Dumbbell Bench Press: How to Do It, Muscles Worked and Mistakes

The dumbbell bench press is a flat bench press done with a dumbbell in each hand instead of a bar. It works the same chest, shoulder and triceps muscles, but each arm has to control its own weight, which lengthens the range of motion and stops your stronger side covering for the weaker one. For home gyms it's often the main chest exercise, since you only need a bench and a pair of dumbbells.

The press itself is simple. Getting heavy dumbbells into position and back down safely is the part most people get wrong, so we'll start there.

How to do a dumbbell bench press

You'll need a flat bench and a pair of dumbbells. Adjustable dumbbells work well because you can move up in small jumps.

1. Sit and set the weights. Sit on the end of the bench and stand the dumbbells on your thighs, just above the knee, holding them by the handles.
2. Lie back and kick up. Lie back in one controlled movement, and as you do, drive your knees up to push the dumbbells to your chest. With heavier weights, do it one knee at a time.
3. Set your position. Plant your feet flat, pull your shoulder blades back and down into the bench and keep a slight natural arch in your lower back. Hold the dumbbells over your chest, arms straight, palms facing your feet.
4. Lower. Bend your elbows and bring the dumbbells down and slightly out until they're level with your chest, elbows at roughly 45 to 60 degrees from your torso. Take about 2 seconds.
5. Press. Drive the dumbbells back up over your chest. They should travel in a gentle arc, finishing closer together than they started, without clanking at the top.
6. Finish safely. After the last rep, bring the dumbbells to your chest, tuck your chin and rock up to sitting, letting the weights come back onto your thighs. Don't drop them out to the sides from a lockout unless you're lifting alone with no one near, and even then it's hard on the dumbbells and the floor.

Muscles worked

• Chest (pectoralis major). The prime mover. An EMG study comparing dumbbell bench, incline and shoulder presses found the flat dumbbell bench gave the highest sternal (mid and lower) chest activation of the three, and more clavicular (upper) chest activity than the incline during the pressing phase (Journal of Sports Medicine, 2013).
• Front delts. They assist, but less than on an incline or overhead press. The same study found the flat press produced the lowest front delt and upper trapezius activity of the three.
• Triceps. They straighten the elbows at the top of the rep. A close-grip bench press loads them harder.
• Shoulder stabilisers. The rotator cuff and the muscles holding your shoulder blades steady work overtime, because nothing links the two dumbbells.

Benefits

The obvious one is balance. With a barbell, a stronger right arm quietly does more of the work; with dumbbells, a weaker side shows up straight away, because that dumbbell lags or tips.

Range of motion comes next. The dumbbells can travel lower than a bar, which stops on your chest, and your hands can rotate to whatever angle suits your shoulders. People with cranky shoulders often find dumbbells kinder for exactly that reason.

It's also easy to do safely on your own. Fail on a barbell bench without a spotter or safeties and you're pinned; fail with dumbbells and you bring them to your chest and sit up. For solo home training, that alone makes it the default. Chest work counts towards the NHS target of muscle-strengthening activity on at least two days a week.

Common mistakes

Elbows flared to 90 degrees. Pressing with your upper arms straight out to the sides puts a lot of strain on the front of the shoulder. Tuck them to about 45 to 60 degrees.

Shoulders rolling forward. If your shoulder blades come off the bench at the top, your chest stops doing the work. Keep them pinned back and down the whole set.

Bouncing at the bottom. Dropping fast and bouncing out of the stretch is how pec strains happen. Lower under control and pause for a beat if you tend to rush.

Clanking the dumbbells together. Banging them at the top takes tension off the chest and knocks you off balance. Stop them a few centimetres apart.

Sloppy setup and dismount. Most dumbbell bench injuries happen getting into position or getting out, not during the press. Use the knee kick and sit up with the weights; don't twist and drop them.

Variations

Incline dumbbell press. Set the bench to 30 degrees to shift more work to the upper chest and front delts. We cover it in our incline dumbbell press guide.

Neutral-grip dumbbell press. Palms face each other throughout. It's easier on the shoulders and brings in more triceps; a good choice if the standard grip bothers you.

Single-arm dumbbell press. Press one dumbbell while the other hand rests on your stomach. Your core has to fight to stop you rolling off the bench. A study of single versus double dumbbell presses found people moved through a greater shoulder range of motion when pressing one dumbbell at a time (PeerJ, 2015).

Floor press. No bench? Lie on the floor and press. Your elbows stop at the floor, so it's a shorter range, but it's a handy option at home and protects the shoulders.

Dumbbell fly. Not a press, but a natural follow-up for the chest. See our dumbbell fly guide.

Sets and reps

• Muscle and strength: 3 to 4 sets of 6 to 12 reps, twice a week, resting 90 seconds to 2 minutes.
• Beginners: 3 sets of 10 with a weight that leaves two or three reps in the tank, focusing on the setup and dismount.
• Endurance or circuits: 2 to 3 sets of 15 to 20 with light dumbbells.

Move up when you can hit the top of your rep range on every set with clean form. Pair it with a pull, such as a dumbbell row, to keep your shoulders balanced. A decent weight bench with an incline setting gets you both the flat and incline versions.

Recommended reads

1. The best adjustable dumbbells in the UK
2. The best weight benches in the UK
3. Dumbbell chest workout
4. Barbell bench press guide
5. BRAINGAIN adjustable dumbbells review