Coach Ben’s Top 2: Chest Exercises

Right now, social media is buzzing about the most optimal exercises, but you rarely hear individuals discussing their personal favorites. Favorites matter—a key factor in long-term consistency is enjoyment. When you incorporate exercise variations you look forward to, you tend to get more out of your training. I’ve seen this first hand in the coaching corner of clients from around the world.

My Top 2 chest exercises are the paused bench press and weighted dips. Though my paused bench press is slightly weaker than touch-and-go, conquering three plates from a dead stop was an empowering milestone that hasn’t yet been matched by PRs managed on other upper body variations. High-rep sets with moderate loads consistently prove devastating when targeting the chest and triceps.

Weighted dips, often seen as a secondary exercise, have produced incredible strength gains for me when programmed as my main press. Realizing I should incorporate my body weight into the calculation of percentage based progressions was a game-changer; once I did, the plates on the belt started adding up quickly.

Even though I can almost manage 4 x 45s for a single rep on weighted dips, high-rep sets with no additional load still challenge me immensely.

Dips never seem to get easier.

Let me know in the comments what your top two picks are for chest exercises!

Coach Ben