The dumbbell hex press is one of those exercises that is often forgotten when it comes to training the chest muscles. Most people look no further than flat bench and incline chest press or different angled fly movements when changing up their chest routines.
If that’s you, consider giving these a go! Incorporating new movements into your routine that you’ve never done before can break you out of a plateau and lead to some quick gains.
Here are 3 reasons why you should be doing the dumbbell hex press:
1. More Chest Tension = More Muscle Growth
2. Builds Triceps = Bigger Arms + Increased Bench Press
3. Neutral Grip = Easy On The Shoulders
Fair warning, these suckers burn!
How To Perform The Dumbbell Hex Press
Set the bench to flat or if you want to target your upper chest more, set it to incline. For this video, we use a flat bench.
Take two dumbbells and start with them pressed together using a neutral/hammer grip (palms facing inwards). Hexagon shaped dumbbells are best if you have them since they are easier to press together, hence the name “hex press”.
Lie back on the bench with the dumbbells pressed together and arms fully extended.
Lower the weights under control, keeping them firmly pressed together until they reach your chest.
Then press them straight back up towards the ceiling under control.
Keep the weights directly over your chest at all times. Repeat for desired amount of reps.
Pro Tip: The hex press is a great exercise to superset with regular dumbbell chest press using a slower tempo. To do this, first perform a set of dumbbell chest press with the weight you normally use. Let’s say 60 pounds for this example. Then, using half of that weight or slightly less, so 30 pound dumbbells here, perform the hex press using a tempo of 5050. This is done by lowering the weights on a 5-second count (5), with no pause (0) once the weights touch your chest, then pressing them back up on a controlled 5-second count (5), with no pause (0) at the top before repeating. Watch the video to see how this is done.
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