Chest exercises

The chest has one main job: bringing the upper arm forward and across the body. Every exercise here does that in one of two ways. A press moves the weight away from you with the triceps and front delts helping, so it carries the most load. A fly keeps the elbows nearly fixed and leaves the work to the chest alone, which means lighter weights and a longer stretch. The bench angle moves the emphasis: incline towards the upper chest, decline towards the lower.

Build around one heavy press, usually the bench press or the dumbbell bench press, and add the incline press if the upper chest lags. Flies such as the cable fly are accessory work after the pressing, not a replacement for it. If you are new to lifting, the machine chest press or push-ups teach the same movement without a bar to balance. Nearly every press also trains the triceps, which is worth knowing when you plan your arm work.

In StackUp, a barbell press goes up in the default 2.5 kg step when you top out your rep range. Push-ups and dips are logged by reps, so they progress by adding reps rather than weight.