please stop staying LIFT HEAVY. everyone on this fucken site knows that. every muscle grows if you lift heavy. there are certain that stimulate the chest more so than others and thus, elicits more growth.
standard benching is really a shoulders and tricep dominant exercise; I saw it on my body, CT believes it. However, my primary question is: if one flares the elbows in chest workout, isn’t that bad for the shoulders? Is there any other way to stimulate the pecs without doing so?
so far i have:
bench press to neck
1 1/2 bench
dumbbell bench press (neutral grip or elbows flared?)
Weighted suspended chain push-ups with your back feet elevated on something so that you can go down as far as your shoulders allow, with a pause at the bottom.
Sorry but I gotta hijack this thread slightly. While on the topic of heavy dumbbell presses, is there a good way to go from the seated, DB’s on knees position down to the bench and prepared to press position?
It seems like just flopping down onto your back puts the spine in a compromised position, and I commonly feel my vertebrae crackle and pop when I do this. Anyone have any magical methods to avoid killing your spine?
There are a lot of products like this. They are called power hooks, removes the flopping and cracking aspect mentioned earlier. Not really worth the money unless you roll with big ass DB’s
I have been trying them flared like the barbell flared method, which incidentally is the "Gironda Method" no?
I know that once I started doing the Gironda benching I really felt a lot more chest participation, and ironically my shoulders,(which are infrequently injured from time to time), felt better doing them to, as if they weren't involved as much.
Now having said that, I've been doing that for a couple months now and had to start doing 1 and a half rep sets to start "feeling it" like I did when I first started.
It was definitely harder than standard bench although now I'm doing the same weight as per the usual style.
I think though I definitely get better overall development with dumbbells when it comes to chest.
You can go farther during the eccentric portion of the movement and for me that equates to more stimulation of said muscle.
I must admit though, sometimes I don't feel good trying to hump the heavy dumbbells getting up off the bench, due to an injury prone delt that I like to keep from getting jacked.
Now that’s probably not most guys problem, but it is for me. I need stronger delts obviously. I used to paint cars for a long long time, and had a rotator cuff deal that is better but I have to watch out…
One question of interest to those posting are the dumbbell hooks that you see on various sites, thus eliminating the problem for us "sissy boys" who have difft. reasons for having trouble with this. I haven't used em yet, but they look like they might just be the ticket for enabling people having trouble to get a decent pre-load for the movement without having to have a partner there.
Just my 2 cents guys,
enjoying the thread..TBone
[quote]cueball wrote:
T234 wrote:
Heavy DB bench for sure. It’s way easier on the shoulders too. Just make sure no one is going to get pissed if you curl/drop them down when you are done. Getting them back on your knees and sitting up is harder than the set!
Why does everybody have a problem getting DBs back on their knees? This should be the first technique you learn when using DBs. As you progress in weight, your technique will automatically progress to handle the extra weight.
edit- I obviously don’t think EVERYBODY has this problem.[/quote]
Some of us go full rom until we can’t support the weight anymore. Which case when the dumbells are on the side of your chest and you can’t push up anymore how do you move them to your knees?
[quote]Andrew Dixon wrote:
<<< There is no max weight to be spotted. There is a point where they cant grab them both off you at the same time when your done. Thats about 80lbs probably(for me anyway), depending on the plates.
But you’d want a chest before you got to lifing that weight.
[/quote]
It’s official. You are suffering from a very rare disorder seen in roughly 1 in every 10,000 people. Except in the functional community where it inexplicably jumps to about 1 in 2. It’s called “incessantis missed pointamus”. It’s a heartbreaker man, seek help.
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
cueball wrote:
Why does everybody have a problem getting DBs back on their knees? This should be the first technique you learn when using DBs. As you progress in weight, your technique will automatically progress to handle the extra weight.
edit- I obviously don’t think EVERYBODY has this problem.
