DB chest press: Help me analyze this..

AutoKal47

AutoKal47

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Ok guys, some time ago I switched my main chest exercise from
BB flat bench to DB, due to me being having long a## arms and (as the famous
Dorian Yates article said) BB flat bench ain't doing much for my chest.
Inclined is already much better, but is the BB vs BD the real deal,
DB presses just work much better for my chest.

Improvements have been noticeable since then, but still, when doing
DB presses (flat more than inclined but both anyway) there wasn't the kind
of stimulation, tension if you want, that I wanted.. Like my pecs gets way more
stimulation with DB flys (i do them very heavy) and weighted dips,
with presses, meh.. kind of but not really.
Last workout after my heavy DB flat press routine I decided I wanted to push myself a lil more and wanted something different,so I started doing (fairly heavy) DB press drop sets ON A SWISS BALL instead using the bench,
and holy f#ck!!!!

Not only my chest was ON FIRE but I could push a lot more weight without my shoulders and tris getting tired
before my pecs (despite I do pre-exhaustion flys before DB presses).
After the first set instead of doing drop sets I started adding weight and I ended up 10lbs heavier
than I do on the bench..
But the thing is, I could've gone much farther than that, the only problem was: I was on a swiss ball -_-
you know? Stability with all that weight started to concern me a bit

So, here's the challenge: WTF? How?? Why?? Is it because my shoulders where somewhat supported?
It is the angle? and most important: how can I replicate that feeling/dynamic WITHOUT using a damn swiss ball??
Please help me analyze this because is driving me crazy..
 

adeadbodyman

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So I read this yesterday and decided to try it in the gym today, and you are right on. We were doing 65 lb. dumbells on the ball. It felt unstable when i would roll back enough to get my head off the ball completely. But if I rolled back forwards to where my butt was closer to the floor and my body probably at a very slight incline, I felt pretty stable.

But yeah, I am defintatly no expert, but I think it's because you have support under your shoulders. My shoulders always get stretched/stressed when I start to bench alot, so I stop. I hate it because I feel like I can't do anything to get a big chest. But on the ball, when I come down, I can feel the support there on the backs of my shoulders and there was no strain. This allowed me to focus on squeezing my chest, just like your sayin'.

SO I think you've got it figured out, it's because there is support for your shoulders. Sometimes when I bench on a flat bench, I will get bruises on my back where my shoulders drop down on the sides of the bench.
SO thanks for the new workout!!!

mike
 
AutoKal47

AutoKal47

AK DoubleWide 47
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So I read this yesterday and decided to try it in the gym today, and you are right on. We were doing 65 lb. dumbells on the ball. It felt unstable when i would roll back enough to get my head off the ball completely. But if I rolled back forwards to where my butt was closer to the floor and my body probably at a very slight incline, I felt pretty stable.

But yeah, I am defintatly no expert, but I think it's because you have support under your shoulders. My shoulders always get stretched/stressed when I start to bench alot, so I stop. I hate it because I feel like I can't do anything to get a big chest. But on the ball, when I come down, I can feel the support there on the backs of my shoulders and there was no strain. This allowed me to focus on squeezing my chest, just like your sayin'.

SO I think you've got it figured out, it's because there is support for your shoulders. Sometimes when I bench on a flat bench, I will get bruises on my back where my shoulders drop down on the sides of the bench.
SO thanks for the new workout!!!

mike
Yeah exactly, head not off the ball, butt really close to the floor so you are as you describe,
slightly inclined.
is crazy how much more stimulation I feel this way, when I push the DB up every muscle fibre
of my chest feel stressed and tense, from the outer sides to the very center and for the whole
range of movement..
I'm still not convinced is because of the shoulder support, like when I do flys my shoulders/chest
get stretched like crazy, same with weighted dips and I have no problems with that,
but when I use BB (especially flat but also inclined to a lesser extent) something's off
and most of the stress goes to my front delts, this same with FLAT DB press, not nearly as much tho'
actually if I didn't try the ball I wouldn't have known REAL isolated stimulation like that was possible,
and this after more than 10 years of training..
Lol, this bothers me, I'd like to be able to reproduce that without the ball, yes I am fairly stable on it
I've been using it for abs for quite some time and I'm used to it, but still, having 80lbs DB on each hand
and being on a ball could end badly if you lose concentration for just a sec.. But most important, I *could*
push more if I was more stable.. ahh....
 

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