Have a dumbbell in each hand with a reverse grip and position your arms at 45-degrees from your body. It eliminates arm elevation but retains arm adduction, leaving all the work to be done exclusively by your pecs. Without a bench, one of the best options for your pecs is the svend floor press. Don’t drop the weight during the negative phase. Make sure you pay attention to the technique required as to prevent injury! The external rotation of the shoulders is what stretches your pecs minor. Step 1: Elevate one end of a flat exercise bench on two or three heavy barbell plates, or a small box or step.The angle should ideally be 30 degrees or less. Of course, your lats are strong and you will handle it, but the key is to activate your chest and not your back. Lock your arms nearly straight and squeeze your chest throughout the entire set. But, believe me, you can! The dumbbell exercises reduce the risk of over use injuries. They will show you the right technique, so you can maximize the effect of this workout! No bench? Another important thing to note is that you ensure you keep your core engaged to avoid lower back stress as you push the weight away from you. Second, what matters is how you initiate the contraction back to the top. It also provides the opportunity to work on your core strength and stability as you add weight to one side of your body at a time. Named after Jeff Cavaliere, a famous physical therapist and fitness guru, Cavaliere crossover removes tension from your deltoids, allowing you to go really heavy. The dumbbell pull-over is often done with a bench. Some items that you can use are a sofa, chair, foot stool, or small table. Your main focus should be to always remember these two things: to hold the weight in the upper point for at least a split second, and then to move it, Don’t focus on achieving muscle failure because this exercise is not about getting huge gains. Start in a neutral, grounded standing position with your dumbbells by your sides, palms facing forward. Stand with feet shoulder width apart holding a dumbbell between your palms on bent arms in front of your chest. The round shape and air cushion is comfy and also helps engage your core as you use your hips & legs to stabilize yourself during the exercises. By limiting the bottom range of the bench press, there's less of a stretched extension and internal rotation placed on the gleno-humeral joint. 26 Weight Bench Exercises with Dumbbells & Without Equipment This article may contain affiliate links. In this article, I’m going to tell you about 7 awesome dumbbell chest exercises that don’t require a bench! As in regular floor flys, the floor acts as your safety net and you can drop the weights freely. Dumbbell Chest Exercises With No Bench | Livestrong.com If you want to go harder, increase the height of your dumbbells instead of increasing the rep count. How to get heavy dumbbells into position: Sit down and place the dumbbells by your quads. Except that there’s no bench, and the ball starts rocking as you try to put the dumbbells up. Stability ball exercises are a whole different world, often underutilized yet effective. Press the weight up and down in a straight line. The fitness industry has seen a lot of new technologies arise and has had an influx of state-of-the-art training facilities pop up. To make this exercise effective, concentrate on squeezing your hands, rotating your arms inwards, and feeling the contraction of your pecs. This exercise is a well-known exercise for muscle training. If you care about your longevity in the gym in addition to all those gains, learn what you. And leave out all those massive dumbbells—you don’t go heavy on flys, especially on a ball. When working on building massive pecs major, many forget about their pecs minor. (Simple & Effective Guide To Get There), Healthy Body, Healthy Mind: A Guide To Keeping Healthy in 2021, Top 8 Highly Effective Pull Exercises for Full Body Strength. Grab one and set it up on your hip, repeat this with the other one. You will need a stability ball and two dumbbells. This way you are actually engaging your chest. Although the bench provides you with the opportunity to fight against gravity directly, the upright chest press offers a similar workout of the same muscle groups. Forget about lifting heavy—UCV raise is about lifting smart. . Getting in position on a stability ball while holding heavy dumbbells alone is its own exercise. Core on, always. The best place to perform dumbbell chest exercises without a bench is the floor! Don’t let your butt sit down, keep it up and tight. Any and all words on TheWorkoutDigest.com are not represented by CrossFit, Inc. Sitemap | Earnings Disclaimer | Terms & Privacy Policy, Exercise Ball Flat Dumbbell Fly | Chest Workout. I’ve put together a workout that contains a few of the exercises I have covered in this article for you to try out. Then activating through the pectoral muscles, pull the dumbbells back together and give your muscles a good