Dumbbell press, can't get the weight up

N

Nicolasd

0
I've hit a problem.

I'd like to do dumbbell presses in the 5-6 rep range, but I can't get dumbbells of sufficient weight up on my own. No matter how I try to swing them up, I just end up with them at shoulder height and can't get them up. If I get someone to assist me, I can easily do the presses.

The weight I can get up on my own, I can do 9 reps with.

Does anyone have any suggestions of how to break this plateau? Alternate exercises, lifting techniques, exercises that would help me get the weights up?

Thanks in advance :)
 
I take it your sitting down. If you did standing dumbbell presses, you could use your legs to create a little momentum to help you bring the dumbbell to the starting point. However, with standing presses, you're not going to have the strict movement you'd have with seated presses.
 
I used to put them on my thighs and use my legs to help get them into position. Works great, but you end up with the occasional bruise on your thigh
 
Evan, although a Game^^^^... haha... I went to Clemson... brings up a great point. Standing is better anyway. It uses more muscles across your whole body. Also another thing you can try is use the weight that you can do 9 reps with and on the eccentric movement... bringing the weights down, use a slow tempo... like 4 seconds down or maybe even 6 seconds down.

That will shoot the intensity way up and help increase your strength and muscle. After you can do a lot of those, you will be ready to up the weight at a faster tempo.
 
Well, when someone says "dumbbell press" they are usually referring to a bench press with dumbbells. Military presses are great too.
 
Have you tried 1 arm db pressing? That way you can use the other arm as an assistant. Plus, stabilizing is always cool. Other than that, just ask someone to spot you.
 
Whats people's views on DB pressing compared to BB pressing?

Im thinking of doing all my flat pressing with DB's. I will probably use the BB for my incline. I dont know what to do...
 
I think mixing it up is a good thing. The dumbbells with give you better stability. The barbell will allow you to press more weight and put more stress on the target muscle group.
 
BigTomW said:
Whats people's views on DB pressing compared to BB pressing?

Im thinking of doing all my flat pressing with DB's. I will probably use the BB for my incline. I dont know what to do...
Click to expand...
In my opinion, inter-changeability as well as incline/decline/flat is "best".
 
DB bench with alternating arms is awesome. Good balance. Another really good thing to do to change up the DB bench would be twist your arms on the concentric motion. Very much like the perfect pushup... how you twist like a punch... do that when you bench and see how much harder it gets.
 
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