Exercise library / Chest
Flat dumbbell press
Chest · Dumbbells
The flat dumbbell press gives you two things a bar cannot: a longer range, and two arms that have to work separately. The strong side cannot cover for the weak one.
In return the ceiling is lower. You will never press as much with dumbbells as with a bar, and the setup is an exercise in itself.
Sets, reps and RIR
A heavy multi-joint lift with free weights. Keep a rep or two in reserve on most sets so technique holds.
RIR means reps in reserve: how many you could still have done when you racked it. RIR 2 is two short of failure.
How to do it
- Sit on the bench with the dumbbells on your thighs, one in each hand.
- Kick them up one at a time as you lie back. That is how you get into position without help.
- Pull the shoulder blades together and down, rib cage high.
- Lower the dumbbells to roughly chest level, elbows around 45 degrees out.
- Press up and let them come slightly towards each other without clanging.
- Set them down on your thighs and sit up with them rather than dropping them.
Common mistakes
- Going deeper just because you can
- More range is good up to a point. Go so low that the shoulder rolls forward and you have traded chest for joint capsule.
- Banging the dumbbells together at the top
- Tension leaves the chest at the moment it matters most. Stop a few centimetres apart.
- Elbows flared straight out
- Same fault as in the bench press, with the same result in the front of the shoulder.
- Losing the shoulder blade position
- Without a bar it is easier to let the shoulders roll forward as you tire. Check the rib cage between reps.
How it differs from the neighbouring variants
The barbell bench press lets you load heaviest and progress in small steps. Dumbbells give more movement per rep and expose side-to-side differences.
The incline dumbbell press moves work to the upper chest. Dumbbell flyes take the triceps almost out and isolate the chest, but handle far less weight. The chest press machine is where to put your last sets when you are tired and do not want to balance anything.
What it suits
The flat dumbbell press works as the main lift if you train alone without a spotter, or as the second press after benching. Six to twelve reps is the right range. If you need help getting heavy dumbbells into position, they are too heavy to train alone with.
Muscles worked
Primary: Chest.
Secondary: Front delts, Triceps, Rotator cuff.
Estimate your one-rep max
Epley's formula, from a set you have actually done. It is an estimate, and it drifts above eight reps, so keep the input between one and twelve.
Enter a set to see the estimate.
What it is called elsewhere
- Norsk Flat hantelpress
- Svenska Hantelpress på plan bänk
- Dansk Flad håndvægtpres
- Deutsch Bankdrücken (Kurzhanteln)
- Español Press plano con mancuernas
- Italiano Panca piana (manubri)
- Português Supino reto (halteres)
- Русский Жим гантелей лёжа
- Français Développé couché (haltères)
Related chest exercises
- Bench press (barbell)
- Incline bench press (barbell)
- Decline bench press (barbell)
- Close-grip bench press (barbell)
- Landmine press
- Cable crossover
athlate logs this exercise, keeps the numbers, and tells you what you lifted last time.