Bench Press

Originally Posted by drizzt3117

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I'd agree with this to some extent regarding the safety of BB bench press. I think it's a lot easier to hurt yourself with high weight with it, especially because of the fact that you are locked into an arc, and it's also easier to use your back. Generally this doesn't happen so much with dumbbells, I think they are safer in that regard. Regarding the spot/no spot argument, yes, it's certainly safer in some ways to use dumbbells because you can drop them to the sides, but if you go too heavy with dumbbells I can see how you could drop one catastrophically.
I've dropped one catastrophically. And now I have a lovely rotator cuff that I still have to worry about to this day. Your arm goes up, you hear it collapse, and plop the dumbbell falls onto the floor. It really blows. I combine both dumbbells and barbells and usually do dumbbells on inclines and also on exercise balls for the whole stability thing but it's the barbell that doesnt leave me worrying about my arm collapsing so i can do more weight on.

Originally Posted by haganah

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I've dropped one catastrophically. And now I have a lovely rotator cuff that I still have to worry about to this day. Your arm goes up, you hear it collapse, and plop the dumbbell falls onto the floor. It really blows.

It would blow worse if a 85-100 lb dumbbell fell on your chest or face after your arm gives way. Moral of the story, use a spotter when you lift heavy, but the thing is, since spotters are usually supporting your elbows from underneath and pushing upwards and inwards, it's still possible to drop the dumbbell on top of yourself if your arm gives out higher up on the arc (if unlikely)

I combine both dumbbells and barbells and usually do dumbbells on inclines and also on exercise balls for the whole stability thing but it's the barbell that doesnt leave me worrying about my arm collapsing so i can do more weight on.

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Barbell also gives you the ability to some degree to compensate for some weakness in one arm with the other although this has it's own problems like the bar not going up straight. It's also easier to spot. The downside, of course, is that it's easier to have poor form on flat barbell bench IMO.

Originally Posted by smw356

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I think I've seen more bystanders hurt by dropped dumbells than I've seen dumbasses pin themselves with a barbell, and I lift in a college gym so the dumbass ratio is pretty significant.

the lesson is, no matter dumbbell/straight bar if you're going heavy PLEASE USE A SPOTTER!

you won't look like a jackass asking a stranger to spot!

Originally Posted by Bring The Noise

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the lesson is, no matter dumbbell/straight bar if you're going heavy PLEASE USE A SPOTTER!

you won't look like a jackass asking a stranger to spot!

Honestly, not to promote lifting recklessly, but I'd almost rather bench w/o a spotter than having some random person I don't really trust to catch the weight if needed spotting me. Its completely different lifting w/o a spotter and lifting with a spotter you trust. With a spotter there's a good chance I'll push myself to where I might need the spotter. Where as w/o I'll be more conservative and more motivated to push that last rep up. That said I would never lift w/o a spotter above my 3rm.

Originally Posted by smw356

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Weird I have the opposite problem, BB benching tends to turn into being a primarily tricep lift for me, where as with dumbells I can use a wider arc and hit my chest better.

That's because you're doing flyes. A DB press works the triceps more because the 'grip' ends up being narrower. Also, that 'wide arc' is barely doing anything for your chest because most of the work is insufficient for your muscles to be stressed by due to the labor forced onto the joints.

The triceps also are the bottleneck of DB presses much moreso than barbell presses. That's a primary reason why people can bench press more with a barbell than with dumbbells.

Do I do both? Yep.

Does the bench press work the chest more intensely? You betcha. Even if it doesn't utilize the chest as much during the lift, the extra strain created by the heavier weight more than makes up for it.

I like to do bench and dumbell presses with various grips; keeps my body guessing (?).

Originally Posted by drizzt3117

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It would blow worse if a 85-100 lb dumbbell fell on your chest or face after your arm gives way. Moral of the story, use a spotter when you lift heavy, but the thing is, since spotters are usually supporting your elbows from underneath and pushing upwards and inwards, it's still possible to drop the dumbbell on top of yourself if your arm gives out higher up on the arc (if unlikely)



Barbell also gives you the ability to some degree to compensate for some weakness in one arm with the other although this has it's own problems like the bar not going up straight. It's also easier to spot. The downside, of course, is that it's easier to have poor form on flat barbell bench IMO.

