Best Chest And Tricep Workout With Sets And Reps
The Best Chest and Tricep workout is the one targeting your chest and tricep muscles.
For building a well-rounded chest you would want to work your upper, middle, and lower chest muscles. And for the triceps, you would want to target all three heads of the triceps muscle.
Here, you will find a chest and tricep workout you can do with or without access to a gym.
Chest And Tricep Workout: Sets And Reps
Chest and tricep workout can be used on its own if you want to work on chest and tricep muscles as lagging parts.
Otherwise, you can use this workout as a part of one of the training splits you are currently using (this is a push workout, so you can use it accordingly).
The third option is using exercises presented here as an idea for developing your own training routine. Of course, if you don’t want to think about creating your own workouts, you can always turn to a ready-made workout program.
Primary muscles worked:
Equipment:
- Dip bars (or low bar)
- Bench (or other elevated surface)
Here is what a chest and tricep workout will look like:
- Chest and triceps
- 3×5-10 straight bar dips
- Chest
- 3×5-10 archer push-ups
- Triceps
- 3×6-12 dips
- Chest
- 3×5-10 clapping push-ups
- Triceps
- 3×15-20 bench dips
- Chest
- 3×10-15 push-ups
Chest And Tricep Workout: Exercises
Let’s dive into exercises that target your chest and triceps.
Exercises are following the same order as they should be performed in the workout.
Straight Bar Dips
Straight bar dips are an excellent exercise for working both your chest and triceps.
Interestingly, the move you are performing in this exercise is the same as the move performed in the last portion of a muscle up. So, if you are in pursuit of your first muscle up, this exercise will be an excellent addition to your workouts.
Straight bar dips muscles worked:
- Chest
- Triceps
- Shoulders
Equipment:
- Dip bars (or low bar)
How to perform straight bar dips
Positioning:
You start by grabbing a bar with your palms facing away from you.
Depending on the height of the bar you have access to you might need to jump up to a bar to get to a starting position.
Jump up to a bar so that your arms are holding to a bar straight down to your sides. Your arms are holding your entire weight with your feet not touching the ground.
Your hips are touching the bar. Keep your upper body straight while your legs are slightly bent in your hips.
Downward movement:
Lower yourself down by flexing your arms at your elbows. Keep lowering until your upper arm forms a 90 degrees angle with your forearms.
This is the lowest point of downward movement.
When lowering down, your upper body is leaning forward. Let your legs go forward under the bar so you can keep balance.
Don’t allow your upper body, or your legs to touch the bar during the movement.
Upward movement:
To initiate upward movement push yourself up by straightening your arms in your elbows. Keep on pushing until your arms are straight. This is the highest point of upward movement.
During the entire movement concentrate on not touching the bar with anything but the hands that are grabbing the bar.
Archer Push Ups
Archer push-ups are a more difficult variant of a normal push-up. Be careful when performing archer push-ups.
I’ve been reading about people who dislocated their shoulders when performing this exercise. Please, proceed with caution.
This exercise will load your muscles more than normal push-ups. Your triceps will work more on your bent arm while your front deltoid and bicep will work more on your straight arm.
Because of the increased load on your front deltoid on your straight arm, there is a danger of dislocating or otherwise harming your shoulder.
Archer push-ups muscles worked:
Primary
- Lower and mid-chest
- Front delts
- Triceps
Secondary
- Abs
- Lower back
- Lats
- Biceps
Equipment:
- None
How to perform archer push-ups
Positioning:
Position your hands on the ground much wider than your shoulder width.
One of your arms will have to bend while you are moving down and be at around shoulder width. At the same time, your other arm will have to go straight to your side.
You should position your arm’s width to accommodate this requirement.
Your legs are on the floor touching the ground on your feet balls and your toes. Keep your entire body in a straight line by contracting your abs throughout the entire exercise.
Downward movement:
Lower yourself down by flexing one of your arms in your elbows. Target to touch the floor with your chest. Your other arm will go straight to your side (you will rotate this arm’s palm straight away from you).
When you touch the floor with your chest (or get to the floor as close as possible) this is the lowest point of downward movement.
Upward movement:
To initiate upward movement push yourself up from the floor by straightening your flexed arm in your elbow.
You will also start rotating the palm of your other arm (so it faces forward when you are in the upper position). Slowly get your body up. Keep on pushing until your arms are straight. This is the highest point of upward movement.
Dips
Dips are a great exercise to build your triceps. This exercise will also work your chest and shoulder muscles.
Dips muscles worked:
Primary
- Lower and mid-chest
- Front delts
- Triceps
Secondary
- Abs
- Lats
Equipment:
How to perform dips
Positioning:
Grab dip bars with both hands. Keep straight as much as you can. Don’t allow your shoulders to come up to your ears during the exercise. Keep your shoulders depressed down the whole time.
