Heavy dumbbell bench versus Bench press strength

[rvfraley]

Hey guys,

Wanted some opinions. I'm not super strong (my max bench is 215 for 2 reps). I currently own DB's up tp 55 pounds.

I don't have any place (Craigs List, Store, not a member of a gym) where I can TEST my DB bench strength.

I'm looking to buy heavier DB's, but with shipping, it's expensive and I want to make sure I don't buy DB's I can't handle.

My question: Based off how much I can bench, would you say I could handle 80 or 90 pound DB's? I can do about 13 reps using the 55 DB's. Want to go heavier and think I can handle 70's, but not sure about 80's or 90's.

PS: I realize for some of you beasts that 70's - 90's is not considered "heavy" :-)

Any recommendation would be great, thanks friends!

Ryan

[OutdoorsinCO]

On a good day I can do sets of 4 at 225 on flat bench. On DB I'm currently at 85's

[ninjaneer]

what's your budget? instead of just buying a single pair, i think you should look into adjustables, like ironmasters or powerblocks. that way, you don't have to worry about outgrowing your set so quickly. i don't know if there's an equation for converting db to bb bench pressing. i rep 3x8x275 on bb and was at 3x15x110 (220 total) for db.

Hey guys,

Wanted some opinions. I'm not super strong (my max bench is 215 for 2 reps). I currently own DB's up tp 55 pounds.

I don't have any place (Craigs List, Store, not a member of a gym) where I can TEST my DB bench strength.

I'm looking to buy heavier DB's, but with shipping, it's expensive and I want to make sure I don't buy DB's I can't handle.

My question: Based off how much I can bench, would you say I could handle 80 or 90 pound DB's? I can do about 13 reps using the 55 DB's. Want to go heavier and think I can handle 70's, but not sure about 80's or 90's.

PS: I realize for some of you beasts that 70's - 90's is not considered "heavy" :-)

Any recommendation would be great, thanks friends!

Ryan

[rvfraley]

I'm not a big fan of the adjustable DB's. I actually like having the seperate DB's. Budget, I've got $600 saved up, so I could order a pair of 70's, 80's and 90's and be roughly around that much. I have all York rubber Hex so would probably buy those. Just not sure about the 80's and 90's.

[Detrus]

225 x 3 on bb
85 x 8 on db
can sometimes do 90 x 8

I did 2 sets of 85 x 8 then 90 x 8, 90 x 7, 90 x 5 then 85 x 7 etc. BB bench was 225 x 3 or 4

Not having adjustable DBs is strange. That's just bench. What about rows? Farmers walks?

And you're spending so much money buying new. It only makes sense to buy adjustables new. Get Ironmasters and don't worry.

Wish gyms had adjustables honestly. With massive dumbbell racks people put things in the wrong place constantly. Annoying to find the right weight, annoying to carry it to bench. I saw some college football weight room with rows of racks and they had powerblocks at every rack. Makes a lot of sense, although you can't drop powerblocks.

[817boy]

I'm not a big fan of the adjustable DB's. I actually like having the seperate DB's. Budget, I've got $600 saved up, so I could order a pair of 70's, 80's and 90's and be roughly around that much. I have all York rubber Hex so would probably buy those. Just not sure about the 80's and 90's.

I believe dumbbells are only good for assistance work and Barbell exercises are king, but to each their own.

Get pairs of 60s, 70s and 80s lbs based off my Craigslist market it would cost $200-$225 for hex dumbbells. Then go buy some of the 2.5lb plate mate magnets. They go on each end off hex dumbbell and makes each dumbbell 5lbs heavier. So now you will have 65, 75, 85.
http://www.ironcompany.com/platemate25lbdonutpair.aspx (make sure you order 2 pairs) so it will cost $80 but comes w/ free shipping.

[owasM]

225 x 3 on bb
85 x 8 on db
can sometimes do 90 x 8

I did 2 sets of 85 x 8 then 90 x 8, 90 x 7, 90 x 5 then 85 x 7 etc. BB bench was 225 x 3 or 4

Not having adjustable DBs is strange. That's just bench. What about rows? Farmers walks?

And you're spending so much money buying new. It only makes sense to buy adjustables new. Get Ironmasters and don't worry.

Wish gyms had adjustables honestly. With massive dumbbell racks people put things in the wrong place constantly. Annoying to find the right weight, annoying to carry it to bench. I saw some college football weight room with rows of racks and they had powerblocks at every rack. Makes a lot of sense, although you can't drop powerblocks.

its quicker to find that dumbell then to switch weights on an adustable, besides if they misplace huge dumbells theyre going to put small plates all over the place (if ironmasters)

[ugmoe2000]

5x5x250... I like to work with 90-100LB dumbbells in sets of 10. Good luck, dumbbell work is some of the best chest work you can do to build bulk-- opens your chest up more than a barbell bench press and allows you to use more of your stabilizer muscles.

