Give Me 2 Dumbbells... I'll Build You a BIGGER Chest — Transcript

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1. 0:00When you're doing a dumbbell bench
2. 0:01press, you still need to have leg drive
3. 0:03in order to move the most weight
4. 0:05possible. So, what that means is when
5. 0:06your feet are on the floor, as they
6. 0:08should be, you want to be pushing as if
7. 0:10you're sliding your body up the bench,
8. 0:13right? Not just down into the floor, but
9. 0:15out as if you were going to extend your
10. 0:16leg. And when you do that and drive the
11. 0:19dumbbells up, it gives you that counter
12. 0:21force to push them up and back. This is
13. 0:23really natural when we're talking about
14. 0:24a barbell bench press because you have
15. 0:26that target to push it back when you
16. 0:28want to rack the bar. It doesn't mean
17. 0:30that you don't want to do it though when
18. 0:31you're using dumbbells just because you
19. 0:32don't have that target J hook there for
20. 0:34you. You still want to drive through the
21. 0:36feet and push up to maximize the amount
22. 0:38of weight that you can lift on the
23. 0:39exercise and therefore the amount of
24. 0:41gains that you'll get from doing it. All
25. 0:43right, tip number two in building a
26. 0:44perfect chest once again deals with
27. 0:46biomechanics, but this time utilizing
28. 0:48the dumbbells in your favor. Look, we
29. 0:50know when you're using a barbell that
30. 0:51your hands are fixed on that one bar and
31. 0:53they don't have independent function.
32. 0:55But what we get with dumbbells is the
33. 0:57opportunity to do something with our
34. 0:59hands and more specifically our wrists.
35. 1:01And what you want to do if you want to
36. 1:02get a better chest contraction is figure
37. 1:04out a way to get more relative
38. 1:06adduction. Right? One of the main
39. 1:08functions is to bring your hands closer
40. 1:10to each other at the top of any single
41. 1:12press. We can do that if we do this. And
42. 1:14that is just alter the position of the
43. 1:16dumbbell in your hand. lead with your
44. 1:18thumbs rather than with your pinkies.
45. 1:20When you do that, you get the effect of
46. 1:23bringing your hands closer to each
47. 1:24other. You've cleared about three or
48. 1:26four more inches at the top that
49. 1:28normally wouldn't be there if the
50. 1:29dumbbells were pressed straight up with
51. 1:31your knuckles facing the ceiling. These
52. 1:33minor tweaks are enough to give you a
53. 1:35better chest contraction. And when you
54. 1:36add them up rep after rep, you see the
55. 1:39gain start to come set after set,
56. 1:41workout after workout. Tip number three
57. 1:43is actually particularly useful for
58. 1:45those that want to build their upper
59. 1:46chest but feel limited because they
60. 1:48don't have access to an incline bench to
61. 1:50do it. That's okay. If you have your
62. 1:51flat bench and your dumbbells, all you
63. 1:53have to do is flip the grip. Perform the
64. 1:55underhand grip dumbbell bench press. We
65. 1:58know that if we follow the fibers, we
66. 2:00can get activation of the area we want.
