Chest Press Machine – Definitive FAQ Guide

Are you designing your dream gym and want the best chest press machines to be a part of it?

Just go through this comprehensive FAQ guide to learn everything you need to know about the chest press machines:

Table of Contents

1. What is a chest press machine?

A chest press machine is an exercise machine designed for developing, strengthening and toning chest muscles. The pushing and pulling movement of weighted arms, cables or arm resting pads of chest press machines provide an ideal chest workout. 

2. What other muscles a chest press machine works on?

Chest press machine provides a full upper body workout involving chest (pectoral) muscles along with arms (triceps), shoulders (deltoids) and back (latissimus dorsi) muscles.

Figure 1: Chest Press Machine

3. What is the difference between a chest press machine and a bench press machine?

Chest press and bench press both focus on the same muscle groups and fitness goals.

Bench press machines and chest press machines still differ in several ways:

• Design – Bench press is done on socially designed weight benches. It’s done either with free weights (barbells or dumbbells) or using a smith machine. Chest press machines, on the other hand, are fully equipped with pulleys, cables, weights, and different setting options for optimum comfort and best results.

Figure 2: Bench Press Machine

Figure 3: Smith Machine

• Position – Weight benches for bench press come in flat, incline and decline positions. Chest press machines, on the other hand, offer more variety including incline, decline, vertical, and standing chest press machines.

Figure 4: Weight Bench

• Variation – While bench press machines are just limited to barbells, chest press machines provide variation in the grips and weights. You can get chest press machines with handles, weights and cables at different angles. 

• Adjustability Features – Chest press machines are pretty much customizable as compared to bench press machines. You can adjust many features of a chest press machine according to your personal preferences. You can adjust the height of seats, position of backrest, height of pulleys, weights and can even shift to single-arm mode at any time.

• Safety and comfort – Chest press machines are much safer as compared to bench press machines as they don’t involve the risk of dropping weights or losing balance. Chest press machines also provide a comfortable sitting posture and more control for exercises. Chest press machines are therefore suitable for beginners and experts alike.

4. What are the different types of chest press machines?

Chest press machines have different types based on the chest muscles in focus and the technique used for exercise:

1. Seated Chest Press Machine – The seated chest press machine is designed for a sitting position chest press workout. Chest press in a sitting position provides more control during workouts. 

Exercise on a seated chest press machine provides a full upper body workout mainly focusing on upper and middle chest muscles. It helps in building chest (pectoral) muscles along with arms (triceps), back (latissimus dorsi) and shoulders (deltoids) muscles.

You can find many variations in the seated chest press machines:

• Seated chest press machines come in both vertical and horizontal handles, with a few designs providing both options.

Figure 5: Multiple Grips Options in Seated Chest Press Machines

• You can get seated wide press machines with wider grips as well.

Figure 6: Wide Press Machine

• You can also get seated chest press machines specifically designed for higher or lower press according to your needs.

Figure 7: Seated Chest Higher Press Machine

5. Types of Seated Chest Press Machine

Butterfly Chest Press Machine

Butterfly chest press machines are also called pectoral fly machines. These machines focus on building the mass and strength of chest muscles, especially the inner chest.

Figure 8: Butterfly Chest Press Machine

Incline & Decline Chest Press Machine

The seat of an incline chest press machine is slightly inclined.  An incline chest press machine workout is mainly focused on the upper chest and shoulder muscles.

Decline chest press machine, on the other hand, focuses more on strengthening lower chest muscles with a workout in a declined position.

Figure 9: Incline Chest Press Machine

Pec-Deck Machine

Pec-Deck machine focuses on the overall development of pectoral muscles. The exercise also strengthens torso and shoulder muscles side by side. Based on the difficulty level it is the most suitable chest press machine for beginners.

The special feature of pec-deck machines is their resting arms. Pec-Deck machines have a resting pad for placing your forearms. You can then grab that resting pad from the top, keeping your forearm straight up against the resting pad. 

Figure 10: Pec Deck Machine

Standing Chest Press Machine 

A standing chest press machine helps in improving overall balance and posture. It strengthens upper arms and shoulders (rotator cuff muscles), abdominal (transversus abdominis muscles) and intrinsic back muscles along with the chest (pectoral) muscles. 

Figure 11: Standing Chest Press Machine

Cable Crossover Chest Press Machine 

Cable crossover chest press machines come with adjustable pulleys to set the level of cables for the workout. So you can easily adjust the cables in your cable crossover machine to different heights for focusing different chest muscles 

Figure 12: Cable Crossover Chest Press Machine

Hammer Strength Chest Press Machine 

Hammer strength chest press machines are also known as plate-loaded chest press machines. 

Hammer strength chest press machines don’t work with any cables or pulleys and don’t even have any pre-loaded weight stacks. You can load the weight plates on a hammer strength machine according to your needs. 

