The 13 Best Bench Press Alternatives for a Stronger Chest

The barbell bench press is known as the crème de la crème of chest exercises. Unfortunately, that means most gyms' bench presses are always crowded. And adding a station to your at-home gym can be expensive — and take up a lot of space.

Lucky for you (and your pecs), there are plenty of great alternatives to bench press exercises that you can do in the gym or at home. Plus, they are more than just a good plan B. By working your chest, shoulders and triceps in unique, challenging ways, they can help you build a stronger, more balanced upper body than you can with bench presses alone.

"Like many other muscles in the body, working your chest from different angles and planes of movement helps develop fuller, more well-rounded looking chest muscles," Joel Freeman, CPT, a Beachbody trainer and creator of LIIFT4 training program, tells LIVESTRONG.com. "The key is to not stick with only one exercise, but continue to challenge the different areas of your chest with different movement patterns."

During your next upper-body lifting session, give these 11 bench press substitutes a try.

Push-ups are a top no-gear alternative to bench presses, says Sam Becourtney, DPT, CSCS, a New York-based physical therapist and strength coach.

"With push-ups, you're using the same muscles to propel your body away from the floor instead of a bar away from your body," he says.

As you do this exercise, don't let your elbows flare straight out to your sides, says certified personal trainer Carolina Araujo, CPT. This push-up mistake makes the move less effective and can cause injury, too.

If you can't do a full push-up, the modified incline push-up is the best place to start. This exercise strengthens your chest, shoulders and triceps.

It also doubles as a phenomenal core exercise. Think of it as a moving plank.

When push-ups are no longer a challenge, add a decline. Raising your feet loads your chest, shoulders and arms with a greater percentage of your body weight. That means you have to push more weight with each rep.

One big downside of the barbell press? It's easy to favor your left or right side, which can add to any muscle imbalances, according to Becourtney. The dumbbell chest press forces your arms to work individually. You can't rely on your dominant side to carry the bulk of the weight.

You won't be able to press as much weight with dumbbells as you can with a barbell, but that's cool. The dumbbell variation is harder to keep steady and works your stabilizing muscles that much harder, Araujo says.

Your chest muscles don't just press. They also hug. The dumbbell fly strengthens your hug, technically called horizontal shoulder adduction. The move also strengthens the pec muscles when they're in a stretched position, Becourtney says. This helps strengthen your chest through its full range of motion for better shoulder mobility.

When you do this exercise, keep the weights as controlled as possible and lower the dumbbells slowly with each rep.

Because you're at an angle during this variation, you hit the upper part of your chest, says certified personal trainer Jen Widerstrom, CPT, head transformation coach for Transformation Protein's 60-Day Total-Body Challenge.

"This is optimal for anyone looking to change up their chest routine, or is living with a bit of rotator cuff pain and looking for more shoulder girdle support," she says.

Like the incline chest press, an incline dumbbell fly puts extra attention on your upper pecs while the muscles lengthen from side to side.

This exercise isn't as easy as it looks, Araujo says. Start with light weights and nail your form before lifting heavier. If you feel wobbly, walk your feet wider apart for extra balance support, she says.

This bench press alternative exercise focuses on your lower pectoral muscles to help prevent muscle imbalances.

If you don't have a decline bench. Don't worry. You can do a decline chest press from a glute bridge with your shoulders and feet flat on the floor and hips raised.

This dumbbell fly variation targets the lower segments of your chest muscles. Use a lighter weight than you use for the flat chest fly. The combination of decline and gravity makes this a challenging chest exercise.

Again, if you don't have a decline bench available, you can use a glute bridge to get into position.

This version of the dumbbell chest press is a one-sided (unilateral) exercise. Unilateral training is an excellent way to build muscle on each side of the body equally, helping reduce the likelihood of imbalances and injuries, according to the American Council on Exercise (ACE).

This single-arm press is also a fantastic anti-rotation core exercise, according to Becourtney. As you move one weight at a time, you'll feel your body want to tilt or roll to one side. Don't let it.

With this lift, you can alternate arms or do all of your reps on one side and then switch, Araujo says.

If you can't set up a barbell for a traditional bench press, try a landmine exercise.

Lying on the floor with a landmine builds more core and shoulder stabilization than using a standard barbell bench press does. But it's doesn't require as much coordination and control as dumbbell variations, Becourtney says.

"This is a great variation to work on power and plyometric development of the pecs and upper chest by throwing a ball as high as you can and also controlling the catching portion of the movement, while on your back (against gravity)," he says.

Upper-body plyometric exercises not only improve your power and strength, but can boost calorie burn and coordination, according to the ACE.

Start with a light, soft medicine ball for this exercise until you're more confident with the movement. The last thing you want is a heavy med ball falling on your chest (or face)!

When you're at the gym, you can skip the free-weight area and go straight to the cable machines or resistance bands. The cable and band-resisted chest fly exercises work the muscles differently than dumbbells do.

The cable machine provides the same amount of resistance throughout the entire exercise, while resistance bands get harder the more you stretch them, Becourtney says.