67. 2:02And we know that with the upper chest
68. 2:03fibers running down and out, we want to
69. 2:06have a position of low to high with our
70. 2:09arms when we press. When we get our
71. 2:11elbows down and underneath, we can see
72. 2:13that we get lower and we have an
73. 2:14opportunity to go higher. This will
74. 2:16always give you a better activation of
75. 2:18the chest. As a matter of fact, only
76. 2:20slightly less than the incline bench
77. 2:21itself. But guess what? Some people who
78. 2:24are delt dominant pressurers have more
79. 2:26of a problem with the incline bench
80. 2:27because as you get higher and higher, of
81. 2:29course, you get more and more delt
82. 2:31activation to the point where we have
83. 2:32primary delt activation when we're
84. 2:34completely upright. So, if you are a
85. 2:36delt dominant pressure, you're going to
86. 2:37dominate more with your delts as opposed
87. 2:39to your chest. You have the opportunity
88. 2:40here to get that upper chest activation
89. 2:42while still keeping the bench flat just
90. 2:45by changing the orientation of the
91. 2:46dumbbells in our hands. Tip number four
92. 2:49introduces the first of two techniques
93. 2:51that you're going to want to make sure
94. 2:52you utilize when you're training your
95. 2:54chest with dumbbells, and that is the
96. 2:56drop set. We know that the drop set with
97. 2:58a dumbbell is much easier to perform
98. 3:00than, let's say, stripping plates off of
99. 3:02a barbell bench press. As a matter of
100. 3:04fact, by the time you're done stripping
101. 3:05plates, you probably let 30 seconds go
102. 3:07by, which mitigates the entire benefit
103. 3:09of the drop set in the first place. We
104. 3:11want to be able to take a set to failure
105. 3:12with dumbbells, go grab a lighter set
106. 3:14with little to no time wasted at all,
107. 3:17and get right back into the set again.
108. 3:18It's that two and through failure
109. 3:20approach. And always remember, you got
110. 3:22the ace in the hole, your ability to
111. 3:24just drop down to the floor, utilize
112. 3:25your own body weight as a resistance,
113. 3:27and simply perform a set of push-ups to
114. 3:29failure. It's one of my favorite
115. 3:30techniques and it's one that you want to
116. 3:32make sure that you're including when
117. 3:33you're trying to build your chest
118. 3:34bigger, stronger, and better. Tip number
119. 3:37five is actually the second of those
120. 3:39techniques and it's this one here and
121. 3:41it's called the static dumbbell press.
122. 3:43And this is something I actually covered
123. 3:44with Casey Mitchell the last time he was
124. 3:46in here and we were doing our video on
125. 3:48how to increase your bench press. What
126. 3:49this does is it exposes any unilateral
127. 3:52weaknesses that you might have that
128. 3:54might get traditionally hidden by a
129. 3:56fixed hand placement on a barbell. And
130. 3:58we know that if you're looking for that
131. 3:59perfect chest development, you got to
132. 4:01make sure that you're correcting any of
133. 4:02those right and left side imbalances.
134. 4:03So, by lifting one dumbbell at a time,
135. 4:05we're going to be able to do that. So,
136. 4:07what I do here is I grab my dumbbells
137. 4:08and I'm laying back and I start with one
138. 4:10up over my head. And the point is I
139. 4:13leave it there while I press just the
140. 4:14opposite dumbbell down. Now, yes, it
141. 4:16does need some core strength to
142. 4:18stabilize as that one dumbbell tends to
143. 4:20want to twist you off the bench, but
144. 4:21more importantly, it's looking for the
145. 4:23equal strength between the right and
146. 4:25left sides. At the end, I hold that
147. 4:27static press for even just five to six
148. 4:29seconds at the bottom, just in that
149. 4:31bottom isometric position. Come up out
150. 4:33of it as I always try to do, utilize
151. 4:35that one drop set opportunity by getting
152. 4:37down on the floor and hitting some
153. 4:39push-ups. Now, what alternative here
154. 4:41makes it even more difficult, it's just
155. 4:42simply holding that position at the
156. 4:44bottom rather than the top. And as you
157. 4:46can see here, the chest is working even
158. 4:48harder in that bottom position than
159. 4:50would be at the top. And it makes this
160. 4:52whole sequence that much more difficult.
161. 4:53But the fact is, you still do the same
162. 4:55thing. You do as many presses as you
163. 4:57can, hold the isometric, and drop into
164. 4:59your drop set. All right, tip number six
165. 5:01actually ushers in the first of three
166. 5:03chest exercises that I want you to make
167. 5:05sure that you're looking at. Again,
168. 5:06maybe you never tried them or maybe you
169. 5:08forgot about them, but the point is
170. 5:10these are going to provide you with some
171. 5:11better gains utilizing just dumbbells.