Downward movement:
To initiate downward movement lower your body straight down by bending your elbows. Keep on lowering down until your upper arms form a 90-degree angle to your forearms. This is the lowest position of downward movement.
Don’t force yourself into this position at all costs. If your body is lacking strength and/or flexibility, allow yourself to go as deep as possible. Slowly work on your strength and flexibility until you can achieve your full range of motion.
Upward movement:
To initiate upward movement, push against the dip bars and start straightening your elbows. Keep on straightening your elbows until your arms are fully extended. This is the highest point of this movement.
Clapping Push Ups
Clapping push-ups is one of the variants of dynamic push-ups. The great thing about clapping push-ups is that they can be used as playfully as you like. Like some other calisthenics exercises, this one is meant to be explored and modified to your liking and preference.
Clapping push-ups muscles worked:
Primary
- Lower and mid-chest
- Front delts
- Triceps
Secondary
- Abs
- Lower back
- Lats
Equipment:
- None
How to perform clapping push-ups
Positioning:
Position your hands on the ground a little bit wider than your shoulder width. Your legs are on the floor touching the ground on your feet balls and your toes.
Keep your entire body in a straight line by contracting your abs throughout the entire exercise.
Downward movement:
Lower yourself down by flexing your arms in your elbows, targeting to touch the floor with your chest.
When you touch the floor with your chest this is the lowest point of downward movement.
Upward movement:
Push yourself explosively from the ground by straightening your arms in your elbows to initiate upward movement.
You have to push so hard that your arms are well off the ground so you have enough time in the air to be able to clap. Clap once while in the air.
Aim to position your arms and hands to lend again on your palms when gravity pulls you back down. When you increase the time your hands are in the air you can increase the number of claps. Feel free to play with it and come up with your own combos and variations.
Bench Dips
To perform bench dips you can use a bench or any other elevated surface to place your hands on. This exercise can be fine if you are careful how you are performing it. If you don’t you can hurt your shoulders.
How to avoid problems with your shoulders
It’s all about avoiding the internal rotation of your shoulders. One remedy is using the correct placement of your hands on the bench.
If you do this exercise with your hands facing forward (like most people do), you can hurt your shoulders. Your rotator cuff might get damaged with your shoulders internally rotated like this.
A simple remedy is to place your hands with your fingers facing away from you to the sides.
Another thing that is potentially dangerous is letting your shoulders collapse during the movement. This will also allow for internal shoulder rotation.
So, when you are performing the exercise concentrate on keeping your shoulders depressed. Concentrate on not allowing your shoulders to come up to your ears. Voila – problem solved!
Bench dips muscles worked:
- Triceps
- Chest
- Shoulders
Equipment:
- Bench (or other elevated surface)
How to perform bench dips
Positioning:
Place your hands on the edge of the bench with your fingers facing away from you to the side.
Keep your but off the bench so your entire upper body can lower down without touching the bench. Keep your legs straight with your toes facing forward.
Downward movement:
Lower down your butt by flexing your arms at your elbows. Keep on lowering down until your upper arm forms a 90-degree angle with your forearm.
This is the lowest position of the movement.
Upward movement:
To start moving up, push against the bench with your hands and extend your arms in your elbows. Keep on pushing until your arms are straight.
Concentrate on depressing your shoulders down throughout the movement.
If you let your shoulders come up to your ears it will allow internal rotation of your shoulders. This will put an unnecessary strain on your rotator cuffs.
Push-Up
We all know push-ups pretty well and maybe even undervalue them. This can be an excellent exercise for developing your chest muscles. Especially if you concentrate on performing it dead correctly. Keeping the focus on extending time on the eccentric part of the movement (when you lower yourself down).
Push-ups muscles worked:
Primary
- Lower and mid-chest
- Front delts
- Triceps
Secondary
- Abs
- Lower back
- Lats
Equipment:
- None
How to perform push-ups
Positioning:
Position your hands on the ground a bit wider than your shoulder width. Your legs are on the floor touching the ground on your feet balls and your toes.
Keep your entire body in a straight line by contracting your abs throughout the entire exercise.
Downward movement:
Lower yourself down by flexing your arms in your elbows, targeting to touch the floor with your chest.
When you touch the floor with your chest (or get to the floor as close as possible) this is the lowest point of downward movement.
Upward movement:
To initiate upward movement push yourself up from the floor by straightening your arms in your elbows. Keep on pushing until your arms are straight.
This is the highest point of upward movement.
Chest And Tricep Workout: Conclusion
To wrap things up, this chest and tricep workout is one example of a push workout. It can be a standalone push workout, or you can pick a few exercises and add it to some other kind of workout you want to create.
You can select exercises from some of the progressions and create any kind of workout you want.
Anyway, if you want to build a strong chest and triceps, this workout is your go-to resource. Feel free to use it and tweak it to your liking.
