Dumbbell bench press and shoulder press - to parallel or lower?

[fullofrage84]

I would say do what your body can handle. Full ROM is great, but if it's causing injuries then you need to take a step back and evaluate your form, and/or the amount of weight being lifted.

[trev71]

lowering the weight slower than free fall and pausing at the lowest point,

But what you're saying is that I need to go lower than that then?

Free fall is not what you want here... hehe.. manage and control the decline.

Lower than 90 degrees is what I would am for, yes, the Floor Presses really hold you to 90 degrees. That said on a bench, vs. on the floor, the 90 degrees is going to feel like it is at a different place.

And then a follow-up question to this. If you and other people are saying I should go lower, should I perhaps switch to the BB chest press, since I can lower the bar so that it touches my chest there, and hence definitely hit the ROM needed? It might namely be mental, as it's hard to drop the weights at my measly lifting stats, but if I reset I might be able to get over that mental block easier. Are there any drawbacks to the BB chest press? I mean, from what I've read, DB chest press works more stabilizer issues, so I'd preferably stay with them, but if I can't do proper form, switching to the barbell might be good nonetheless. Any opinions on this?
OK, I see, I'll try whether I can do that with 30 lbs, and if I can't, I'll go with 25 lbs. So in a nutshell, full ROM with a lower weight is better than almost-full ROM with a greater weight, both for hypertrophy, strength and injury prevention?

Barbell Press and Dumbbell Press are different on a few levels. I would not recommend one over the other as they are both fantastic for chest development, and either one will be fine as a primary builder of strength and size for the chest.

I lean toward DB pressing personally, because I'd have to bench in the squat rack at my gym and, well, that is a total pain in the @ss on a few levels.

And, everyone starts somewhere. So, stop stressing about how much your pressing, stop thinking that if you do BB vs DB it will look better because you have more weight on it.. it isn't about looks. At some point down the road you'll notice that you can get more with less in some of your training. Your competing against you, you.

You can do DB on on chest day, and BB on the next, alternate and track them differently. You won't do the same weight with both... it's an option.

Focus on doing ALL of your exercises with full ROM and in good form. You may sacrafice some form or ROM as you increase or test your strength, but the idea is to then control that new weight and get full ROM and good form as you start using it regularly.

So yes, as I increase in weight I may be performing non perfect form and not perfect ROM... however.. I compensate for that in other avenues.

[trev71]

I would say do what your body can handle. Full ROM is great, but if it's causing injuries then you need to take a step back and evaluate your form, and/or the amount of weight being lifted.

Good advice.

For instance some people do not have flexibility to go really deep in squats... others can... the both squat and both gain from it.

[EmperorRyker]

Barbell Press and Dumbbell Press are different on a few levels. I would not recommend one over the other as they are both fantastic for chest development, and either one will be fine as a primary builder of strength and size for the chest.

I lean toward DB pressing personally, because I'd have to bench in the squat rack at my gym and, well, that is a total pain in the @ss on a few levels.

And, everyone starts somewhere. So, stop stressing about how much your pressing, stop thinking that if you do BB vs DB it will look better because you have more weight on it.. it isn't about looks. At some point down the road you'll notice that you can get more with less in some of your training. Your competing against you, you.

You can do DB on on chest day, and BB on the next, alternate and track them differently. You won't do the same weight with both... it's an option.

Focus on doing ALL of your exercises with full ROM and in good form. You may sacrafice some form or ROM as you increase or test your strength, but the idea is to then control that new weight and get full ROM and good form as you start using it regularly.

So yes, as I increase in weight I may be performing non perfect form and not perfect ROM... however.. I compensate for that in other avenues.

Thanks again, man, your replies are really helpful. And I wasn't thinking it'd look better if I did BB chest press due to the weight I'd be pressing, as I said, it'd be because I'd then know for sure that if I'm touching my chest with the bar I'm doing full ROM as opposed to now where I try to go as low as I can, but since I can't see myself in the mirror, I don't know whether I'm really going low enough on all of my reps throughout the sets.

And any comments on this perhaps?

Alright, so I dropped the weight to 25 lbs today and went mid-neck low on my DB shoulder press. I have a kind of an uneasy feeling, though, as I didn't get the pump or the fatigue I usually get (well, those things aren't great, but they are greater than today), and it also seemed to me that the bottommost part of the movement (i.e. the one where the dumbbell is between the shoulder and then to around the ears) is more than with the shoulders done with the outer part of the arm between the triceps on the back and biceps at the front. So now I'm really unsure whether to stick with this range of motion, or go back to that former one, where you go lower than parallel, but no actually so low as to touch the shoulders with the dumbbells.

[trev71]

And any comments on this perhaps?

Check This

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercise...shoulder-press

[DJAuto]

For DB press - I usually have the DB touch my chest, which is full ROM and substantially past parallel.

For DB shoulder press- I usually will stop once the DB's are in-line with the head.

[EmperorRyker]

Check This

http://www.bodybuilding.com/exercise...shoulder-press

Thanks and yeah, I did look at that already. That's actually the form I've been using lately with 30 lb dumbbells. But from what I gather, people are saying that's NOT full ROM, and so my post was aimed at that. So I'm still confused whether to follow this form with slightly heavier dumbbells or go lighter with lowering the weights even further.

For DB shoulder press- I usually will stop once the DB's are in-line with the head.

I see, similar to the video posted here then.

[jwagz]

if you can do full ROM without a shooting pain in your shoulders then you should probably do them that way. a lot of people claim "safety" issues when they say they stop at 90 degrees, but it's really for the same reason they aren't doing deadlifts, which is because they are hard...

[EmperorRyker]

OK, so based on what I've read here and in the "sister" thread I created (http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=146133133), I finally lowered the weight on my dumbbell bench press from 50 lbs to 45 lbs, and tried to focus more on form and going below parallel. I tried to go as low as I could with a barbell and I did actually notice a bit more pec involvement, although I hope that wasn't just my mind playing tricks on me. I used to do 3 sets of 12 x 50 lbs, but now, with elbows also tucked in slightly, I was able to do 10 x 45 lbs, and then on my third set, I also churned out the eleventh rep. I'm still not sure my form is exactly on point, though, as I felt my delts a bit more in my left arm. That might also be from my right arm being stronger or perhaps from a previous minor injury to my left shoulder, but I can't really say.

I thought I was doing the exercise correctly now, but since I'm not sure my question now is whether I should just go for 11 x 45 lbs my next workout or stick to the 10 x 45 lbs range and try to perfect my form. Any suggestions?