You’ll come across many variations while looking for a hammer strength chest press for sale. You can get them in both seated and standing versions. Moreover, there are incline and horizontal bench options too.

Figure 13: Plate Loaded Incline Hammer Strength Chest Press Machine

6. What are the dimensions of a chest press machine?

The length of a commercial chest press machine is around 56 to 77 inches with a width of approximately 38 to 69 inches. The height of a commercial chest press machine is nearly 38 to 59 inches.

7. What is the weight of a chest press machine?

The weight of a chest press machine is around 41 to 85 kg.

8. What to look for in the commercial chest press machines for your gym?

You should look for these quality features in a chest press machine for your gym:

1. Design Features – First of all look for all the design features of the chest press machines which match your requirements:

• You can even get multi-function designs in a seated or standing chest press machine. These versatile chest press machines offer different adjustability features and multiple exercise modes. 

• See the position of arms and handles of the chest press machine and check if you can switch them from one setting to another. 

• Also, check if you can easily adjust the height of the seat and backrest pad of your chest press machine.

• See if they’ve given any additional weight horns for storage of extra weight plates on the frame of the chest press machine.

• Look for the ergonomic seat design in the chest press machines. The seat cushioning is thoughtfully designed in ergonomic seats for helping you in comfortably maintaining your posture during exercise.

2. Sturdy Material and Construction – The quality of material used in manufacturing a chest press machine plays a critical role in its performance and durability: 

• Make sure that the chest press machine is made of commercial-grade materials. Moreover, a scratch-less powder coating finish is great for keeping your chest press machine in a good condition. 

• Check the cushion’s thickness on the seats and backrest of chest press machine to be sure of the comfort. Seats of commercial-grade chest press machines are lined with high-density, furniture-grade foam. PU leather or vinyl seat covering being highly durable is the best for chest press machines.

• Also, see if the handles of the chest press machine are covered with foam for a comfortable grip or not.

3. Supported Weight Limit – You should also consider the maximum limit of supported weight recommended for a particular chest press machine. You can get the weight support of up to 500 lbs in most of the commercial quality chest press machines.

4. Weight Stack Included or Not – Some of the chest press machines come with weights stacked on them while for others you need to buy them separately. You can choose the one which suits your needs the best. 

Just make sure that the weight horns of chest press machines are designed for loading standard Olympic weights with an insert of 50.4 mm. 

5. Size of Machine – You should check the dimensions of the chest press machine to see if it would fit well in the desired location in your gym.

6. Ease of assembling – Ideally you should go for the chest press machines which offer a simple assembling procedure for your convenience. Also check if the chest press machine manufacturer has provided all the nuts, bolts, and special wrenches in the package.

7. Trusted Manufacturer – Last but not least, buy chest press machines for your gym from a trusted chest press machine manufacturer like Yanre Fitness. In this way you’ll be sure of making a fruitful investment for your gym.

Trusted chest press machine manufacturers also offer a few years warranty on their chest press machines along with remarkable customer support services.

9. How to maintain the chest press machines at your gym?

Chest press machines are one of the most valuable pieces of fitness equipment in your gym, so you must maintain them well.

Here’s how you can maintain the chest press machines in your gym with ease:

Cleaning

• You need to clean the upholstery and hand grips of your gym chest press machines daily. It will help you in keeping your chest press machines free of dirt and germs.

• There’s no need to use any harsh cleaner. You can simply spray mild soap water on the upholstery and hand grips of your chest press machines. Be careful not to use a lot of it. Then just wipe it with a clean damp cloth and here you go. 

• You should also clean the frame and weight stacks etc. of your chest press machine regularly. Dust being accumulated on any of the parts can influence the performance of your chest press machines. 

Checking 

• You should check your chest press machines thoroughly from time to time to look for any damage or mal-functioning. 

• You should check grips, and seats for wear and tear. Also check all the cables, pulleys and connections, etc. 

• It’s really important to regularly check and maintain all these parts to repair them on time if needed. In this way you’ll also be able to avoid any unforeseen situation or risk of injuries.

• Most of the damaged or worn-out parts of the chest press machines are either replaceable or repairable, So there’s no need to worry about it. You should just contact the customer support of your chest press machine manufacturer for advice.

Lubrication

• You’ll also need to lubricate the moving parts of your chest press machines on a monthly basis. 

• You need to lubricate all the rods, bushings and bearings, and seat levers etc. 

10. What is the price of a commercial-grade chest press machine?

The approximate price of a commercial-grade chest press machine is $350 to $1160. The price goes up based on the quality and design features of the chest press machines. So the average price of a decent quality commercial chest press machine is around $500.

11. Conclusion

You can now easily find the best chest press machine out of the lot.

We offer commercial quality chest press machines for sale at an affordable price.

Just have a look at our range of chest press machines to get exactly what you want.

So what are you waiting for? Get our best offer on the chest press machine now!!