How to do the Dumbbell Press
Step by step
- Lie flat on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand, feet planted on the floor.
- Pinch your shoulder blades back and press the dumbbells up over your chest.
- Lower the dumbbells with control to about chest level, elbows slightly tucked.
- Feel a comfortable stretch across your chest at the bottom.
- Press the dumbbells back up and together over your chest.
The thing people get wrong
Keep your shoulder blades pulled back on the bench. Do not lower so far that your shoulders feel strained at the bottom.
Coaching cue
Keep your wrists straight and stacked over your elbows through the whole press.
Stay safe
Bring the dumbbells up on your knees and lie back with them; do not hoist them overhead from the floor.
Make it easier or harder
- Harder: Pause one second at the bottom of each rep.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Chest, Triceps
- Secondary: Front delts
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.