great reply! some (mostly useless) incremental observations…

• cheap weights are awful, especially cheap plated weights - they are never balanced right and just feel “bad”; but in a pinch, well…
• squeezing motions are fantastic but generally require “equipment” of some sort
• if equipment is on the table I would go for dumbbells for the bilateral and squeezing motions - also ok-ish for some back work with flys and a bench and for isolation work
• agreed on the standard bench press - incline has always been fantastic for me, but decline seems to bring more muscle grouping into the motion - everybody is different and opinions vary.
• my one complaint is flat bench - I get more more out of an angled bench. every. single. time.
• I would learn to do bodyweight movements anyway because they are always available and muscle endurance training with bodyweight is really, really useful.
• you can get a deeeeeep pec stretch doing knuckle pushups and going low, chest almost to the floor - just make sure you do it proprly and dont roll your wrists!
• varying timing on the concentric and eccentric portions lf.the movement can really help with the muscle fatigue to muscle build ratio, even on bodyweight movements - e.g. slowing down the eccentric (lengthing movement) to really take advantage of microtearing for every concentric (shortening) movement you make; getting the weight “up” is really just 30% of the total movement - squeezing the muscle at maximum compression and slow lengthening can be big gainers

but as you said, any excercise that you enjoy doing regularly, combined with variation because the body gets really efficient (not always what you want) at doing the same things repeatedly is the best excercise for you.

excellent comment! thanks for taking the time to build good content, friend.

to OP @einar@lemmy.ee … good luck! pushing your body in challenging ways can be so rewarding and cathartic.