Written by Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine

How long do you spend training your chest?

If, like most bodybuilders, pec size and shape is one of your workout priorities, your chest workouts probably last an hour or more. After all, you need to make sure you train your upper, mid, and lower pecs and your inner and outer pecs, which means plenty of exercises and lots of sets.

It’s all very time-consuming!

Unfortunately, life has a way of derailing your best intentions to train. Your job, family commitments, and other distractions can make it hard to find the time to make it to the gym. After all, time is a valuable commodity, and it runs out fast.

But what if we told you that you don’t have to spend hours in the gym to build an impressive chest and that you can get a great workout in 30 minutes or less? Believe it or not, you don’t have to do high-volume, two-hour training sessions to build muscle and get stronger.

In this article, we reveal our favorite 30-minute chest workout!

30-minutes might not sound like long, especially compared to the marathon high-volume workouts that many bodybuilders favor. But, providing you train with intensity and don’t dawdle between sets and exercises, it’s plenty long enough to trigger hypertrophy.

This workout is designed to be done as part of a split routine, where you train different muscle groups on different days of the week.

For example, you could train your chest on Monday, your legs on Tuesday, your back on Wednesday, your shoulders on Thursday, and your biceps and triceps on Friday.

Of course, before you start this or any other workout, you need to prepare your muscles and joints for what you are about to do. Start with a few minutes of easy cardio followed by dynamic mobility and flexibility exercises for the muscles and joints you are about to use.

Exercises 2a and 2b are to be performed as a superset. Do a set of cable crossovers and then, without resting, immediately do a set of chest dips. Rest for the prescribed time and then repeat the pairing for the specified number of supersets.

There are two ways to do any exercise – the right way and the wrong way. The right way is safe and effective, while the wrong way isn’t! So, when in doubt, use less weight, focus on your technique, and remember that many injuries are avoidable if you train with good form and appropriate weights.

Most chest workouts start with barbell bench presses. But, for many lifters, dumbbell bench presses are better. They allow for a larger range of motion, are more shoulder-friendly, and force you to work harder as you struggle to stabilize two heavy weights. This exercise is actually three movements rolled into one and hits your upper, mid, and lower chest.

Cable crossovers are a chest isolation exercise, meaning they involve movement at just one joint – your shoulders. This is an excellent exercise for pec separation and works your inner/lower chest. Cable crossovers work best when done with moderate weights and strict form. Don’t use your abs or legs to help you lift the weights.

Dips are often seen as a triceps exercise but, done with a wide grip, they’re actually an excellent chest exercise that may even rival the mighty bench press. This is an AMRAP exercise, meaning you should do As Many Reps As Possible. So, it doesn’t matter if you do five or 15 – just keep going until you hit failure.

You can’t have a chest workout without bench presses! But, for this program, you’ll be doing wide grip paused bench presses to really fire up your pecs. Don’t go too heavy here; you’re probably feeling tired, and wide/paused bench presses are harder than regular bench presses.

The pec deck is another effective chest isolation exercise. Get the most from the pec deck by squeezing your arms together as hard as possible at the mid-point of each rep. Please note that pec deck machines vary by manufacturer, so seek advice from a trainer if you are unsure how to use the pec deck at your gym.

This push-up drop set is designed to fully exhaust your chest. It involves three different push-up variations (decline, regular, and incline) so you can do the maximum number of reps. Take each exercise to failure, and only rest a couple of seconds between each one.

A lot of lifters are hung up on 60-minute workouts. They believe that spending anything less than an hour in the gym is pointless and that, when it comes to working out, longer is better.

While long, high-volume workouts can be productive, it’s not the only way to train. And, as the old bodybuilding adage goes, you can train hard, or you can train long, but you can’t train hard AND long.

30-minutes is plenty of time to train your chest, providing you raise the intensity and push yourself close to failure.

Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine, gym owner, and fitness qualifications tutor and assessor. In addition, Patrick is a freelance writer who has authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos. He’s not just an armchair fitness expert; Patrick practices what he preaches! He has competed at a high level in numerous sports, including rugby, triathlon, rock climbing, trampolining, powerlifting, and, most recently, stand up paddleboarding. When not lecturing, training, researching, or writing, Patrick is busy enjoying the sunny climate of Cyprus, where he has lived for the last 20-years.

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