As much as you think it may do, building a bigger, stronger chest doesn’t require a complicated workout routine or endless bench pressing. In fact, in a recent YouTube video, Strength Coach and Physical Therapist, Jeff Cavaliere, says you can build your entire chest with just two dumbbell exercises – no cables, no machines and no barbell bench press (what?!).
For these exercises you’ll need two sets of dumbbells: a heavy pair and a lighter pair (make sure these are around 30-50% lighter than your heavy ones). is Cavaliere wants you to move from the first exercise immediately into the second exercise with little to no rest in between, known as a superset. Anyway, to the exercises…
1. Incline dumbbell press (at 30-degrees)
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Targets: upper chest
Yes, it is important to have the weight bench set to a 30-degree angle for this because Cavaliere says “if you go too high you’ll shift the load away from the chest and more towards those front delts”. You’re probably wondering though, why the incline dumbbell press over the popular barbell bench press.
“If you’re used to pressing with a barbell it can be very uncomfortable, because your hands are forced into a more internally rotated position just to grab the bar,” Cavaliere says. “But, when doing them with the dumbbell, you can tuck your elbows more, so you can actually obtain a little more shoulder external rotation, and make the exercise a lot more comfortable.”
“The other benefit you get from dumbbells is a more natural resistance through the range of motion. When your hands are fixed in place on a bar you don’t get as much resistance abduction of the arm across the chest, because the arm is fixed in one place. The dumbbell can move freely towards the midline, ultimately losing its force to the top, but you still get more resistance, and it makes the exercise more effective for a lot of people.”
Cavaliere suggests performing 8-10 reps of this exercise to failure using your heavier set of dumbbells, before grabbing your lighter pair and going into the second exercise…
2. Dumbbell floor fly
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The reason Cavaliere wants you to perform these on the floor and not on a weight bench is that he says the bench puts your shoulders into a much more vulnerable position. “The dumbbells are unsupported. That’s why we do the floor fly, because it removes the risk by having the floor act as a support that’s missing on the bench.”
He also adds that this floor support will allow you to lift more than you can during a regular bench fly. “This exercise will allow you to get a great stretch overload, with that safety built in from the floor, and not compromised. What most people will find when they switch to this version is better gains for that very reason; more eccentric overload, higher tension being handled.”
