Gym wisdom suggests that in order to build a big chest, you need to find a barbell with a lot of weight and keep bench-pressing until you turn blue in the face.
If you're experiencing pain in your shoulders from benching, don't have a spotter, or don't feel like you're getting results from barbell training, dumbbell work may be a better option for you.
Strengthen Your Chest with Dumbbells
“Dumbbell training may not be as flashy as loading up the bar until it bends, but it is actually a better way to build a bigger, stronger chest. Additionally, it offers less risk of injury.”
We will now show you the best exercises and workouts to develop your chest using dumbbells, from top to bottom.
What Are The Benefits of Working My Chest With Dumbbells?
straitstimes.com “As soon as you try to hold two weights at the same time, it becomes twice as difficult to keep them balanced,” says Dr. John Rusin, a strength and conditioning coach and author of Functional Hypertrophy Training. He says it's a good thing that the smaller muscles in your shoulder joints learn to stabilize the joints while the bigger muscles work harder to control the weights. This prevents the weights from drifting in all directions. Dumbbell training offers the following benefits for chest gains.
#1 Dumbbells allow a greater range of motion. The barbell hits your chest before your pectoral muscles are fully stretched when you do bench presses. Pressing the biggest weight you can is not a bad goal. The benefits of using dumbbells over other types of weights are that they allow you to lower the weights past chest level, stretching the pecs and activating more muscle fibers. The study found that muscles grew more when they were worked through a larger range of motion as opposed to a smaller range.
#2 Dumbbells place less stress on your joints. There is something funny about the human body: it only appears to be symmetrical. The fact is that your shoulders, hips, wrists and other joints are all slightly different on each side of your body. If you force the body to move with perfect symmetry, one side will always take on more of the stress than the other. Do this often enough, and the joints will start to complain.
Due to the fact that dumbbells allow both sides of your body to find their optimal path, they are often used when performing an exercise. The exercise can be customized for your body by rotating your wrists, and travelling along the path that is most comfortable for your elbows and shoulders. The stress of the exercise should be in your muscles and not your joints.
#3 Dumbbells give you balanced development and strength. This builds on our last point. If you feel like you're pushing with equal force on the barbell bench press with your right and left arm, humans are very good at compensating by putting more stress on their stronger side while favoring their weaker one. If you were using dumbbells, it would not be possible to have your left and right side push with equal force. If one side were to lag behind, you would feel it immediately. This keeps you from pushing a set beyond what your weaker side can manage. Eventually, the strength on your two sides evens out. If you need to build up the strength in your weaker side, dumbbells make it easy to do a few extra reps.
#4 Dumbbells work the pecs harder. If you bench press with a pair of dumbbells, you will feel your chest muscles contracting at the top of the movement to keep the weights from moving outward. You will not need to stress about that when your hands are clasped together by a metal pole. A 2017 study found that dumbbell bench presses are more effective than both the barbell bench press and the Smith machine bench press at activating the pectoralis major—the impressive slab that makes up most of the chest musculature.
What Kind of Dumbbells Should I Buy?
Investing in a set of dumbbells to have at home will save you from having to go to the gym, and will allow you to build the weight room of your dreams. You basically have two choices in the dumbbell market:
1) Adjustable dumbbells. Plates can be added by attaching them with collars, or by turning a dial or lever.
2 )Fixed dumbbells. The weight is secured to the handle. This means you will need more than one pair of dumbbells to have a variety of weights to choose from.
Fixed weight dumbbells are not as practical as other options because they are not as adjustable. If you work out at home, you'll need at least three pairs of dumbbells (one that feels light, one that feels medium, and one that feels heavy) right away, as well as new pairs whenever you get too strong for the older ones. eventually, you will find yourself stumbling over dumbbells, and wondering why you didn't spend a little more money on the adjustable type in the beginning.
If you're looking for a traditional gym feel with your dumbbells and aren't worried about money or space, the CAP Barbell Rubber-Coated Hex Dumbbells are a great choice. They feel great in your hands and won't damage your flooring if dropped. A pair of 10-pound weights will cost approximately $25, a pair of 25-pound weights will cost $60, and a pair of 45-pound weights will cost $110.
Adjustable dumbbells are a more cost-effective and space-saving option in the long run. The PowerBlocks ($160 per bell for the Elite model) are industry standard bells that are easy to use after some practice shifting the weight around. These dumbbells, known as selectorized dumbbells, have handles that sit in the center of square-shaped plates. You can load and unload them quickly with the flip of a lever. Before purchasing a pair, test them out to see if you find the handgrips uncomfortable.
Bowflex Selectech Dumbbells are also an adjustable option, with weights ranging from 5 to 52 pounds, increasing by either 2.5 or 5 pounds at a time. The Weider Resistance Bands are a great alternative to PowerBlocks if you don't want to spend as much money. They are just as effective but feel more comfortable in your hands.
If you want to feel like a classic strongman and don't want to spend $300 on hand weights, York Fitness Cast Iron Dumbbells are a great option. You load and unload plates onto the barbells, spinning the collars into place around the ends of the threaded bars. Although they are not as convenient as the other adjustable options, they are much less expensive at around $120.00 for a 5 to 45-pound pair.
It can be beneficial to have both adjustable and fixed dumbbells. Most selectorized sets don't offer more than 50 pounds, and the ones that do are often long and bulky, making them difficult to use. A selectorized weightlifting set is a good way to save both space and money. You should get one that goes up to 50 pounds and then get fixed-weight dumbbells for every increment you need beyond that.
