Which chest exercises should you do first?

Experts argue this point, but let personal preference be your guide. Here are our recommendations:

• Perform free-weight exercises when you’re fresh. These exercises require more concentration, strength, and control.
  
• Execute flat-bench exercises before incline or decline exercises. Experiment with the order of exercises for a couple of weeks until you come up with a sequence that works for you.
  
• Change the sequence from time to time. Changing it up challenges your muscles differently. If you always do the chest fly before the dumbbell chest press, for example, you may never realize your true dumbbell press potential because your chest muscles are always tired by the time you get to that exercise.
• Perform 8 to 15 reps.

Determining your one-rep max — that is, the maximum amount of weight you can lift once — is somewhat of an ancient gym tradition with the bench press. Don’t try this until you’ve been lifting weights for a month or two, and don’t attempt to max out more often than once a week. In fact, some experts believe that maxing out once a month brings better results. When you do attempt a maximum weight, make sure that you have a spotter. If you’re going for your one-rep max, do a few warm-up sets, gradually increasing the weight.