squeeze at the top of the movement. Focus on lowering as slowly as possible to get the maximum from the overloaded eccentric phase. Top Mistake: Adduction is important, but so is abduction, or moving your arm away from the midline of your body. The closer your elbows are to your torso, the more you work your triceps. You need to watch out that as you fatigue, you don’t drop your arms. So if you’re looking to grow your chest muscles without the excess strain on your shoulders, or if you’re just sick of waiting for the bench station to clear up on a busy day at the gym, there are several exercises that can be done without a bench. Bend … Make sure you check out the videos provided in the exercise list. ... After each set, without resting, do exercise 3b. Then keeping your arms straight, lower the dumbbell behind your head until you feel a stretch in your latissimus dorsi. Dumbbell Chest Exercises Without a Bench Neutral Grip Floor Press. Dumbbell Bench Press. As you press the weight up, you will feel your core kick in to stop you from rolling over to the side of your body that is weighted. Dumbbell Reverse Floor Press. However, doing it with a stability ball adds an element of balance and stability work, making it extra challenging. The external rotation of the shoulders is what stretches your pecs minor. Here are five dumbbell chest workouts for you to try out next time you head to the Box. Hold a dumbbell between your hands and start in a bridge position with your upper back supported by the stability ball. Grab one and set it up on your hip, repeat this with the other one. Arch your lower back for more shoulder safety. This exercise is best performed in alternating reps from left to right. Let us know in the comment section below. The floor still acts as your spotter and doesn’t allow you to go too low. Position yourself on a foam roller, lift your arms out to the side, allow the dumbbells to sink lower than your elbows, and try to stay there for 30–45 seconds. Keep your elbows bent, don’t allow them to straighten out too much. Getting in position: Never pick the dumbbells up off of the floor while you’re lying on the ball. Then push the dumbbell away from you until your arms are fully extended before returning to starting position. You don’t even need a gym membership as long as you have a bench and a parking spot’s worth of space. In Standing Chest... #2. 2. 7) Dumbbell chest fly exercise using a stability ball The best news about this specific exercise is how versatile it is – you can actually do plenty of variations without necessarily using a bench to help you out. Do dumbbell workouts without a bench, right at home. Common Mistakes: Spreading your elbows wide puts your AC joint in danger if you fail to handle the weight (a hint: if your knuckles face towards your head, your elbows are not tucked). Chest exercises using dumbbells are great for both men and women. Dumbbell floor flys eliminate the biggest danger of dumbbell bench flys—if you are to fail on the way up, you can just dump the weight without jeopardizing your anterior shoulder capsules and AC joints. Push your hips upwards to get your body in as much of a flat position as possible. The dynamic part is pressing the dumbbells. Bench Press Alternatives: Improve Your Bench Press Without a Bench, 7 Best Weight Bench Exercises For Abs (Flat Bench Ab Workout), Bench Press Vs Push Ups: Why The Bench Press Isn’t Enough, 5 Proven Benefits Of Bench Press (#3 Is WOW), 6 Medicine Ball Partner Exercises for a Full Body Workout, Why Planks Hurt Your Back (& Easy Ways to Fix It), Why Can’t I Do Pull-Ups? Don’t just try to throw the dumbbell up, focus on squeezing your chest while you slowly raise your arm across your body. Remember, it’s not about simply moving from point A to point B, it’s about how you get from point A to point B. You should control the weight throughout the entire range of motion, especially on the way down. , don’t lower the dumbbell all the way down past your head; you don’t need this in the chest pullover version. Your core should stay well-engaged to support your neutral spine in avoiding going into hyperflexion when the weight is behind your head. Start with the dumbbells together above your chest with a slight bend in your elbows. The key element of the reverse dumbbell press is the hand and wrist positioning. Upright chest press. A set of dumbbells in a variety of weights is a great starting point for being able to perform a range of exercises and workouts in the comfort of your home. It is, except it can also be one of the best accessory chest exercises if you implement a couple of tweaks. 