How to do a Hammerstrength Chest Press
Reviewed by Jim Parker, CPT, B.A. Kinesiology
Hammer Strength Machine
Workouts with Hammerstrength Chest Press
Instructions for Proper Form
Hammerstrength Chest Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Bench Press. Similar to Bench Press, this compound exercise primarily targets your chest, shoulders, and triceps. The use of a Hammerstrength machine forces you to use a fixed range of motion. This can help you either learn the movement, or focus your efforts on exertion rather than stability.
- Sit upright in a hammerstrength chest press machine while squeezing your shoulder blades together and placing your heels firmly on the ground underneath your knees.
- The back pad should be contact with your head, shoulders, and butt at all times.
- Grab ahold of the handles with an overhand grip just outside shoulder-width apart.
- Keeping your core braced by breathing into your stomach and flexing the abdominal muscles, push through your palms to extend your elbows while keeping them at a 45 degree angle from your torso.
- Once your arms are fully extended, return to the starting position.
Common Form Mistakes
Hammerstrength Equipment
Sit back, and keep your shoulder blades against the pad. Hammerstrength equipment is designed to help you get into the correct position. If you’re sitting forward, and pulling your back off the pad, you may be compromising the effectiveness of the exercise, or modifying it to be a different variation entirely.
Weight & 1 Rep Max Calculator
Average Hammerstrength Chest Press standards by male, female, weight, age and height
Use this calculator to see Fitbod's possible first recommendations for you. This would be your starting line, based on more than 4.5 billion logged sets from 1.1 million users.
- beginner8reps40lbs1 Rep Max50lbs
- intermediate8reps50lbs65lbs
- advanced8reps60lbs75lbs
Enter your stats to calculate your Reps & Weight
Alternatives & Variations to Hammerstrength Chest Press
1. Hammerstrength Incline Chest Press
96.5 mSCORESWAPPED 9,273 TIMESHammerstrength Incline Chest Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Incline Bench Press. This compound movement primarily targets your chest, shoulders and triceps. The incline allows you to further emphasize your upper chest and shoulders. The use of a Hammerstrength Machine forces you to use a fixed range of motion which adds stability, and allows you to focus more on exertion.
2. Machine Bench Press
93.5 mSCORESWAPPED 7,690 TIMESMachine Bench Press is a compound exercise the primarily targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The use of a machine forces you to use a fixed range of motion which can be a great way to learn the movement, or to focus your effort on exertion rather than stability.
3. Dumbbell Bench Press
99.7 mSCORESWAPPED 5,322 TIMESDumbbell Bench Press is a variation on the standard Bench Press. Like Bench Press, this compound exercise primarily targets the chest, while also training the triceps and shoulders. The use of dumbbells allows for greater instability which can help you become more stable on pushing movements in general, while also isolating each side of the body to prevent you from compensating for any weaknesses between sides.
4. Machine Fly
98.2 mSCORESWAPPED 5,109 TIMESMachine Fly is a variation on the more standard Dumbbell Fly. This isolation chest exercise primarily targets the chest, but also recruits the shoulders. The use of a machine makes the exercise more stable allowing you to focus on exertion or learn the movement with minimal risk of injury. This is a great exercise for beginners looking to learn the movement, or advanced lifters looking to push this movement to it’s limit.
5. Hammerstrength Decline Chest Press
86.5 mSCORESWAPPED 5,068 TIMESHammerstrength Decline Chest Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Decline Bench Press. This compound movement primarily targets your chest, focusing more on the lower pecs. The use of a Hammerstrength Machine restricts your range of motion and adds stability to the movement, allowing you to focus more on exertion rather than stabilizing the movement. This is a great exercise for getting consistent tension and improving muscle activation.
6. Barbell Bench Press
99.2 mSCORESWAPPED 4,505 TIMESBench Press is one of the three Powerlifting movements, and one of the most common upper body exercises. It’s a fantastic compound exercise that can help you build strength in your chest, shoulders, and triceps. It’s a staple in most fitness programs, and is often used as a metric for tracking upper body strength in general.
7. Cable Crossover Fly
97.3 mSCORESWAPPED 3,889 TIMESCable Crossover Fly is an isolation exercise that targets the chest. It’s a variation on the more standard Dumbbell Fly, and can easily be adapted to further isolate specific areas of the chest. Using cables to add resistance allows you to keep more consistent tension on your chest, as well as control the angle that the resistance is coming from.
8. Dumbbell Fly
98.3 mSCORESWAPPED 3,514 TIMESDumbbell Fly’s are one of the most common isolation chest exercises, and for good. It primarily targets the muscles in the chest, but also recruits the shoulders for stability. The use of dumbbells ensures that you’re targeting each side of the body independently, and prevents compensating for any weaknesses between sides. In addition the isolated nature of this exercise is a great way to fatigue your chest, and focus on building both muscle mass and increasing strength in your chest.
9. Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
99 mSCORESWAPPED 3,028 TIMESDumbbell Incline Bench Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Incline Bench Press. This compound exercise primarily targets the chest, but the incline also places more emphasis on the shoulders. The use of dumbbells makes this exercise more unstable than its barbell counterpart, while also forcing you to address any strength discrepancies between sides.
10. Smith Machine Bench Press
89.5 mSCORESWAPPED 1,862 TIMESSmith Machine Bench Press is a compound chest exercise that also recruits the triceps and shoulders. The use of the Smith Machine adds stability to the movement allowing you to focus more on exertion, or learning the movement.