Best Chest Machines At The Gym

We are talking things that go pump in the tee, in this guide on the best chest machines at the gym. But what is a chest machine and what do they do? I think it’ pretty self explanatory, they are machines (as opposed to free weights) which use either leverage or pulleys to focus hypertrophy training on your pectoralis regions. For the most part, those machines that come in a pushing motion, will also stimulate the triceps (backs of the arms) and the front segment of your shoulders, aka the anterior deltoids. Often promoted to new members of a gym as they require less balance and stability than a free barbell or dumbbells, they can form a very important part of an experienced lifter’s workouts too.

I began to use them after mouth surgery where I needed to train at a lower intensity, and really learned to love them. They have also formed part of a higher intensity training regime I’ve been running recently and am an absolute convert now! 

There is a good range of chest machines you’ll come across in gyms and more often that not, the variation is quite slight. Sometimes they differ in terms of comfort of range of motion, but by and large they are made up of plate loaded, or pin selector options. This means you can adjust the weight by sticking a pin in a weight stack or by adding and removing barbell weight plates.

• Pec Flye – These are often combined with adjustment to do rear flye. They create a full-pump sensation.
• Pec Deck – Similar to a Pec Flye these take the emphasis of the anteior delt and focus more on isolating the bigger chest muscle – the pectoralis major.
• Horizontal Chest Press – Similar in style to a classic bench press but without need for supporting stability muscles.
• Vertical Chest Press – Great for beginners, these are a favourite of mine, these involve you sitting upright and pushing away from your chest.
• Iso Lateral Chest Press (+ variations of) – Often found in plate loaded form, but Life Fitness, Hammer Strength and Panatta to name a few do do pin selector iso lateral machines. These are where you can isolate one side/one arm. Great for rehab or for building a balanced strength profile.
• Incline Chest Press – Come in plate loaded or selectorised format – emphasises the Clavicular head or ‘upper chest’. You’ll find incline chest presses are a third of the way between a traditional chest press and a shoulder press. 
• Decline Chest Press – Same as the incline machines but these focus on the Sternocostal pectoral fibres – aka ‘lower chest’. Here you’ll find the seat is positioned (or bench) where you will be pushing slightly down your body.
• Wide Grip Chest Press – A traditional chest press with the handles at a wider distance apart. These takes some of the strain off of the triceps and puts more emphasis on the pecs. It doesn’t make for a wider chest, it just moves the tension to the chest vs the triceps. Whereas the closer the grip, the inverse is true – chest moves away for more tricep tension.
• Standing Multi-Flight – Here we get a little fancy, these work similarly to a cable crossover, or a pec flye. Panatta make a nice version of this, and it feels like it’s working the lower chest a little more than a conventional Pec Dec of Flye would, owing to the position you train in. (Example)
• Standing Chest Press – Made famous by Dyna Body more recently, these are leverage plate loaded machines which see you stand up and push from a vertical position. Where these excel is they tend to have multiple handles stacked above each other, so you can find the perfect angle and height for you to push from without destroying your shoulder joints. Incline, decline, traditional – you’ve got it. They don’t work anything a seated chest press doesn’t, but they can be a more comfortable option for some.

If you like training to failure, doing drop sets and don’t have a spotter or a great deal of time to keep getting up to adjust plates, then selectorised chest machines can be a fantastic time saver for an upper body workout on a lunch time.

But what about the hypertrophy side of things? Do chest machines do for you what free weights can? Well, a study I linked to earlier but didn’t dive into, found that muscular engagement for the chest muscles was not statistically different between a barbell bench press and a seated chest press.

“Muscle activity of the three portions of the pectoralis major and the AD was similar in the following exercises: lying bench press exercise with a grip at 150% of the biacromial width, seated chest press exercise with a prone grip, and seated chest press exercise with a neutral grip.” (Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10203828/ )

So, what does this mean? It means if you hold a barbell slightly wider than shoulder width as we are often shown to, activation of the pecs is the same as if you are using a normal or a neutral grip seated chest press.

Now, that’s muscle activation but it’s not hypertrophy (muscle growth), so how does a chest machine compare to free weights in that department? Time for more science…

One peer reviewed study put out by the BMC Sports Science Review, showed when comparing free weights to machines, for explosive training AND for muscle growth the distinctions weren’t noticeable.

“No differences were detected in the direct comparison of strength, jump performance and muscle hypertrophy.”  (Source: https://bmcsportsscimedrehabil.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13102-023-00713-4)

 In a nutshell then, there isn’t much of a difference (if any) between free weights and machines for chest training from the gains you can see,. Therefore they are well worth using, buying, hanging your towel off. Whatever you want to use them for, don’t think you can’t build an impressive chest if you’ve only got chest machines to hand. 

Picking the best chest machine to use or to buy involves looking at a few factors, none more important than why you are choosing one:

• Gym Owner? Budget – Space – Customer type – Accessibility of equipment into premise – Resale value – Repair/maintenance – Durability – Credibility.

  Do you want people to know you know about good gym brands? Do you want to avoid expensive repairs all the time OR having kit out of order and annoying your customers? What you pick should weigh those things in too.

If you’re picking which option as a lifter, you’ll have a different set of things to consider when wondering what chest machines to use:

• Muscle Groups: Which part of the chest are you wanting to target – upper chest vs lower – more emphasis on the chest vs the triceps etc.

• Time: How many stations can you realistically fit into your workout? How many do you really need to use?

• Weight Capacity: Can you max out – can you lift heavily – safely

• Foot Press: These are little foot pedals which lift the weight forward a touch and avoid you ripping your shoulders out of joint. Look out for these, they are a life saver to your body long term. 

• Seat Adjustment: Can you get the seat to position the handles at a level that feels comfortable to train at. Don’t train in pain. One of my biggest pet peeves, is people contorting themselves into positions their body can’t adapt for, to avoid disappointing looks from negligent PTs etc. If a movement feels painful to start from, it won’t get any easier. Find a chest machine you can get comfy in.