[KBKB]

I'm not a big fan of the adjustable DB's. I actually like having the seperate DB's. Budget, I've got $600 saved up, so I could order a pair of 70's, 80's and 90's and be roughly around that much. I have all York rubber Hex so would probably buy those. Just not sure about the 80's and 90's.

If you haven't done so yet, take a look at Ironmaster Quick-Lock dumbbells. They're adjustable, but have a solid dumbbell feel to them. The ends are flat so that you can rest them on your knees or thighs before and after your set.

I've been doing dumbbell bench presses almost exclusively. I haven't done a barbell bench press in over a year. During my most recent workout, I did 105x5, 105x5, and 105x4 for my work sets, with warm up sets of 30x20, 50x10, 75x5, 75x5 prior to doing the work sets. (I was feeling good that day; I often just use 95s for my work sets instead and throw in a few extra reps on the last set.)

The point of telling you this is so that you can see that smaller dumbbells were used for warm-up sets. I think it's important (in order to not get injured) that you get a sufficient number of warm-up sets in ahead of the work sets.

[ninjaneer]

I'm not a big fan of the adjustable DB's. I actually like having the seperate DB's. Budget, I've got $600 saved up, so I could order a pair of 70's, 80's and 90's and be roughly around that much. I have all York rubber Hex so would probably buy those. Just not sure about the 80's and 90's.

for $600, you really should consider adjustables. i didn't like the idea at first, but they're a great investment. you can even get an add on kit to take you up to 120+. otherwise, you're just going to throw more money at retail pairs as you get stronger. you'll be strong like bull sooner than you think and adjustables will give you the flexibility to try different programs, not just adding reps to whatever weights you have available....which will get you somewhere, it just gets boring.

[rvfraley]

Awesome guys. I had no idea Iron Masters could go to 120. I see now they can. That's a game changer for me. Like said earlier, could quickly outgrow the ones I buy, so makes sense on Iron Masters.

I guess my previous statement of not being a fan of adjustables comes from my friend who has bowflex (which I think are pieces of crap), I hate the power blocks (can't get past it not looking like a dumbbell). But, Iron Masters seem pretty close to pro-style

I know all the pro-s of Iron Masters....anyone have any con's about them?

[KBKB]

I know all the pro-s of Iron Masters....anyone have any con's about them?

No serious cons that I can think of, but I can nitpick a little...

- Slower to change than PowerBlock.

- Fat Gripz don't fit well on the handles; the gap is pretty big. But Ironmaster sells a fat grip adapter accessory that works really well.

- On my set, some of the plates do not nest as well as they should. It's never really a problem though as changing the stacking order makes things work. But every now and then I hit some combination of plates which doesn't allow me to turn the lock screw very far.

I should note again that the above is just nitpicking. I'm very happy with my Ironmaster dumbbells.

[Cpl.Girthington]

Haven't heard anyone advocate spinlocks. I think they're a cool adjustable option, and generally can be had cheap. If you can find a chunk of standard 10s for a good price on craigslist the handles aren't as clunky as oly db handles. Since you have the smaller db's covered, you're not likely to be trying to do a hammer curl, or other movement where the longer db will be a nuisance banging into your body; pressing movements aren't too big of a deal with a longer db- worth the thought.

[ninjaneer]

Haven't heard anyone advocate spinlocks. I think they're a cool adjustable option, and generally can be had cheap. If you can find a chunk of standard 10s for a good price on craigslist the handles aren't as clunky as oly db handles. Since you have the smaller db's covered, you're not likely to be trying to do a hammer curl, or other movement where the longer db will be a nuisance banging into your body; pressing movements aren't too big of a deal with a longer db- worth the thought.

my problem with spinlocks is they often come loose during the middle of a set. you could add something like a rubber band to stop that, but then you gotta deal with the rubber band. ironmasters were the best for me and i had powerblocks for a period. i agree with kbkb, they're not as fast to change weights, but i much prefer the feel of them. my only gripe was that when you're changing a lot of weight, you need to have a flat surface or the plates will fall over.

[iportal]

my problem with spinlocks is they often come loose during the middle of a set. you could add something like a rubber band to stop that, but then you gotta deal with the rubber band. ironmasters were the best for me and i had powerblocks for a period. i agree with kbkb, they're not as fast to change weights, but i much prefer the feel of them. my only gripe was that when you're changing a lot of weight, you need to have a flat surface or the plates will fall over.