172. 5:14And the first is one that a lot of
173. 5:15people don't even look at as a chest
174. 5:16exercise is the dumbbell pullover. And
175. 5:19you wouldn't look at it as a chest
176. 5:20exercise if you performed it
177. 5:21traditionally with your elbows flared
178. 5:23out and you drove the movement with your
179. 5:25lats. I'm not asking you to do that.
180. 5:27What I want you to do is get your elbows
181. 5:29closer to each other and drive it with
182. 5:32your upper chest. In other words, try to
183. 5:33turn your hands down and in, even though
184. 5:35they're not moving on the fixed
185. 5:37dumbbell, but visualize that as you pull
186. 5:39forward to take the lats out and to
187. 5:42drive it with that adduction of the
188. 5:44upper chest. It's a move that requires a
189. 5:46little bit of practice, but as soon as
190. 5:48you get it and you feel it, you'll
191. 5:50realize just how powerful it is for
192. 5:52getting that upper chest carved out even
193. 5:53just a little bit more on your way to
194. 5:55perfection. The second exercise in this
195. 5:58trio is one I want you to try and it's
196. 5:59called the UCV raise. And what it does
197. 6:01is it lightens the load, but it allows
198. 6:04you to get a better contraction into
199. 6:06adduction, which again, we've talked
200. 6:08about how important it is when you want
201. 6:09overall chest development. So, what you
202. 6:11do is you set up your incline bench here
203. 6:13or anything that you can slightly lean
204. 6:15your body against and you raise the
205. 6:17dumbbell up and across your body. This
206. 6:19should look familiar to you. Remember,
207. 6:20we talked about with the underhand bench
208. 6:22press that you want that low to high
209. 6:25position. And you're not just getting
210. 6:26low to high, but low to high and across
211. 6:29your body, which gives you that great
212. 6:30upper chest contraction. Again, not one
213. 6:33you're going to load up here. You're
214. 6:34looking for the quality contraction, but
215. 6:36it's not always about loading up when
216. 6:37you're looking for better chest
217. 6:38development. It's about getting good
218. 6:39quality contractions rep after rep. And
219. 6:41again, accumulating them workout after
220. 6:43workout. Now, that said, we don't always
221. 6:46have to go light when we're looking for
222. 6:47better gains just because we're looking
223. 6:48for better contractions. We still know
224. 6:50the benefits of loading up. And an
225. 6:53exercise I think people don't load up
226. 6:54often enough on is actually the chest
227. 6:56fly. And for those that think I would
228. 6:58advocate loading up on a chest fly and
229. 7:00not being dangerous, I do because I
230. 7:02prefer to do it down here on the floor
231. 7:04safely as a floor fly. You see, when we
232. 7:06get in this position here, we have the
233. 7:07built-in safety net of the floor to
234. 7:10protect our shoulders as our arms get
235. 7:12down to the sides. We don't have the
236. 7:14same luxury when we perform the exercise
237. 7:15on a bench, which forces us to have to
238. 7:17use light dumbbells in order to perform
239. 7:19it. But when we're down on the floor
240. 7:21here, we could actually use those
241. 7:22heavier dumbbells, take advantage of the
242. 7:24eccentric contraction on the chest as we
243. 7:26lower those dumbbells to our side. And
244. 7:28even there, remember we talked about
245. 7:29taking two and through failure, we have
246. 7:31the mechanical advantage of being able
247. 7:33to bring our elbows into our sides,
248. 7:35press up to put ourselves in position
249. 7:37for the next eccentric fly. So once
250. 7:40we've reached that positive failure, we
251. 7:41can go through that failure to better
252. 7:43gains. Guys, remember, don't always look
253. 7:45at the fly as an exercise that has to be
254. 7:47done light. You have the opportunity to
255. 7:49do it with heavier weights and better
256. 7:50gains of weight when you do. Head over
257. 7:53to athletics.com and find the program
258. 7:54that matches up to your goals right now.
259. 7:55In the meantime, if you found the video
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