What is the best exercise for chest? Does it involve body weight, machines, free weights? Fact is that not all chest exercises are as effective as the next. There areultimate chest ripping exercises that trumps the others. Before we get to the exercise itself, you need to understand what makes a certain exercise superior.

1) Muscle Fiber Activation

The more muscle fibers you can recruit, the more potential you have for hypertrophy. This means that your exercise movement needs to have a full range of motion. Not only this, but you need to activate different muscle fibers by lifting in a specific way. You NEED to explode up on the lift as fast and as powerful as you possibly can, and then slowly lower the weight in a controlled fashion. This enables you to target your type II A and B muscle fibers, which have the most potential for growth. This element is very important when deciding what the best exercise for chest is.

2) Compound Movement

The body is meant to function as a unit. Isolated exercises limit the potential for effective stimulation since the lift that is being performed is not realistic (and won't force adaptation as effectively). The best exercise for chest will include a compound movement for this very reason. Instead of strictly the chest being activated on a lift, your triceps and shoulders will be activated and stimulated AS WELL as your chest. This also releases more testosterone-1 and HGH allowing for better recovery and larger muscle growth.

3) Free Weights vs. Machines

This brings us to the superior form of training when deciding what the best exercise for chest is. As a rule of thumb (but not always) free weights are better to train with as opposed to machines. The reason for this is because compound exercises are easily performed with free weights. Machine exercises tend to isolate the targeted muscle, which as we know, isn't optimal. So the best exercise for chest will be performed with free weights. This forces the body to work out the stabilization muscles once again stimulating a better release in muscle building hormones.

4) So What's The Best Workout For Chest Already!?

To say that there is one single exercise that is better than any other chest exercise would be moronic. However, the best workout routine to gain muscle will include these 3 elements. Here are a list of 3 very powerful chest exercises that I personally use consistently...

- Flat bench dumbbell bench press (full range of motion)

- Cable cross chest fly (done with machine, but still compound exercise and activates stabilization muscles)

- Incline/ decline bar-bell Bench Press (full range of motion)

Apply these elements into your workout routines for not only the best workout routine to gain muscle,but for the rest of your muscle groups as well!