7 Dumbbell Chest Exercises You Can Do Without A Bench 1. If you want to go harder. Apocalypse? Now that you know how to do dumbbell chest exercises without a bench, you can take your chest workouts anywhere you go. The Best Dumbbell Chest Exercises You Can Do Without A Bench #1. It trains you to use your muscles and generate maximum power, so the key is to focus on the force and speed of every push. As the barbell descends towards the chest, the upper arms will contact the ground and stop the downward range of motion before the bar reaches the chest. Not only is building a strong chest possible without a bench—with dumbbells it is actually preferable. A reason to give up chest training as your favorite bench is locked away? When pushing the dumbbells up, keep your knuckles rotated about 45 degrees outwards to protect your shoulder capsules. #4 Dumbbell Floor Svend Press (Squeeze Press), The isometric part is squeezing the dumbbells together, and it helps you improve the feeling of your chest contracting. Try out both! To make this exercise effective, concentrate on squeezing your hands, rotating your arms inwards, and feeling the contraction of your pecs. It’s a great home dumbbell exercise you can do with no bench. Do not use heavy weights as this is to activate the chests. This way, we get a total chest training at home that develops power effectively. Your starting position should be with your arms extended above your chest. Wrist position becomes the key twist in Reverse Dumbbell Chest exercises. Instead of pulling with your lats, you should add extra squeeze on a dumbbell, pushing your hands inward and your arms down. © 2016–2020 TheWorkoutDigest.com - All Rights Reserved TheWorkoutDigest.com is designed for informational purposes only & DOES NOT provide medical advice, treatment or diagnosis. Got any questions? Start by sitting on the ball and … Start by doing a push up. Pro tip: Do this as a unilateral exercise with one arm at a time or alternating from left to right for maximum effect! Take a dumbbell and hold it with two hands. Think about following the fibers. Don’t lay your arms down between reps, raise them back up right before your triceps hit the floor. Push your hands together. Position your middle to upper back on the stability ball and have your knees bent with your feet flat on the floor. Dumbbell Push-Ups -This is a gold standard exercise you can start your workout with this exercise it is similar to... 2. This is the alternative technique for those who want to go really heavy when doing flys. Only the last three require both dumbbells and a bench. Top Tip: If you can’t add more weight to a dumbbell to make it higher, put it on top of a box, a book, or a similar thing. The best thing about standing chest flys is that you don’t need a bench, which is always busy anyway. WorkoutDigest is not associated with CrossFit.com. But this stability ball version is my favorite! The movement of your arm follows your upper chest fibers and helps you achieve the maximum contraction. The difference is that your bench should be inclined 45 degrees. : Sit down and place the dumbbells by your quads. It eliminates arm elevation but retains arm adduction, leaving all the work to be done exclusively by your pecs. 7 Dumbbell Chest Exercises: No Bench Needed! The isometric part is squeezing the dumbbells together, and it helps you improve the feeling of your chest contracting. The 5 Best Testosterone Boosters For Muscle Gain And Performance For Men in 2020! Chest Workout Without Bench: Suspended Chest Flys – 4 sets x 8-10 reps; Stability Ball Dumbbell Press – 4 x 8-10; Stability Ball Incline Pullovers – 4 x 8-10; Cable Decline Crossovers – 4 x 8-10; Chest Dips – 4 x 8-10; So now you should realize that you don’t always need a bench press to pump up your chest. With a subtle bend locked in the elbow, lift both of your arms from your sides so the dumbbells meet at chest height. However, doing it on the stability ball makes it more challenging in terms of balance and stability. In a standard dumbbell chest press, you would grip the dumbbells with your palms facing forwards, away from you. In contrast with a barbell press, using dumbbells gives you much more of the adduction component that helps you activate the chest. Keep your forearms in supination, pointed upwards. No problem. Keeping your back flat creates unnecessary risks to your shoulder ligaments, so arch it. Might be. Home chest workout for beginners: 10 reps push-ups. You wake up in the morning, all the gyms are closed. Whilst pulling the dumbbell back up to starting position, think about rotating your hands and arms inwards rather than outwards. Be wary to not go too deep into your push ups with the added height the dumbbells provide, as this is not optimum for your shoulders. Gym Wisdom: Don’t worry about the lack of adduction, there are plenty of other exercises to address that. This is a dumbbell chest workout without a bench, which can be done at home with dumbbells or with weight plates. Plyometrics is one of the best ways to build a powerful chest without a bench. They are wrong. At home, outdoors, or in a gym—you can do them anywhere to shake up your workout routine and target your pecs with new angles. Don’t do it; instead, focus on performing a slow concentrated movement. 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