--- title: "Chest exercises with no equipment" description: "Push-ups and their variations for the mid chest - wide, deep, archer. Watch the technique on video and see how to make them harder with no weight." locale: en url: "https://hi.fitness/exercises/muscles/chest/bodyweight" count: 28 type: combo muscle: MID_CHEST equipment: BODYWEIGHT --- # Chest exercises with no equipment With no equipment the chest has one main tool: the push-up and its variations. Your hands stay planted on the floor and your torso moves relative to them, so the load is whatever share of your bodyweight rests on your arms. You can't dial it in, but you can steer it with geometry - hand width, how high your hands are set, and how much of the work one arm takes on. The list below is long, but not all of it is strength work. A good chunk of it is chest stretching and arm swings, useful as a warm-up or after training, not as a stimulus for growth. The movements that build the chest are the push-up family, and that is where to start. ## Why is almost everything here a push-up? Because the push-up is the only movement in this group where the chest works against real load. Your hands are fixed to the floor and the thing that travels is you, which is why the load is high from the first rep. Every other variation on the list is the same principle in a different setup: another hand width, another tempo, another split of the work between arms. The rest of the catalog looks similar but works differently. Standing flyes or a svend press with no plate rely on you tensing your own muscles or squeezing your palms together. The resistance is worth exactly as much as you feel like generating at that moment, so progress is hard to measure and hard to treat as your main work. They earn their place as a warm-up before push-ups or a finisher at the end. A separate group is chest stretching - in a wall corner, arms overhead, elbows back - along with swings where you hug your own torso. That is warm-up material, and material for days you sat at a desk longer than you planned. Don't mix it into your strength work, because the set looks done while the chest never got a stimulus. ## What does hand width change? The wider you go, the more chest is involved and the further the elbows travel from the torso. The catalog says it outright: the standard version runs the elbows at about 45 degrees, the wide-grip version at a right angle. The second gives the chest more, but at the shoulders' expense, so if the front of your shoulder feels a set more than your chest does, that is usually the signal to bring your hands in a couple of inches. A narrower setup moves the work toward the triceps and gives the chest less. That is not a flaw, just a different goal - stay aware of which version you are doing and why. Archer push-ups, clock push-ups and the ones that shift your weight side to side all sit inside the same logic: they change less about which muscle works than about how the load splits between arms. The dynamic variations, clapping and explosive push-ups, are another category again. They are about how fast you push away, not about time under tension, so they don't hold up as your only chest work. At the far end of the scale sit assisted weighted push-ups, where a partner lays a plate on your back - the only version on this list that goes beyond your own bodyweight. ## Common mistakes - **The chin drops before the chest** - The head reaches toward the floor, the chest stays high, and the rep looks deeper than it is. Keep your head in line with your spine and look slightly ahead of you. - **Elbows flared straight out** - Flared to a right angle they bring in more chest, but they load the shoulders hardest. The standard version runs them at about 45 degrees to the torso, and for most people that is the safer default. - **Hips drift out of line** - When the abs stop holding, the hips either sag or ride up, and the torso covers part of the distance instead of the arms. Your body stays one line from head to heels for the whole set. ## Progress the movement 1. **Start with your hands higher** - The higher your hands, the less bodyweight sits on them. A solid countertop or a bench makes the push-up clearly easier, and working your way lower is the first progression you have here. 2. **Go lower, not just more often** - The floor ends the movement at hand height. Deep push-ups, with your hands up on dumbbells, let the chest drop below that line - usually harder than tacking on more reps. 3. **Give one arm more of the work** - Archer push-ups shift the weight onto the side you are bending, while the other arm mostly props you up. That is how you add load without adding anything. ## All Chest exercises with no equipment - [Normal Push-up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/normal-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Wide Push Ups Bodyweight](https://hi.fitness/exercises/wide-push-ups-bodyweight) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Knee Push-up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/knee-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Archer Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/archer-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Clap Push Ups](https://hi.fitness/exercises/clap-push-ups) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Push Up and Rotation](https://hi.fitness/exercises/push-up-and-rotation) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Chest Tap Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/chest-tap-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Side to Side Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/side-to-side-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Bodyweight Svend Press](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bodyweight-svend-press) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Bodyweight Standing Fly](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bodyweight-standing-fly) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Bodyweight Standing Triangle Fly](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bodyweight-standing-triangle-fly) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Bodyweight Kneeling Push-up Row](https://hi.fitness/exercises/bodyweight-kneeling-push-up-row) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Side Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/side-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Clock Push Ups](https://hi.fitness/exercises/clock-push-ups) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Cobra Full Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/cobra-full-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Modified Hindu Push Up](https://hi.fitness/exercises/modified-hindu-push-up) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Push Up Plus](https://hi.fitness/exercises/push-up-plus) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Chest Fly Side Step](https://hi.fitness/exercises/chest-fly-side-step) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Diagonal Punch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/diagonal-punch) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Diagonal Opens](https://hi.fitness/exercises/diagonal-opens) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Chest Pull Back](https://hi.fitness/exercises/chest-pull-back) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Chest Out Hands Behind (Hold)](https://hi.fitness/exercises/chest-out-hands-behind-hold) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Arm Crossover Chest Out](https://hi.fitness/exercises/arm-crossover-chest-out) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Arm Double Crossover](https://hi.fitness/exercises/arm-double-crossover) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Above Head Chest Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/above-head-chest-stretch) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Elbow Back Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/elbow-back-stretch) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Elbows Back Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/elbows-back-stretch) - Mid chest · Bodyweight - [Back Slaps Wrap Around Stretch](https://hi.fitness/exercises/back-slaps-wrap-around-stretch) - Mid chest · Bodyweight