Dumbbell Bench Press
The dumbbell bench press is a lying chest press with a dumbbell in each hand: you lower them beside your chest and press them back up over your shoulders. It trains the chest first, with the front delts and triceps helping, and it is the standard chest press in Muscla when you train at home with dumbbells or start out in the gym.
How to do the dumbbell bench press
Sit on the end of a flat bench with the dumbbells standing on your thighs.
Lie back and use your knees to help bring the dumbbells up to your chest, then press them over your shoulders.
Plant your feet, pull your shoulder blades back and down and turn your palms toward your feet.
Breathe in and lower the dumbbells beside your chest, elbows angled in from your sides, forearms vertical.
Stop when the dumbbells are about level with your chest and you feel a stretch, without letting the shoulders roll forward.
Press the dumbbells up and slightly together until your elbows are straight over your shoulders, then breathe out.
Getting into position
Sit on the end of the bench with the dumbbells standing upright on your thighs. Lie back in one motion and let your knees push the dumbbells up toward your chest as you go down. Press them up over your shoulders before you set your back. Plant your feet flat on the floor, a little wider than your hips.
Shoulder blades and grip
With the dumbbells over your shoulders, pull your shoulder blades back and down so your upper back presses into the bench. Grip the handles in the middle and squeeze them. Turn your palms toward your feet; many lifters prefer to angle the dumbbells slightly, with the thumbs a little closer together than the little fingers, which keeps the elbows from flaring.
Bracing and breathing
Breathe in before you lower the dumbbells and hold the breath through the bottom. The air and the tension in your trunk keep your rib cage high and your position the same from rep to rep. Breathe out as you finish the press at the top.
Elbow path and range
Lower the dumbbells beside your chest with your forearms vertical and your elbows tucked in a little from your sides. Stop when the dumbbells are about level with your chest and you feel a stretch across it. Press up and slightly together, so the dumbbells finish over your shoulders, close but not touching.
Tempo and finishing the set
Lower under control and press with intent. Use the same depth on every rep, because only comparable reps tell you when to add weight. After the last rep, bring the dumbbells down to your chest, tuck your knees and roll up to sitting with the dumbbells back on your thighs.
Muscles worked by the dumbbell bench press
- Primary
- Chest
- Secondary
- Front delts
- Triceps
The chest is the prime mover: it pulls your upper arms across your body as you press. The front delts help lift the upper arms, and the triceps straighten your elbows at the top. In a study with trained men, the dumbbell press activated the chest and front delts as much as the barbell and Smith machine presses. The biceps worked harder with dumbbells to steady them, and the triceps less than with the barbell.
Common dumbbell bench press mistakes
Flaring the elbows straight out
With the elbows out to the sides at the bottom, the shoulders lose their stable base. Tuck them in a little so they point partly toward your feet.
Cutting the range short
Stopping high skips the stretched part of the rep and makes your sets hard to compare. Lower until the dumbbells are about level with your chest.
Letting the dumbbells drift apart
When your forearms tilt outward, the weights pull your arms open and the press gets wobbly. Keep the dumbbells over your elbows from bottom to top.
Shoulders rolling forward
If the shoulder blades drift apart as you press, your shoulders take over. Set them back and down before the first rep and keep them there.
Dropping the dumbbells after the set
Letting go at the top yanks your arms open with a heavy weight in each hand. Bring the dumbbells to your chest, then sit up with them resting on your thighs.
How Muscla coaches the dumbbell bench press
- When it is the first compound lift of your day, Muscla adds two ramp sets: about 50% of your working weight for 8 reps, then about 75% for 3.
- End working sets with about two reps in the tank, three if you are new to training. Going to failure adds little or no extra muscle, but more fatigue.
- Rest 2 minutes between sets for strength and 90 seconds for every other goal.
- When every set reaches the top of your rep range, add about 2.5%, at least one dumbbell step (usually 2 kg or 5 lb): 12 kg dumbbells become 14 kg. Otherwise add one rep.
