I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me about the difference between normal dumbell bench press(palms away from your face) and hammer grip dumbell press(palms facing each other).
What is the difference(if any) in the muscles they target? Is their any pros/cons for either variation? Do you have a preferance?
Thanks
[quote]Helix wrote:
I was wondering if anyone could enlighten me about the difference between normal dumbell bench press(palms away from your face) and hammer grip dumbell press(palms facing each other).
What is the difference(if any) in the muscles they target? Is their any pros/cons for either variation? Do you have a preferance?
Thanks[/quote]
I always start with my palms facing my feet and rotate in mid press–I don’t know why, I’ve just always done it. I think I can get a bit of an extra squeeze at the top.
Be interesting to see what kind of answers you get.
a 45 degree angle has always felt the most ‘natural’ for me, though I dont know why. Maybe it is because that grip plays to some strength imbalance I dont know I have.
On elitefts they say this under exersise descriptions:
Most of the time, a neutral or palms facing each other grip is recommended. This will take some of the stress off of the shoulders. Vary the hand positioning based on your goals.
Definitly curious to see what others think.
I think the down position of the palms has more to do with how you position your elbows and squeeze your back muscles than with the position of the hands themselves. I usually end up with the DBs at about a 45deg angle between in (towards body center) and down (towards feet). When I press up, I rotate so the hands are facing feet and the DBs are end-to-end (not touching).
I’ll let others answer how the different in palm facing at the top will affect the different muscles being worked, as my assumptions are going to be just that.
Since I bench with an arched back and tucked elbows, I feel a neutral grip dumbell presse gives me more carryover to my barbell bench. They do take a lot of stress off the shoulder when compared to a traditional palms facing feet with hands position with the elbows at 45 degrees. Both ways are neither wrong or right, and I do mix it up with my training. They both serve there purpose and can lead to strength and mass gains.
“to never adapt to training is to adapt to training”