Spinlocks are well, I'm not a fan of them, put it that way, and I used them for about two years before going for Pro Style dumbells.

I went for Pro Style dumbells (I currently have 7 pairs at the weight I need and I'm going to buy a couple of pairs every few months as and when I need them to have a full set in the future).

Iron master dumbbells are fantastic by all accounts.

You could always but fewer set of Pro Style dumbells with plate mates so you need half as many dumbells and still go up in 5lb / 2.5kg increments.

By the way, in answer to your question, I can rep 100kg on a barbell for bench press (max 112.5kg for 1 rep).
For dumbells I can rep 45kg dumbells (90kg total).

I'm fairly close with my dumbells bench press to my barbell bench press as I'm more of a fan of dumbells over a barbell.

I hope that answers your question, if you have any other questions, please ask.

[jamesovercome]

I'll be honest I think the ironmaster dumbbells take waay too long to switch in/out and the screw comes lose during lifting. It was very painful especially if you're going 80-75-70-65 or had to jump from 40 to 80 for me. The Powerblocks literally take seconds to change out and 90lbs is going to cover most of the bases. I am however thinking about upgrading the Ironmasters to 120lbs since I would very rarely change out those weights.

I would say get The Powerblocks and then if you need anything over 90lbs buy separate dumbbells.

[thors5]

For reference sake, I can bench 185 for 3-5 reps, and get 80lb dumbells for 3-5 also. I like dumbells way better, heavy barbell bench doesn't feel right whereas dumbells really hit my chest.

[KBKB]

I'll be honest I think the ironmaster dumbbells take waay too long to switch in/out and the screw comes lose during lifting.

I've never had the Ironmaster lock-screw come loose during lifting.

It was very painful especially if you're going 80-75-70-65 or had to jump from 40 to 80 for me.

Yeah, it does take longer when going from a configuration which doesn't use a big (22.5lb) plate to one that does, or vice versa. It takes me around 30 seconds total to go from 30 to 50 lbs, but it takes a little over a minute to go from 50 to 75 (using the long lock-screws and big plates).

I am however thinking about upgrading the Ironmasters to 120lbs since I would very rarely change out those weights.

I've toyed with the idea of purchasing a second pair of Ironmaster dumbbells and leaving them configured with a base weight of 75lbs. (Handle + 4*5lb + 2*22.5lb = 75lbs.) The other pair would be used for 70lbs and below.

[GarageIron]

my problem with spinlocks is they often come loose during the middle of a set.

The best solution to this is use lock washers between the plate and spinlock. It's not ideal, but they will not come loose.

[Detrus]

Spinlock secure lock trick, needs the rubber piece in the collar I guess. But with the cheapest flakiest chrome handle I haven't had big problems with the actual rubber. One collar had it come loose occasionally. Can glue it or something.

[rvfraley]

guys...been thinking of the iron masters all day...I'm sold. Once again, suggestions from you fine folks have steered me in the right direction.

[LegosInMyEgos]

really varies a lot from person to person and how often you train each exercise. some people are excellent at DB bench and can do almost as much as they barbell bench, and some people (like me) just suck at DB bench (140x4 db's compared to a 385x1 bb).

based off a 55x13 db bench, i would say 65 lb db's are your sweet spot.

in terms of what you should buy, I think you should just buy a cheap adjustable spin lock set until you get up to 100 lb db's. after 100 lb dbs, I think its probably better to have a seperate set of dbs for each weight you're gonna use.

[Skidmarx]

Can't go wrong with ironmasters.

[irongrandpa]

Can't go wrong with ironmasters.

I'll second this.

[rvfraley]

Iron Masters it is! Saving up an extra $200 to cover the cost of shipping and the 120 add on. I already have DB's from 5 - 55 pounds. So, not worried about the slowness of changing the IM. I'll still be using my other DB's for lighter weights, drop sets, etc. But, now I'll be able to continue to try and "up-the-weight".

[thebeast53]

I'm just wondering if anyone knows like the conversion in weights from dumbell bench to normal bench

[KBKB]

I'm just wondering if anyone knows like the conversion in weights from dumbell bench to normal bench

There isn't a precise formula that you can use for this. But, earlier in this thread, there have been several posts listing the poster's maximum barbell vs db bench press. You can probably extrapolate a rough formula from those data.

[Detrus]

Did 95x7 on DB and still 225x3 on BB. Not sure those 95s were really 95, felt light. Sometimes cheap dumbbells can be seriously off.