Pumping Your Chest

Every month Men's Fitness targets a particular body part and picks out the six best exercises to match any situation: home or gym, with equipment or without, experienced at training, just starting out or coming back from a workout lay-off.

If you're new to training, stick to the exercises on the top row and use a resistance that starts to hurt after about 15 reps. In the case of the 'intermediate press-up' you may need to adjust your knee position to achieve this. Start with two to three sets of either the same or varied intermediate exercises and then move on to the more advanced exercises over time.

If you already consider yourself advanced, give the exercises on the bottom row a go. In the case of the 'press-up', you should be aiming to do as many as you possibly can. On the other advanced exercises, use a resistance that causes muscular failure within 10-15 reps. After completing three sets to failure on any of the advanced exercises, move to either the 'single arm fly' or 'pec fly' for three further sets using the same rep range.