Having a skinny bony chest is no laughing matter, especially for a guy. Everywhere we look we are bombarded with images of huge pecs and barrel-chest dudes and made to feel that a big muscular chest is the epitome of masculinity.

While a lot of this is garbage used by the media to sell products and engineer society, there is an ancient idea that a muscular chest denotes a more attractive and confident man. Just a take a quick look at any ancient Greek or Roman statue and you’ll rarely see a skinny chest.

The benefits of putting some solid muscle on your skinny chest are not just superficial. Having stronger pecs will improve your posture and prevent drooping shoulders – this will help you avoid back problems and likewise improve your confidence, since posture has a lot to do with how we feel.

Below you’ll find 3 great exercises that you can use to put some rock hard muscle on your skinny chest and cover up those bones. I’ve chosen them since they work the 3 major areas of the pectoral muscles (outer, inner and upper pecs). A lot of skinny guys make the mistake of focusing on just one area and end up under-developing the rest.

3 Exercises To Get Rid of a Skinny Chest:

Bench Press

This is the absolute king of chest exercises and without a doubt the most famous. You must perform this one regularly to get rid of your skinny chest.

Lie flat on a weights bench and grab the bar with your hands a little over a shoulder-width apart. Lift the bar off the rack and slowly lower towards your chest, and stop when the bar is around an inch off your chest – don’t let it rest or bounce off your chest, like you see a lot of folks in the gym doing…this is not only dangerous but it reduces the effectiveness of the exercise. Now push the bar back up until your arms are almost straight – never lock your elbows.

This is one rep…perform 6-10 reps and 3 sets on a weight that means it is difficult to complete the set.

The standard way of performing this exercise above works the entire chest with an emphasis on the outer pecs (if your grip is a little over a shoulder-width apart). You can work the upper pecs by inclining the bench upwards, or the lower pecs by inclining the bench downwards.

Dumbbell Flyes (or cable crunch)

This is a fantastic exercise for the inner pecs and getting that great line down the middle of the chest.

Lie back flat on a weights bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Hold them up above your chest with arms slightly bent. Then slowly lower the dumbbells one to each side in an arc so that they come level with your chest and your arms are out to the side. From here arc them back up to the start position, making sure you focus on the inner pecs and trying to “squeeze” them as much as possible.

Perform 6-10 reps and 3 sets of these. Again you work the upper pecs by inclining the bench. You can also perform this exercise standing up by utilizing a Cable Crunch machine. I personally recommend you use free weights wherever possible to get rid of a skinny chest as they will help you to build muscle and get stronger faster but the cable crunch is a great alternative.

Overhead Dumbbell Presses

These are brilliant for the upper pecs and shoulders in particular.

Sit up straight on a bench with a back support, and grab a dumbbell in each hand. Lift them to the start position which is either side of your head just above your shoulders with palms facing forward.

From here lift the weights up straightening your arms and bringing the weights together above your head. Hold for a second and then slowly lower them to the start position. Repeat for 3 sets of 6-10 reps.

Focus the effort on your pecs and not so much on your arms to get the maximum benefit from this exercise.

Bonus: Push-ups

If you can’t get access to a gym or any weights then I highly recommend you start doing push-ups for your skinny chest. These are still an extremely versatile exercise and you can work your whole chest area simply by changing your grip width, inclining your feet, changing the pace of each rep, using a gym ball to support your feet and loads of other techniques.

The key to success with push-ups is consistency and incrementation. By gradually increasing your number of reps each day you will be amazed at how quickly you’ll get rid of your skinny chest and develop big muscular pecs.