoulder and knees are under your hips. Contract your core muscles to tighten your torso. Your back should be flat. Retract your scapulae without arching the lower back and maintain this position during the entire movement. Straighten your right arm, the one holding the dumbbell, toward the ground. This is your beginning position.
• Begin pulling the dumbbell slowly upward as you flex your elbow and pull your upper arm backward. Keep your arm close to the side of your body and resume pulling the dumbbell up until you’re not able to lift it any further without rotating the torso.
• Slowly lower the dumbbell to the starting position with a flat back and a retracted-shoulder position.
• Repeat an equal number of reps on both sides.

5. Dumbbell Flyes

Movement category: Tertiary

Programming: 2 to 4 sets of 10 to 15 repetitions.

• Lie on your back on an incline bench. Place your feet on the ground on either side. Keep your head and back pressed onto the bench during the entire activity.
• Have a spotter assist you by giving you two dumbbells (or pick them up yourself).
• Lift your arms above your head so that they’re stretched but aren’t locked out.
• Make sure your palms and dumbbells face one another and that there’s a bit of a bend at your elbow.
• Take a deep breath and gradually lower the dumbbells out to your sides in an arc motion until they’re aligned with your chest. Extend the arms to both sides, but again, don’t lock them out. Your arms should end up being about level with the chest and shoulders at the bottom.
• Think about pulling the dumbbells “up” and “back together” to reverse the motion. The dumbbells should be directly above the shoulder joint at the top. We recommend a tempo of two seconds down and two seconds up to help control the movement.

These are our favorite exercises for working the chest and the upper back. If you’re looking to manage your time more efficiently while working out, these exercises will help you work both muscle groups simultaneously.

But—we talked about various muscle groups you may not be too familiar with. Let’s go through the muscular anatomy of the chest and back so you know exactly what each exercise entails.

The back and chest make up a massive part of our upper body’s anatomy. In general, the function of the muscles on the back opposes that of the muscles of the chest.

While all muscles technically “pull” as they contract concentrically, the muscles of the chest and anterior shoulder girdle are involved in “pushing” movements, whereas the muscles of the back and posterior shoulder girdle are involved in “pulling” movements. Due to the arrangement of the bony skeleton, the muscle fiber “pulling” can generate a wide variety of movements.

Let’s briefly discuss the anatomy of the five main muscle groups that are targeted during workouts: the pectorals of the chest and the latissimus dorsi, trapezius, rhomboids, and teres muscles of the back.

The pectoral muscles consist of two components: the pectoralis major, which is the bigger muscle encompassing the primary chest region, and the pectoralis minor, a smaller muscle located directly underneath the pectoralis major. These two muscles have distinct roles in the body. 

The pectoralis major muscle facilitates internal rotation and flexion of the arms and provides stability to the shoulder joint. Its structure consists of three distinct sections: the top, inner, and lower parts. 

The main role of the pectoralis minor is to provide stability and movement of the scapula or shoulder blades. These two pectoral muscles collaborate to facilitate the majority of our upper body motions. 

The latissimus dorsi muscles, also known as the lats, are the biggest muscles in our upper bodies. They are wide and flat muscles that stretch over a majority of a person’s lower posterior thorax. They also have the purpose of assisting respiration. [4]

The latissimus dorsi muscle often works together with the pectoralis major and teres major to abduct, rotate, and extend the arm. This is why, along with the chest muscles, it’s considered one of the most active and important muscles in movements or sports that involve the upper body, such as swimming. It is also attached to the rib and has accessory respiratory functions, such as helping us inhale deeply or working in forceful chest contractions, such as coughs or sneezes.

The trapezius muscle is another big muscle in our upper bodies, spanning from the base of the neck to the waist. It has the most extensive origin than any other muscles in our bodies, meaning that a large portion of it actually doesn’t move at all during contractions. [5] Its main function is to stabilize the spine and keep it upright without any external support.

The trapezius muscles are divided into three parts: the descending, ascending, and middle. [6] These parts each have functions of their own, but they also work together to perform certain movements.

For example, the descending part has the main function of pulling the shoulder blades up and towards the neck, while the middle part aids us in squeezing the shoulder blades together. The ascending part allows us to move our shoulders down. However, if we’d like to move our shoulders up, we’d have to use both the ascending and descending parts of the trapezius. Some trapezius contractions also aid us in moving our necks.

The rhomboids is a muscle group located right under the trapezius in the upper back and consists of two different muscles called the rhomboid major and the rhomboid minor. They run from the base of the neck down to the mid-waist and are attached to the shoulders.

The rhomboids are controlled by the dorsal scapular nerve, and their main function is to pull the shoulder blades up and together, as well as to help us rotate our shoulder sockets. They are important as they allow us to maintain good posture and help us perform certain movements with our shoulders.

The teres muscle group consists of two individual muscles called the teres major and teres minor. The teres major muscle stretches from the base of the shoulder blades to the underarm and often works synergistically with the lats to facilitate shoulder movement, making it a crucial muscle to train for functional activities and sports that involve a wide range of motion in the arms and shoulders. [7]

The teres minor also starts from the shoulder blade but stretches up to connect to the upper arm bone. [8] Its main function is to keep the upper arm bone in the shoulder joint and rotate the arm forward. This keeps the shoulders stable while we perform movements that involve our arms. Without the teres minor muscle, our arms would pop right out of our shoulders in extensive movements.

