The Flat Bench Dumbbell PressDumbbell Press
As outlined in the main chest exercises page, the flat-bench dumbbell press mainly works your middle pectorals along with the anterior deltoid. It’s one of the most popular exercises in the gym along with the inclined and declined presses. All three are important for developing a well-rounded, balanced, and strong chest. This page is meant to illustrate correct form and technique – something that many people refer to as, “Technique, Shmechnique!” Getting out of your form will diminish your results as you’ll be working the wrong muscles and possibly causing yourself injury! Continuing to lift improperly can result in a prolonged weight plateau. For any sort of dumbbell press, chest fly or similar exercise, I like to use an adjustable bench so that you can quickly change between flat, inclined and declined positions. Heck, you can even make a quick chest workout out of these 3 positions! The Exercise • Grab yourself a pair of dumbbells that you can handle – heavy enough to be challenging, but not so light that it’s easy. • While holding the dumbbells, sit down on the bench and rest the weights on your thighs. If the weights are too heavy for this, have your spotter hand them to you after you lay down. Lie back on the flat bench and push the weights up directly above your chest. Don’t lock your elbows! • With your palms facing your feet, slowly lower the dumbbells to your chest, flaring your elbows outward. Hold. • Don’t allow the dumbbells to travel so far downward that you’re unable to push them back up. As you do the exercise, you’ll feel a "point of no return" – go to this point, but no further! Doing this puts a ton of stress on your shoulder joint and overstretches your pecs, especially when using heavier weights. • Push the weights back up to the starting position – you've now done a dumbbell press! Some Tips on Doing The Dumbbell Press • Don’t arch your back – this is cheating! If you’re forced to use your body for leverage to lift the weight, you need to get a lower weight. Don’t let your ego get in the way! • Use a spotter! This is important especially if you’re a beginner or you’re using heavier weights. But, in general, it’s best for a spotter to be used in any such exercise. • When you're finished with the dumbbell press, try to roll up to your feet before putting the weights down. This avoids shoulder and chest injuries. If you have a spotter, have the spotter take them from your hands before getting up. • This is a slow, deliberate exercise, not a cardio workout. Do the exercise slowly! It’s best to allow the weights to fall towards your chest more slowly than you push them back up. For example, I like to use a 2-count on the way down and a 1-count on the way back up to the starting point. This maximizes the muscle-building potential. • The number of sets and reps you do is determined by your fitness goal or the current intensity of your program. Are you trying to get bigger or just tone up? Try doing 6-8 reps for getting bigger and 10-15 reps for toning up! This, of course, involves a change in weight. At the very least, the final 2-3 reps should be very challenging! • Don’t forget to do some upper back exercises to counter all the work you’re doing with your chest. • The key here is technique and form – when you start falling out of form, you should drop the weights and end the set right there! You can try another set and aim for a lower number of reps, or simply reduce the amount of weight you’re using. Remember, your chest is a muscle like all the other muscles in the body – don’t work your chest every day or too often: you could end up with a serious case of overtraining! Variations Variety is the key to your strength training success! The more you change your workouts, the less likely you’ll hit a weight plateau. So, here are a few variations you can use to help supplement your chest workouts and, in particular, this exercise.
• Use a hammer grip. Basically, the exercise remains the same except for how you hold your hands. Instead of having your thumbs facing each other, have your palms face each other. This motion places a little extra emphasis on your arms. Mastering this exercise can maximize your bench press results – with weak arms, you’ll have a weak chest! • Replace the dumbbells with a barbell. This will be a normal bench press. I’m not a big fan of the barbells since they don’t require quite as much of a balancing act in your arms and chest. With free weights, each arm individually is forced to balance the weight. With a barbell, the weight of the bar is distributed evenly across both arms. But, if your goals are to maximize your bench press, then, by all means, do the bench press! But remember, it’s also important to supplement with free weights to gain a more balanced strength. • If you have the materials, you can also hook a chain to each end of the barbell and have all the slack lay on the ground. As you do the bench press, you’ll be lifting the chain off the ground, increasing the amount of weight with every inch! This is a more advanced technique. You can also use bands for this technique - just hook the bands to the ends of the barbell and to a very heavy weight on the ground. • You can also change the width of your grip to work different parts of the chest and arms. • You can also use weight bands for a different weight distribution. What I mean is, the bands will create more tension near the top of the motion than near the bottom (or near your chest). This is excellent for maximizing your bench-press results, getting you past that coveted breaking point. • If you don’t have weights, try pushups! These work just as well to build a powerful chest. You can change the incline of your pushups to work different parts of the pec major. For example, an inclined pushup will work the lower pectorals, a declined pushup will work the upper pectorals, and a flat, normal pushup will work the middle region. There are multiple ways you can add intensity! Return from Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press to Chest Exercises Return from Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press to the Smart Strength Training Homepage
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• One popular variation with the dumbbell press is simply alternating between each arm. For example, start with the weights near your chest. Press with your left arm and let it down slowly. Then, press with your right arm and let it down (see animation). Continue back and forth! This adds some of intensity and core work as it adds in a bit of balance to the equation.