In terms of hypertrophy, which of the two yields better chest results?
[quote]FCB93 wrote:
In terms of hypertrophy, which of the two yields better chest results?[/quote]
Which is better, a cheeseburger with Swiss or a hamburger with bacon? Same kind of question.
There’s no universal “which is better” answer.
There are some variables involved (like what your entire program looks like, what your goals are, what you personally see better results from [which is something you learn through experience], etc.) but for the most part, most people will be fine with either exercise, especially earlier in their training life/when they’re relatively-less developed.
Both have the potential to be great chest mass builders and I recommend that you use both. Which one you choose to do predominantly (if you HAVE to choose), depends on one thing…
Which exercise do YOU, feel better targets your CHEST. Ie. Which gives you better, pump/isolation/soreness in comparable rep ranges. Choose this exercise and get stronger on it for reps. When this process stalls/slows/becomes stale after several months, feel free to change it up.
If it will make you feel better, you can’t make a wrong choice here, especially at the level it sounds like you are at.
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[/quote]
Curious beginner (i.e., me) asks:
I get your point about the 405 BB bench, but what role does form play into that? Are you talking about someone benching 405 who uses significant leg drive in order to do so, or do you mean someone who benches 405 in less of a PL-style.
Perhaps another way of asking this is whether you would feel the same about someone who could, e.g., bench 315x12 or whatever without utilizing leg drive to a significant degree.
Beyond ROM, it seems like one of the primary advantages of DB presses may be that they’re inherently inefficient vis-a-vis BB Bench if the goal is just moving maximal weight. BB Bench can become a “full body lift,” while the starting position in DB Bench (i.e. lying back with the DBs) puts one in a “disadvantaged” position in the first place.
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[/quote]
BB Bench can become a “full body lift,” while the starting position in DB Bench (i.e. lying back with the DBs) puts one in a “disadvantaged” position in the first place.[/quote]
yep,agreed ; dbs get a bigger ROM,two arms are “indipendent” each other so stabilizer muscles get involved
…but on con’s,when dbs become heavier than 80lb is a pain in the ass to put them in position (if you train alone)
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[/quote]
+1
The evidence is just there for me with the amount of guys who have a standout chest from mostly db flat/incline and little else… besides db flyes perhaps.
I wouldn’t even do flat barbell press ever if I wasn’t wanting to do a PL meet.
With a PL setup and a large arch, you can use lats+leg drive to get the bar off your chest and then delts+tris to lock it out. So there’s not going to be much chest involvement doing it that way.
The more BB type setup will obviously activate more chest but it’s pretty shit for shoulder health IMO, especially if you have your elbows out at 90° thruout the entire movement.
DBs feel a lot better for me. Better stretch, better MMC, and less shoulder stress. You also cant “pull apart” the DBs like you can with a bar so the triceps cant take over as much.
[quote]buzza wrote:
[quote]The3Commandments wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[/quote]
BB Bench can become a “full body lift,” while the starting position in DB Bench (i.e. lying back with the DBs) puts one in a “disadvantaged” position in the first place.[/quote]
yep,agreed ; dbs get a bigger ROM,two arms are “indipendent” each other so stabilizer muscles get involved
…but on con’s,when dbs become heavier than 80lb is a pain in the ass to put them in position (if you train alone)[/quote]
Thats kinda relative to the person i guess. I’m not the strongest guy around by far and dnt have much trouble gettin 100lb + dumb bells in position
As for the question, my shoulders take over when i start going heavy with BB.
Whereas with DB i find it much easier to focus on tensing my pecs, plus as arms come together slightly i feel the muscle activated a lot more.
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[/quote]
+1
The evidence is just there for me with the amount of guys who have a standout chest from mostly db flat/incline and little else… besides db flyes perhaps.