As you can see, all of these muscles contribute differently to our upper body movements, so it’s crucial to pay attention to all of them during our training sessions.

Now that we’ve outlined the muscular anatomy of the chest and back, let’s look into a few benefits of training these muscles together.

Selecting a specific training split generally comes down to personal preference and logistical concerns. All else being equal, body part and movement-pattern training days tend to be a little shorter than full-body training sessions. Additionally, agonist-antagonist body part pairings like “chest and back” can be supersetted without compromising training responses. [10,11]

If you’re supersetting the exercises in this program together, we recommend performing one chest and back exercise back-to-back with minimal rest and then resting for 2-4 minutes between supersets.

Training the muscles of the chest and back will increase strength through both neurological and structural changes, all of which are specific to the area being trained.

Still, a muscle group’s ability to create maximal force in the gym isn’t the only improvement seen with resistance training. Strength training has proven to improve power, endurance, and speed as well, in accordance with muscle adaptation and development. [12,13]

We couldn’t bring this article to a close without sharing some useful tips on training the chest and back together. As with any other muscle groups, focusing on certain factors while training could greatly improve the quality of your chest and back workout.

Compound lifts train multiple joints and the muscles around them to perform the movement, thereby training a lot of muscle mass in a coordinated manner. When training for both strength and hypertrophy, compound exercises should make up the bulk of the training for most individuals.

Regarding strength, specificity in exercise selection tells us that the main adaptations developed from exercise are specific to the training performed by the individual, as reflected in the Specificity of Adaptation to Imposed Demand (SAID) Principle.

There are a number of exercise characteristics that affect specificity including the exercise’s range of motion, intensity, joint angles, movement velocity, contraction type, energy systems, etc.

By focusing a substantial portion of the exercise program on the compound lifts in this type of training split, we can get multiple muscle groups stronger at coordinated movements with fewer exercises. Using isolation exercises alone would likely take more time and not ensure similar strength performance improvements in more complex movements.

Isolation exercises also have their place, especially when it comes to muscle size. Isolation exercises use only a single joint and the muscle(s) responsible for moving that joint. Using isolation exercises allows a trainee to target specific muscle groups directly, which is likely to improve hypertrophy compared to compound lifts that also load the muscle(s) or do not load the muscle at all.

Additionally, isolation exercisesuse less muscle mass and lower absolute weight than compound lifts, which reduces the amount of fatigue created from a given set and rep scheme performed at a particular RPE.

Due to the reduced amount of fatigue generated with isolation exercises, a trainee can perform more sets, more reps, and similar or higher RPEs compared to compound lifts. Since there appears to be a dose-dependent relationship between exercise volume (sets and reps) and muscle hypertrophy—where higher amounts of volume tend to generate greater amounts of muscle growth provided there’s not too much fatigue—including isolation lifts is a smart move for maximizing muscle growth.

There are specific points of performance for each exercise, e.g., range of motion, tempo, posture, etc. These eventually result in a wide range of acceptable techniques for trainees. As long as the exercise is performed repeatedly with an efficient movement pattern, and as long as it satisfies the points of performance points required for that particular exercise, your unique technique will work just fine. We advise against limiting yourself to a particular movement pattern, as techniques vary over time.

Using acceptable form and a full range of controlled motion while executing the lifts will increase the benefits of your training.

Supersets can be useful in training as a method to save time, as they allow you to focus on one part of the body first and on another part of the body second with minimal rest between the two separate exercises. When pairing agonist-antagonist muscles like the chest and back together, there’s likely to be little effect on training outcomes like strength and hypertrophy, but the session will be shorter.

To do a superset, we recommend pairing the bench press with the chin-ups, and the dips with the 1-arm dumbbell row. Do both exercises back-to-back with minimal rest in between them, then rest 2- to 4-minutes between sets.

As the saying goes, a little help goes a long way. This is especially true for lifters, as getting help from professionals could help them achieve the best results in a quick, safe, and efficient way.

If you’re new to lifting and have little experience in programming your workouts, or if you simply don’t have the time or confidence to craft a workout program for yourself, then we’d be happy to help.

Barbell Medicine is a team of certified personal trainers, nutritionists, and physicians who design the optimal program tailored to your individual goals and preferences. We uphold a purely evidence-based approach to training and consistently update our techniques and programs according to the latest developments in sports science.

Our ever-growing family of happy clients all stand to reinforce this fact. We train with individuals of different fitness levels and personal goals, from beginner to advanced. Our thriving community is stand-alone proof that our approach works.

Training the chest and back muscles together is a strategic and beneficial approach to getting maximum results from your upper body days. Remember to focus on compound exercises that can train the widest possible area in your upper body and on getting your form and technique right. Training in supersets could also be a good idea, as it would give you the opportunity to train opposite muscles without putting too much pressure on one particular area.

That being said, our favorite exercises to train the chest and back together are:

• The bench press
• Chin-ups
• Dips
• 1-arm dumbbell row
• Dumbbell flyes

When programmed appropriately, these exercises can help you achieve maximum gains in your chest and back, all the while engaging some key muscles, such as the deltoids. So, if you’re looking to have a killer upper body, incorporate these exercises into your program. Trust us— with regular exercise, you’ll see results in no time.

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