Tell them to correctly spot a DB press by tracking their hands around your wrists, that's exactly why you don't spot at the elbows.

Originally Posted by Eason

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Tell them to correctly spot a DB press by tracking their hands around your wrists, that's exactly why you don't spot at the elbows.

If anybody tried to grab my wrists while I was doing a press I'd grab them by the balls. First off, my wrists are way too deep into the dumbbells for that to work, and secondly the spotter would have too much control over the endpoint of my appendage to do much more than shake the weights around.

Pressure should be applied to a stabilized joint (e.g. the elbow or lower arm), not to an extremity.

You don't actually grab the wrist, but you need to be ready to. Maybe you use different dumbells, but ours leave the wrists plenty out there. The problem with spotting the elbows is that the weights can then just cave inward and the person will drop them on their chest, and it's safest to control the point closest to the actual weight as possible. This spotting applies to less experienced people doing lower weights, and not people like us DB pressing 80-150 lbs, who are going to just drop them.

Originally Posted by Eason

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You don't actually grab the wrist, but you need to be ready to. Maybe you use different dumbells, but ours leave the wrists plenty out there. The problem with spotting the elbows is that the weights can then just cave inward and the person will drop them on their chest, and it's safest to control the point closest to the actual weight as possible. This spotting applies to less experienced people doing lower weights, and not people like us DB pressing 80-150 lbs, who are going to just drop them.

Ah, I see. That method does make it difficult to provide assistance, however.

I actually saw this wrist-spotting method being used the other day. Some kid was doing incline DB presses with 30s or something, and his buddy had a death grip on his wrists helping him out. It looked pretty dangerous to me - it seemed llike the force on his wrists would be more likely to unbalance him than the DB.

But if it's done like Eason described, I guess it could be useful for newbies who don't have a strong base yet. Though I still wonder if it's necessary at all.

I've usually seen/had people spot me by just tapping right under the elbows when using DBs. If your wrists need "spotting" you should not be handling that weight.

That's part of the problem I used to have so I had to work on my wrist/forearm strength. In theory, for instance, 100lb DBs were no big deal, but my wrists could not handle that weight so I had to use lower weight w/ DBs to work my way up there.

Originally Posted by Soph

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I'm not a fan of the traditional bench press. I believe dumbbells provide a more natural range of motion and reduce your chance of injury.

Correct - a flat bench press with a bar bell (or one of those Smith Machines) is as much of a deltoid exercise as it is a chest exercise. Problems arise though because both muscle groups are involved, so any weight that stretches the chest is almost certainly overloading (and, potentially, injuring) the delts. Injuring the delts means pretty much bye-bye to any decent upper body workout for several weeks, so it's worth avoiding doing so.

Personally I perform incline benches with the Smith Machine (which is less of a deltoid exercise and more upper chest) and flat benches with dumbells. Though you won't beat any bench press records with dumbells (you'll run out of weight eventually ) you will a) target the lower chest more effectively b) reduce chance of injuring your delts c) build up far more in the way of support muscles, particularly in your forearms.

Ps- apols if these points have been made above, didn't get through the whole thread...

Originally Posted by Soph

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Data please? Safer? Dumbbells use stabilizer muscles versus a set motion bench press, so dumbells may actually be a better workout in some ways. Dumbbells are safer to use usually because you can drop them to the side. I'll consult with a certified personal trainer on this tonight to get a more definitive answer. Also, bad form on the standard bench press or any type of exercise can hurt you so I don't think that's a solid argument over dumbbells persay.

And we can all agree on seeing bad form on standard bench presses everytime we enter the gym?
I mean guys still arch there back like some type of wierd looking insect on National Geographic. Will this never end?

The bench uses the same stabilizers - unless you do bench on a Smith machine? Both the bench and dbell presses use the stabilizer muscles.

Dumbell presses have a higher risk of hurting the shoulders as you don't move the dumbells up in a straight line as you would in a bench. I'm speaking from personal expeirence here as I had to have surgery on my cuff due to dumbell presses. I can now bench comfortably while have trouble with the dbell press given the ROM.

Agree on the horrid bench form out there .

Which Chicago gym do you work out at Soph?