Impressive pectoral muscles are often defined as the very foundation of a "manly" physique. It's a classic. And as such, it's very hard to trade the classic exercise - the bench press - for anything else. But give it a try, if nothing else so at least for the sake of change!
Dumbbell-presses
The advantages to the barbell are many:
1. You can go further down and get a better stretch
2. Your forearms are not locked = better control
3. You can't cheat by bouncing the bar on your chest
4. Both sides are trained equally
5. If you reach failure, you get to keep your head on
...Speaking from personal experience, the last point alone
is reason enough to chose dumbbells before a barbell.
Checkpoints:
Shoulders down and relaxed. Forearms 100% vertical, from all
angles. Straight wrists. Lower back against the pad, abs slightly tense, feet wide apart and firmly planted to the floor (you might have to put a plate under your feet).
Pec-Deck
This machine should be viewed with a certain amount of skepticism. It CAN be excellent, but some brands turn this elsewise good exercise into almost pure death to your shoulders.
You have to pay close attention to how your pecs feel vs. how your shoulders feel - only YOU can determine it, not enyone else. With that said and done, these are the
Checkpoints:
Shoulders down and relaxed. Scapulaes together. Entire back against the pad. Abs lightly flexed. Feet wide for balance,
and MOST importantly: Press with your ELBOWS, not hands!
Cable Crossover
Not much to say about this one, really. Tried and true. However,
you often see people making up new exercises which they believe
will train their pecs even better. You have the low-pulley,
crossing-in-front-of-you-going-upwards (which uses front
delts almost exclusively, and not at all much upper pecs as they would like) and the one-arm version of the crossover (which
puts tremendous stress your entire midsection to keep your
spine from being twisted right off). There's even weirder things going on out there, but I don't see any reason for going deeper
into something that won't make a good exercise better.
Checkpoints:
Balanced body positioning. Abs flexed. Shoulders down and back.
Wrists straight. Forearms as parallell to the wires as possible.
Avoid leaning forward too much. Cross the cables in front of you
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