- After the last set, Muscla asks “How heavy was that?” Light adds weight, Good keeps the normal progression, Heavy holds it, At the limit holds it or takes off one step.
Dumbbell bench press sets, reps and rest
| Goal | Reps | Rest |
|---|---|---|
| Strength | 8–12 | 2 min |
| Muscle | 6–10 → 8–12 | 90 s |
| Lose fat | 6–12 | 90 s |
| Fit | 8–12 | 90 s |
| Comeback | 8–12 | 90 s |
An arrow marks the range for the next 4-week block.
The dumbbell bench press counts as a compound lift in Muscla: moderate rep ranges for every goal and up to 2 minutes of rest. Muscla varies your chest press through the week, so your next press day uses a different variant, such as an incline press or a machine press. Every 4 weeks a new block moves you to the next range; after every third block comes a deload week with 90% of the weight and one set fewer.
Estimate your dumbbell bench press one-rep max
Filled in with example values. Replace them with yours.
Estimated 1RM
Brzycki 29.8 · Lombardi 29.5
Epley: 24 × (1 + 8 ÷ 30) = 30.4 kg
| Reps | Weight | % of 1RM |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 30 kg | 100 % |
| 2 | 27.5 kg | 94 % |
| 3 | 27.5 kg | 91 % |
| 4 | 27.5 kg | 88 % |
| 5 | 25 kg | 86 % |
| 6 | 25 kg | 83 % |
| 7 | 25 kg | 81 % |
| 8 | 25 kg | 79 % |
| 9 | 22.5 kg | 77 % |
| 10 | 22.5 kg | 75 % |
| 11 | 22.5 kg | 73 % |
| 12 | 22.5 kg | 71 % |
Dumbbell bench press alternatives
- Barbell Bench Press
- Barbell Incline Bench Press
- Machine Chest Press
- Dumbbell incline bench press
- Cable seated chest press
- Smith bench press
- Dumbbell neutral grip bench press
- Kettlebell one arm floor press
- Push-Up
- Chest dip
Dumbbell bench press questions
Dumbbell or barbell bench press: which is better?
Both are good chest presses: chest and front delt activity did not differ between them in two EMG studies. The barbell lets you lift more; dumbbells give each arm its own path and suit training at home.
Why can I lift less with dumbbells than with a barbell?
Each arm has to balance its own weight. In one study, trained men pressed 17% less with dumbbells than with a barbell, with more work for the biceps to steady the weights and less for the triceps.
How heavy should my dumbbells be for the bench press?
Muscla's first suggestion for a man new to training at 80 kg is 12 kg per hand, rounded down to your dumbbells. Your first working set then corrects it: if you get clearly more reps than planned, the next sets get heavier.
How low should I go on the dumbbell bench press?
Until the dumbbells are about level with your chest, or slightly lower if your shoulders feel fine and stay pulled back. Going much deeper often lets the shoulders roll forward.
How often should I do the dumbbell bench press?
Training a muscle twice a week builds more muscle than once a week at the same total volume. Muscla trains each muscle at least twice a week and switches the press variant from one day to the next.
Train it with Muscla
Muscla plans your sets, reps and rest, and sets the next weight after every session.
Coming to the App Store. Free to start.
Sources
- Saeterbakken AH, van den Tillaar R, Fimland MS. A comparison of muscle activity and 1-RM strength of three chest-press exercises with different stability requirements. J Sports Sci. 2011;29(5):533-538. PubMed
- Welsch EA, Bird M, Mayhew JL. Electromyographic activity of the pectoralis major and anterior deltoid muscles during three upper-body lifts. J Strength Cond Res. 2005;19(2):449-452. PubMed
- Schoenfeld BJ, Ogborn D, Krieger JW. Effects of resistance training frequency on measures of muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Sports Med. 2016;46(11):1689-1697. PubMed
- Refalo MC, Helms ER, Trexler ET, et al. Influence of resistance training proximity-to-failure on skeletal muscle hypertrophy: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Sports Med. 2023;53(3):649-665. PubMed