First I am over 60 and still learning about lifting. My main goal is strength and conditioning. What are the pros and cons of adding dumbbell bench and presses.
Pros:It’ll make your arms, chest and shoulders stronger.
Cons: Can compromise shoulder health.
It’s a good set of exercises, but it’s possible to get by without. I guess it comes down to whether it does what you want and if you enjoy doing the exercise.
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I agree with DaCharmingAlbino.
I rotate them in and out of my workouts with barbell back offs set on both bench and press and never try to press more than I can strictly control.
The main thing I would watch out for is getting hurt putting heavy dumbbells in place.
I patially tore my right bicep tendon on dumbbell incline benches and I recently strained my left pec tendon basically the same way.
The exercises work for me, but I stay away from them (I’m 53).
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Hi Jeff, 65 here. I love dumbells but I keep them light so I can control them. Go heavy on the smith machine with all the safeties in place. Injuries at our age can be devastating taking months if not years and possibly surgery to fix. ((( It is not worth it. )))
DB are great. Don’t go heavier than you can get into position 10-20 reps are what I like. Keeps it lighter… Difficult to spot DB pressing exercises.
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It really takes a guy for each arm or you are going to blow a shoulder.
This… is the biggest con about using DB’s which everyone glosses over. Finally glad that someone has mentioned it finally.
HaHa this reminded me once of trying the double knee lift to get the DB’s up into position. I lost my balance and roll right off the bench. Took me a while to live that one down.
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