Chest and Tricep Workout: The Best Exercises, Sets and Reps (Gym and Dumbbell Plans)

Chest and triceps is one of the oldest pairings in the gym, and for good reason: every pressing movement you do for your chest also works your triceps. Put them on the same day and you train both hard without one getting in the way of the other on separate days. Where most chest and tricep workouts go wrong is in the details: too many exercises, triceps work that ignores the biggest part of the muscle, and no plan for progress.

This guide gives you a complete gym workout and a dumbbell-only version, and explains, with the research, how many sets to do, how heavy to go, what order to train in, and how to adjust it for women and for lifters over 50.

Quick Answer

A good chest and tricep workout has five or six exercises: a heavy press (bench press or dumbbell press), an incline press, a fly, a compound triceps move such as dips or close-grip bench, and an overhead triceps extension. Do 3 sets of each, in the 6 to 15 rep range, stopping a rep or two short of failure, and add weight or reps over time. Train chest first, because the first exercise in a session gets the most reps. Aim for about 10 or more hard sets per muscle per week: more weekly sets produced more growth in a meta-analysis of 15 studies. Include an overhead triceps extension, which built about 1.5 times more triceps muscle than a pushdown-style extension in a 12-week trial. Women and older adults can use the same plan.

In this guide:

• Should You Train Chest and Triceps Together?
• The Chest and Tricep Workout (Gym)
• Dumbbell and At-Home Version
• Chest or Triceps First?
• How Many Sets, and How Often?
• How Heavy, How Many Reps
• The Triceps Exercise Most Workouts Miss
• For Women and Lifters Over 50
• How Many Calories Does It Burn?
• The Verdict

Should You Train Chest and Triceps Together?

Yes, it is a sensible pairing. Your triceps straighten the elbow in every press, so a chest session already gives them a lot of work, and finishing with direct triceps exercises completes it. Training them on separate days can mean tired triceps limiting your bench press the next day.

It is not the only good option. Chest and back, or a push pull legs split (where chest and triceps share push day with shoulders), work just as well. A 2019 meta-analysis of 25 studies found that when total weekly sets are the same, training a muscle once, twice or three times a week produced similar growth, so you can choose the split that fits your week. What matters more is the number of hard sets you do over the week.

The Chest and Tricep Workout (Gym)

That is about 9 to 10 sets for the chest and 8 to 11 for the triceps, counting the presses, which they help with, and takes 50 to 70 minutes. Warm up with one or two light sets of the first exercise. Stop each working set when you have 1 or 2 good reps left, and use a spotter or safety pins for heavy bench pressing. If dips bother your shoulders, use close-grip bench or a machine dip instead.

Dumbbell and At-Home Version

You do not need a bench press station. In a five-week trial in experienced lifters, push-ups made heavier with an elastic band, so that they were as hard as a 6-rep bench press, produced similar strength gains to the bench press itself. The principle is the same with dumbbells: make it hard enough and the muscle responds.

With light dumbbells, use the higher end of the rep ranges and slow the lowering part of each rep to two or three seconds; you will still build muscle if the sets are hard, as explained under how heavy to go.

Chest or Triceps First?

Chest first, for most people. A review of the research on exercise order found that whatever you do first in a session gets the most reps over its sets, and in beginners strength improved most for the exercises done first. If you tire your triceps before benching, your bench press sets end sooner, and your chest gets less work. Pre-exhausting the chest with flies before pressing did not increase chest activation either.

The exception: if your triceps are lagging and they are your priority, train them first now and then. It is not “bad”, just a trade-off.

How Many Sets, and How Often?

Weekly sets drive growth more than anything else you can control. A meta-analysis of 15 studies found a graded dose-response: each extra weekly set per muscle added a little more growth (about 0.4% on average), and higher-volume groups gained about 4% more muscle than lower-volume groups. Ten or more sets per muscle per week tended to beat fewer.

• Beginners: one session a week like the one above (about 10 chest sets) is plenty to start. Setting a simple short-term fitness goal, such as not missing a session for six weeks, helps it become a habit.
• After 2 or 3 months: train chest and triceps twice a week, for example 6 to 8 chest sets in each session, to reach 12 to 16 weekly sets without very long workouts.
• Keep it sustainable: more is not endlessly better. If your joints ache or your lifts stall for weeks, cut sets back by a third for a week.

How Heavy, How Many Reps

You can build muscle across a wide range of weights, as long as the sets are hard. A meta-analysis of trials comparing light loads (60% of your one-rep max or less) with heavy loads (65% or more) found that both built muscle and strength, with a trend in favor of heavier loads, especially for strength. Practical rules:

• Use 6 to 10 reps on the main presses and 10 to 15 on flies and triceps isolation work.
• End most sets with 1 or 2 reps still in the tank, so your form holds and you can keep adding sets.
• Progress every week or two: when you hit the top of the rep range on all sets, add a small amount of weight and drop back to the bottom of the range.
• Eat enough protein to support the work; the protein calculator gives a daily target.

The Triceps Exercise Most Workouts Miss

The triceps has three heads, and the biggest, the long head, crosses the shoulder joint as well as the elbow. It is only fully stretched when your arm is overhead. Pushdowns and most pressing keep the arm by your side, so the long head never works at its longest length.

A 2023 trial tested this directly: 21 adults trained one arm with cable elbow extensions overhead and the other with the arm by their side, 5 sets of 10 twice a week for 12 weeks. The overhead arm grew about 1.5 times more triceps muscle (whole triceps +19.9% vs +13.9%), with the biggest difference in the long head, even though it lifted lighter weights. So every chest and tricep day should include an overhead extension: cable, dumbbell or EZ-bar.

For Women and Lifters Over 50

Women do not need a different chest and tricep workout. A meta-analysis comparing men and women on the same programs found similar muscle growth, and women actually gained more upper-body strength relative to where they started. Use the same exercises and rep ranges; dumbbells and push-up variations are a good starting point.

Over 50, strength training matters more, not less. The Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans recommend muscle-strengthening activity on two or more days a week for all adults, and older adults should combine it with balance and aerobic work. Practical adjustments: a longer warm-up, dumbbells or machines instead of a heavy barbell if your shoulders complain, a neutral grip (palms facing each other) for pressing, and stopping 2 or 3 reps short of failure. If you have heart disease, high blood pressure or joint problems, check with your doctor first.

How Many Calories Does It Burn?

Less than most people think. The Compendium of Physical Activities rates general weight training with multiple exercises at about 3.5 METs (multiples of resting energy use) and vigorous lifting at about 6 METs. For a 70 kg (154 lb) person, a 45-minute chest and tricep workout therefore burns roughly 185 to 315 calories, depending on how hard and fast you work. The bigger payoff is the muscle you build over months, not the calories in one session.

The Verdict

Chest and triceps work well together because pressing trains both. Start with a heavy press, add an incline press and a fly for the chest, then dips or close-grip bench and an overhead extension for the triceps: 3 sets each, 6 to 15 reps, stopping just short of failure. Build toward 10 or more hard sets per muscle per week, train chest first, and add weight or reps every week or two. The same plan works for women and, with a few joint-friendly swaps, for lifters over 50.