How to Do the Dumbbell Bench Press
Dumbbells allow for a different shoulder and elbow position, which increases the range of motion and makes the muscle-building stimulus of this exercise even greater.
Step 1 — Get into Pressing Position
Lie back on a flat bench with a pair of dumbbells outside of your chest and your hands facing each other. Pull your shoulder blades back into the bench. Place both feet flat on the ground with your feet directly under your knees.
Make sure that your glutes, head, and shoulders are all touching the bench before you start the exercise. Extend your arms out to the side so that your elbows are pointing at an angle away from your feet and your hands are pointing towards your knees.
To stay completely stable, look for six points of contact. These are two feet on the ground, your tailbone, two shoulders, and your head on the bench. You will be in a good position to start the exercise if you do this.
Step 2 — Drive the Weights Up
Grip the dumbbells so that your palms are facing your feet, and position them so that your wrists are directly above your elbows. Raise your elbows until your dumbbells are directly above your pecs, keeping your elbows in a straight line. Do not touch the dumbbells to each other at the top of the each rep.
Keep your elbows close to your body and stacked under your wrists as you move your arms up. If you let your wrists and the weights go past your elbows, it will put more stress on your joints and make it more likely that you'll get hurt.
Step 3 — Lower into a Stretch
Slowly lower the dumbbells while squeezing your shoulder blades into the bench. Bend your elbows at a ninety-degree angle. Keep your elbows pointed inwards so that they are at a ninety-degree angle between your feet and your shoulders. As you bring the dumbbells to your chest, focus on the stretch you feel in your pecs.
Try to imagine pulling the dumbbells towards you while also reaching your chest towards the ceiling. This will help you keep the proper form.
Dumbbell Bench Press Mistakes to Avoid
Dumbbells offer more freedom at the shoulder joint, which means the exercise requires more control and coordination. Some errors to avoid when performing the dumbbell bench press are not maintaining a firm grip, not placing the dumbbells evenly on either side of your body, and not using a full range of motion.
Having an Unstable Body
When you have fewer points of contact with the bench and the ground, it creates instability. This, in turn, hinders your ability to produce force.
You should avoid driving your legs into the ground if you want to maintain balance with the torso and create more force with the upper body. Your feet, calves, hamstrings, glutes, and quadriceps should all be strained and have complete involvement. To encourage tension in your upper back, keep your head in contact with the bench.
Ego Lifting
Lifters who can bench press heavy weights using a barbell may feel that they are supposed to be able to do the same thing using heavy dumbbells.
Failing to realize that dumbbells involve smaller stabilizer muscles of the shoulder more than a barbell can result in straining the shoulder joint and decreased chest muscle recruitment.
Use dumbbells without your ego. Every weight you barbell bench press, cut that in half and then take off another 5-10kg (10-20 pounds). Use this as a starting point for the total weight of the dumbbells when learning the exercise.
Benefits of the Dumbbell Bench Press
Although the bench press is a key movement for many weightlifters, relying too much on the barbell can mean missing out on the benefits of using dumbbells.
If you want to improve your workout routine, you should incorporate the dumbbell bench press. This will also help with muscle growth and strength development.
Greater Range of Motion
Dumbbells let you move the weights in a wide paths, relatively wider at the bottom and nearly touching at the top. The added range of motion from using a dumbbell rather than a barbell allows for a deeper stretch of the muscle, which in turn can lead to increased potential for muscle growth. (1)
Reduced Joint Strain
Dumbbells enable you to change the angle of your upper arm and elbow, as well as rotate your hands, which can enable you to find a pressing angle that is more comfortable for your joints.
You can protect your elbow and shoulder joints by adjusting your hand and elbow position while you work out, without worrying about losing muscle recruitment.
Unilateral Strength
Focusing too much on barbell training can lead to imbalances in muscle development, since most people favor one side of their body more than the other. A barbell prevents each side from working independently, so you might not realize any disparities in your unilateral strength.
Dumbbells are a great way to strengthen your pecs, triceps and shoulders while reducing the risk of muscular imbalances.
Muscles Worked by the Dumbbell Bench Press
The chest press is a weightlifting move that targets the chest muscles. Although the exercise is completed by several muscle groups working together,
This exercise is perfect for beginners The dumbbell bench press is a good exercise for people who are just starting to lift weights because it allows them to train their pressing muscles without using excessively heavy weights.
Pectoralis Major
The pec major is the big, basic chest muscle. It consists of two parts: the clavicular (upper chest) and the sternocostal (mid-chest). Both the heads of the pecs function to pull the upper arms towards the midline of the body.
Anterior Deltoid
The shoulder muscles is composed of three separate heads — the posterior (rear), the lateral (side), and the anterior (front). The anterior deltoid is the muscle in charge of moving the arm in the front plane, so it is recruited a lot during the dumbbell bench press where the arm is moving in front of the body.
Triceps
The triceps have three heads that work together to extend the elbows and raise the arms. The long head, medial head, and lateral head all play a role in these movements. The focus is on the medial and lateral heads during the dumbbell bench press to move the weight and extend the elbows.
Pectoralis Minor and Serratus Anterior
These muscles are both found near the pec major, and they are relatively small. The muscles that make up the rotator cuff work to control the movement of the shoulder blade and to stabilize it during pressing and chest flye movements.