I wouldn’t even do flat barbell press ever if I wasn’t wanting to do a PL meet.[/quote]
This…
I have been doing exclusively db bench recently because I dont often have a spot, and because of the aforementioned reasons. (Went from 55 for 7 to 75 for 11 in 2 months. Next workout I may work toward 15 reps, or try to get the 80s depending on how I feel. My point is that for me, a little guy, it isnt hard to progress on them.)
Also, the guy who said about shoulder health seems to be right. I havnt had any huge issues, but it does appear to be easier on my shoulders.
I notice that when I dont do db bench and I try to do it, my arms shake like a dog shitting razor blades. If I only do db bench, I dont generally have trouble controlling the bar for bb bench.
Also I wouldnt expect much carryover between the two. I personally believe the conversion to be that you will db bench about 85% of your bb. However, I always tell people that if you are benching 80 lb dumbells with good form for a few reps, the only thing we can be fairly certain about is that you can probably get at least 160 for a single on bb bench. (Meaning, if you want a big bb bench, then bb bench. If you want to isolate a little more, and you dont really care about your numbers, then db bench.)
Does anyone here feel like db bench is maybe more functional than bb bench?
-Zep
[quote]Zeppelin0731 wrote:
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[/quote]
+1
The evidence is just there for me with the amount of guys who have a standout chest from mostly db flat/incline and little else… besides db flyes perhaps.
I wouldn’t even do flat barbell press ever if I wasn’t wanting to do a PL meet.[/quote]
This…
I have been doing exclusively db bench recently because I dont often have a spot, and because of the aforementioned reasons. (Went from 55 for 7 to 75 for 11 in 2 months. Next workout I may work toward 15 reps, or try to get the 80s depending on how I feel. My point is that for me, a little guy, it isnt hard to progress on them.)
Also, the guy who said about shoulder health seems to be right. I havnt had any huge issues, but it does appear to be easier on my shoulders.
I notice that when I dont do db bench and I try to do it, my arms shake like a dog shitting razor blades. If I only do db bench, I dont generally have trouble controlling the bar for bb bench.
Also I wouldnt expect much carryover between the two. I personally believe the conversion to be that you will db bench about 85% of your bb. However, I always tell people that if you are benching 80 lb dumbells with good form for a few reps, the only thing we can be fairly certain about is that you can probably get at least 160 for a single on bb bench. (Meaning, if you want a big bb bench, then bb bench. If you want to isolate a little more, and you dont really care about your numbers, then db bench.)
Does anyone here feel like db bench is maybe more functional than bb bench?
-Zep[/quote]
I agree with the ‘functional’ part. Like i said earlier, i find it isolates and gives me a much better pump/stretch.
I have been doing db bench with my elbows coming down by my sides and palms facing each other. It has been working wonders for my triceps.
[quote]jake_j_m wrote:
[quote]ebomb5522 wrote:
In my opinion, if we’re talking about pure chest hypertrophy, dumbbell pressing is superior to flat barbell pressing.
I have seen many people bench 405 that don’t have impressive chests, but don’t see people with unimpressive chests dumbbell pressing heavy weights.
[/quote]
+1
The evidence is just there for me with the amount of guys who have a standout chest from mostly db flat/incline and little else… besides db flyes perhaps.
I wouldn’t even do flat barbell press ever if I wasn’t wanting to do a PL meet.[/quote]
You know, I see people on T-Nation saying this all the time, but I don’t know why. How many pros start with a lift other than the BB incline? And how may people do you know who have never benched an appreciable amount of weight but still have huge chests? I really don’t think that number is nearly as high as people around here make it seem.
[quote]HeavyTriple wrote:
You know, I see people on T-Nation saying this all the time, but I don’t know why. How many pros start with a lift other than the BB incline? And how may people do you know who have never benched an appreciable amount of weight but still have huge chests? I really don’t think that number is nearly as high as people around here make it seem.[/quote]
If you can bench in a bodybuilding arnie/coleman style and go full ROM and still dont get shoulder pain, then I can completely see why they are the best chest movements out there… but I definitely can’t and I’m not sure if that’s something that’s down to purely to structure or can be fixed with flexiblity improvements and a lot of rotator cuff training. You don’t hear about “the pros” having to go through all of this though… IMO thats because the guys using them with big chests are the guys that can do it without any pain… structure/genetics/whatever and the rest of the guysout there either have small chests or have built it with dbs/other variations. My 2 pence. Edit: Also think bb inclines are much better for building chest, and without the stigma of “touch your chest or it doesnt count” associated with flat bb, you can save our shoulders too.
