Chest and tricep workout: presses first, then the long head

Chest and triceps share a day because they share the work: every press that trains your chest also straightens your elbow, so the triceps does part of every rep. That decides the order. Chest first, while you're fresh, then the triceps work the presses leave out.

This page is one session, written twice: for a gym and for a pair of dumbbells at home. The chest workout counts a full week of chest sets and explains the incline angle; the arm workout counts the triceps. Where the session sits in your week is below.

The gym session

In this order. "3 × 6–10" is three sets of six to ten reps; the sets and reps here are a practical starting point, in the ranges the other plan pages use, not a finding from one study. Every set stops with two or three good reps left.

Thirteen working sets, about 45 minutes with a minute or two of rest on the small lifts and two or three on the first press. Add one or two lighter sets of the first press before the working sets. (The full warm-up.)

The dumbbell session, at home

Same five slots, same order, with a pair of dumbbells and, if you have one, a bench.

The lighter weights at home are less of a problem than they look. The ACSM's 2026 stand found that loads anywhere from 30% to 100% of a one-rep max didn't change muscle growth.¹ In an eight-week trial of 18 untrained young men, bench presses at 40% of their one-rep max and push-ups adjusted to the same load, twice a week, gave similar gains in chest and triceps thickness.² The close-hand push-up has a reason of its own: in 40 people, 11 men and 29 women, push-ups from a narrow hand position produced more chest and triceps activity than a wide one (activity, not growth).³

Why these five, in this order

The ACSM's 2009 position stand recommends that strength programs put large-muscle and multiple-joint exercises before small-muscle and single-joint ones,⁴ which is why the presses come first and the triceps extension and pushdown last.

The fly is an extra, not the base. In 17 resistance-trained men, the barbell bench press produced more chest, front-shoulder and triceps activity than the dumbbell fly, and the authors' advice was that both can go in a program with the bench press emphasised.⁵ So the fly gets two sets after the presses.

Whether presses alone grow the triceps is mixed. In one ten-week trial, 13 men who only bench-pressed grew their triceps more than 11 men who didn't train, though the chest grew more.⁶ But in a 43-man trial the triceps grew significantly in every group that did a lying triceps press and not in the bench-only group, although the groups didn't differ significantly from each other; the long head grew more with the triceps press.⁷ That mixed picture is why direct triceps work goes after the presses.

Make one of the two an overhead extension. In a 12-week trial, 21 adults trained one arm with cable extensions overhead and the other in a neutral arm position; the overhead arm's whole triceps grew 19.9% against 13.9%, and its long head 28.5% against 19.6%, even though it used lighter weights.⁸ The pushdown is the second triceps set. Don't add a third extension: in 21 resistance-trained men, overhead and lying dumbbell extensions showed similar triceps activity patterns, and the authors advised against using both in one routine.⁹

What one session adds up to

The gym session gives the chest eight hard sets: three on the flat press, three on the incline, two on the fly. For the triceps it gives five direct sets plus the six pressing sets at half a set each, which is about eight. A 2026 meta-regression of 67 studies found the strongest support for counting a set that trains a muscle only indirectly as half a set.¹⁰

Run once a week, that is eight sets each. The ACSM's 2026 stand found muscle growth enhanced by ten or more sets per muscle group a week,¹ and how many sets per week puts someone new to lifting at 6 to 10, so one session a week is a fair start. A second session, or a push day on your split, takes you past ten.

How it fits a week

• On a body-part split, this is the chest day. Back and biceps is its mirror: the back and bicep workout. Both weeks of a five-day version are written out on the 5 day split page.
• On push/pull/legs, it is most of a push day. Add the overhead press and lateral raises from the shoulder workout and you have the push session in the routine.
• On upper/lower, the chest and triceps slots are two of the upper day's: the upper body workout puts them next to the pulls.

Leave at least a day between two sessions that press. With weekly sets matched, a 2019 meta-analysis of 25 studies found no significant difference between training a muscle more or less often,¹¹ so once or twice a week is a choice about fitting your sets in, not about what grows.

Common mistakes

• Triceps first. Tired triceps cut the reps on every press after them. They go last.
• A steep incline. In the 30-adult study the front of the shoulder was most active at 60 degrees (muscle activity, not growth), and the authors concluded that inclinations above 45 degrees decrease the muscular performance of the pectoralis major.¹² Keep the chest incline near 30.
• An overhead extension and a lying one in the same session. One of them is enough.
• Pressing through a sharp pain in a shoulder or elbow. Effort and soreness are part of it; a sharp or lasting pain isn't. Stop that exercise, and see a doctor or a physical therapist.

Common questions

How many sets of chest and triceps?

The gym session above is thirteen: eight for the chest and five direct for the triceps, which is about eight once the presses are counted at half a set.

Is it different for women?

The session is the same; the weights differ. A 2025 meta-analysis of 29 studies in healthy adults aged 18 to 45 found relative increases in muscle size were similar between the sexes, with absolute upper-body increases slightly favouring men.¹³ Strength training for women covers the research in women.

Can I do chest and triceps without a bench?

Yes: floor press, push-ups and a floor fly cover the chest slots, and the overhead extension needs one dumbbell. The home session above is written that way.

If you'd rather have it built for you

The session is the easy part. Which presses suit your gym and your shoulders, how many sets your chest needs this month, and where the chest day falls in a week that keeps changing are the parts a page can't settle. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call goes over the week you just had and sets the next one. Coaching to build muscle explains how that works, and apply is where you tell me about your training. Otherwise: run the gym or the dumbbell session this week and write every set down.