Some of us go full rom until we can’t support the weight anymore. Which case when the dumbells are on the side of your chest and you can’t push up anymore how do you move them to your knees?[/quote]
First of all, full rom has nothing to do with it. Are you implying that those of us who can do this don’t use full rom? Not true.
To answer your question- Even when you reach failure (can’t press the wight up anymore) you should still be able to support the weight. It’s not like once you can’t press it anymore they fall out of your hands.
Rotate your elbows to your side, assume a neutral grip, and let the far end of the dumbell rest on or near your hips. Obviously you need to tighten your abs. Pull your knees up some then push only the half of the dumbell nearest your head up and away from your head so the dumbells will sit upright.
This will shift the weight towards your hips and away from your shoulders. As the weight shifts, throw your legs down a bit and fallow the weight up with your torso.
[quote]vtkess02 wrote:
Sorry but I gotta hijack this thread slightly. While on the topic of heavy dumbbell presses, is there a good way to go from the seated, DB’s on knees position down to the bench and prepared to press position?
It seems like just flopping down onto your back puts the spine in a compromised position, and I commonly feel my vertebrae crackle and pop when I do this. Anyone have any magical methods to avoid killing your spine?[/quote]
Put the db’s together, up against your abdomen, knuckles facing each other. Roll yourself down the bench, so that when you’re laying down, the db’s are laying on you. It’ll take some practice, but the more you do it, the better at controlling the weight you’ll get.
Press up from this position and then rotate your arms/wrists to the natural pressing position. By doing it this way, you’ll prevent your wrists from injury. Believe me on this one.
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
Why does everybody have a problem getting DBs back on their knees? This should be the first technique you learn when using DBs. As you progress in weight, your technique will automatically progress to handle the extra weight.
edit- I obviously don’t think EVERYBODY has this problem.
Some of us go full rom until we can’t support the weight anymore. Which case when the dumbells are on the side of your chest and you can’t push up anymore how do you move them to your knees?[/quote]
Why the fuck would you bring them back to your knees? Drop the damn things on the floor to your side(s).
[quote]kroby wrote:
Airtruth wrote:
Why does everybody have a problem getting DBs back on their knees? This should be the first technique you learn when using DBs. As you progress in weight, your technique will automatically progress to handle the extra weight.
edit- I obviously don’t think EVERYBODY has this problem.
Some of us go full rom until we can’t support the weight anymore. Which case when the dumbells are on the side of your chest and you can’t push up anymore how do you move them to your knees?
Why the fuck would you bring them back to your knees? Drop the damn things on the floor to your side(s).[/quote]
I think the issue is that most commercial gyms really frown on dropping the DBs, besides the fact that it could break them. Not so much with the plate type, but the die-cast hex DBs will break if they land just right or enough times.
or you could just put them on ur knees and sit down and push the knee up one at a time at the same time u sit down. thisll create lots of momentum and thus easier to bring it to ur chest.
now after ure done, u can try this method instead of throwing it down:
when finished bring ur knees towards ur chest like in the starting position of a reverse crunch, then put the dumbbells end on ur knees then slimply rock back to a standing position. kinda hard to explain in words, but ya u dont have to drop the weights if u do that.
My brother hit me in the neck with a golf iron a few years ago, which (I found out after many visits to doctors, chiros etc.) has left me unable to bench over 275ish without brain pain, so I just do dips instead and I’ve found them to be a great mass builder.
A 25kg increase usually translates to a 1" chest gain for me - as long as I avoid very low reps and long pauses between reps. I just make sure I work extra hard on my shoulder pressing to compensate for not benching.
[quote]B.b. in stress! wrote:
or you could just put them on ur knees and sit down and push the knee up one at a time at the same time u sit down. thisll create lots of momentum and thus easier to bring it to ur chest.
now after ure done, u can try this method instead of throwing it down:
when finished bring ur knees towards ur chest like in the starting position of a reverse crunch, then put the dumbbells end on ur knees then slimply rock back to a standing position. kinda hard to explain in words, but ya u dont have to drop the weights if u do that.[/quote]
That’s what I was trying to describe, you did a better job.