Chest / Beginner / Compound (multi-joint)

One Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

A dumbbell exercise for the chest, with the front delts, triceps and serratus assisting.

At a glance

Primary

Chest

Secondary

Front delts, Triceps, Serratus anterior

Equipment

Dumbbells, Bench

Movement pattern

Horizontal push

Level

Beginner

Type

Chest, Compound (multi-joint), One side at a time

Loads the shoulder. Use a load you can control and skip it if it causes pain.

How to do it

1. Lie down on a flat bench with a dumbbell in one hand on top of your thigh.
2. By using your thigh to help you get the dumbbell up, clean the dumbbell up so that you can hold it in front of you at shoulder width. Use the hand you are not lifting with to help position the dumbbell over you properly.
3. Once at shoulder width, rotate your wrist forward so that the palm of your hand is facing away from you. This will be your starting position.
4. Bring down the weights slowly to your side as you breathe in. Keep full control of the dumbbell at all times. Tip: Use the hand that you are not lifting with to help keep the dumbbell balance as you may struggle a bit at first. Only use your non-lifting hand if it is needed. Otherwise, keep it resting to the side.
5. As you breathe out, push the dumbbells up using your pectoral muscles. Lock your arms in the contracted position, squeeze your chest, hold for a second and then start coming down slowly. Tip: It should take at least twice as long to go down than to come up.
6. Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions of your training program.
7. Switch arms and repeat the movement.

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