Chest-blasting

Dips
This is a nice, classic exercise that hits both chest and triceps about equally. Not much to say, really - it's been around since the stone age of bodybuilding, and it's still there. Must be a reason, right?

Checkpoints:
Keep shoulders down and back, esp. at the bottom. Avoid going below 90 degrees (as you stress your vulnerable shoulder joints in an extreme position). Don't "kick" your way up.

Chest press machines
There are plenty of different machines. My favourites are the Hammer Strength kind, with free-weight plates. It's hard to define, but personally, I find those to give more FEEL to the action than the classic weight-stack machines. Or it could be me getting my head stuck in a weight-stack machine as a kid, causing lifelong trauma and suspicion against them until my shrink one day drags it out of me after 45,228 billable hours. I mean, hey, how would YOU know? Anyway, I guess the bottom line is that you should always rely on your own sound judgement in these matters, but there are a few basic pointers that most machines have in common, regardless of the brand.

Checkpoints:
Shoulders down and back. Abs flexed. Forearms as straight as possible, going in the direction of the movement (imagine a line going through your hand - wrist - elbow - shoulder). Neck relaxed.

Summary:
I believe you've recognized a certain pattern by now, such as my constant nagging about the shoulders being down and back. The reason for this is simple: that way your pecs do the bulk of the work. If your shoulders are forward, your front delts do the work. Result: Overtrained delts, undertrained pecs. Another pattern you should recognize is the forearms being parallel to the direction the weight is travelling in an exercise. Or as I prefer to visualize it: A line going through your hand - wrist - elbow - shoulder, from which you should not stray. Your joints are not exposed to any "rotating" action, which is not that good of an idea when you're handling 300+ lbs weights (and yes, "rotating" force includes bracing yourself against actual rotation).

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