If you feel BB benching in your chest, then use it. I use to not feel it at all in my chest, but im coming back from almost 2 years of no BB benching due to injury and I feel it alot in my chest now. I have been doing DB flat/DB incline 2x a week for about 3 months now and have some of my strength back, im actually moving more weight with the DB’s then I ever did with the DB’s before my injury (though I didn’t use them much prior to the injury) yet my chest is smaller then it was back then.
For me, it appears DB’s are not significantly better for chest development, though they are definitely not significantly worse. Assuming I recover as well as I expect to, I will continue using a BB in addition to the DB’s if for no other reason then it is pretty cool to move a lot of weight. Enjoying yourself is pretty important to improve.
And yes it is much easier to switch from DB’s to barbell. It is not perfect and it will take a few weeks to get the barbell movement down, but there is carryover. Not as much carryover if you switch from barbell to DB’s, I notice a lot of shaking and it is hard to control if you come anywhere close to using your barbell weight.
Functional? Come on guys. I can’t believe in discussion about chest HYPERTROPHY that card is even being thrown out.
Anyways. If I were shooting solely for chest size, I’d probably stick with BB incline and db bench (flat and incline) as my main chest movements, obviously with pec deck/db flies/cable flies as assistance work. But like others, I train primarily for PL meets at this time in my life, so obviously I rely a lot on a PL style BB Bench consistently.
I always thought I got a better pump on barbell bench presses. I can use more weight, I really “tear the bar apart” which engages my back and it’s easier to use at heavier weights (as someone above indicated). IMHO the BB is a better all around mass and strength builder. I know tons of guys who used BB intensively and can throw up 140+ pound DBs, and I know tons of Zyzz types who only use DBs and are pinned on a 165 bench. Guess who’s more swole?
If I were on a split routine, which I haven’t really used in 1.5 yrs, I would start on BB and use DB as a finisher / ROM maintainer.
While I trained through a rotator cuff injury, I used DB exclusively for 2-3 months. It’s obviously more “natural” but again, due to all the stabilization action, you just can’t hit as high a weight as with a BB.
DB’s feel very nice and I get good results from them, but I still use barbell lifts as my main work because:
-Barbells allow for more constant and trackable progress
-Barbells are more efficient… as mentioned before, just setting DBs can be a MASSIVE pain in the ass
[quote]Samir wrote:
I always thought I got a better pump on barbell bench presses. I can use more weight, I really “tear the bar apart” which engages my back and it’s easier to use at heavier weights (as someone above indicated). IMHO the BB is a better all around mass and strength builder. I know tons of guys who used BB intensively and can throw up 140+ pound DBs, and I know tons of Zyzz types who only use DBs and are pinned on a 165 bench. Guess who’s more swole?
If I were on a split routine, which I haven’t really used in 1.5 yrs, I would start on BB and use DB as a finisher / ROM maintainer.
While I trained through a rotator cuff injury, I used DB exclusively for 2-3 months. It’s obviously more “natural” but again, due to all the stabilization action, you just can’t hit as high a weight as with a BB. [/quote]
Yeah another problem is most gyms don’t have dumbells over 100 lbs., which is easy weight for advanced lifters especially if they do it as their first movement. Nothing wrong with starting with DB’s once in a while but I agree, for the majority, starting with incline or flat BB bench would be ideal.
i love these ‘which is better…X or…Y’ threads, its like people really think there are universal standards for every body in the game. see what i did there? everybody or every BODY haha look at that