I have a quesiton..While doing db chest press, is it better to flare the elbows out, or tuck them in a bit. For better chest development.? IF anyone has a video that they could post, that'd be great.... I know which you do barebell they say its more better to tuck your elbows, but with dbs I was told to flare out more. SO i want to see what you all think.
TO flare or not 2 flare, That is the question.
Sun, 2011-02-20 02:29
TO flare or not 2 flare, That is the question.
Thu, 2011-03-03 18:38
#1
Good question.
The more you abduct the shoulder,(as you said, flair the elbows out) the more pec you bring into it and the less front delt and tricep you will engage. However there is a caveat there: The more you abduct it/flar the elbows...the less stable your shoulder becomes and the more stress you place on the joint, specifically the anterior side (supraspinatus in particular).
I've long said there are a few great movements for muscle that are just just awful for their associated joints. Pec decs that have you abducted and externally rotated (the old school kind), dips and barbel benchl presses. They are all really good for muscle stimulation and all even worse for your joints. So don't do them.
For chest press, the best way to go is to A) use DB's and B) really make sure your shoulders are positioned and stabilized well and then listen to your body and abduct your arms to a position that feels comfortable. As a rule in the gym, if the position your body is in feels uncomfortable - it's probably wrong and subsequently dangerous.
Thu, 2011-03-03 22:56
#2
Hey Sean,
Just wanted to ask you another question that kind of goes inline with this chest exercise:
Now I know we have seen our fair share of the exercise the cable crossover, but the one you see more often than not and probably due to the cables not being able to be moved down to your chest level, are the ones that guys do where they lean over and use their weight to to do the weight and push the weight towards the ground and are basically parallel to the ground when doing this exercise. Now would that be the right way to really do this exercise?
My feeling on this move is that it should be done more upright where you really comes out and around where the arms are more parallel to the ground and the body is slightly less than perpendicular with a nice high chest, it's an isolation move and by straying in this position it is one, when doing it as stated in the previous paragraph, it almost seems to be a compound movement don't you think? This way the emphasis remains on the chest during the whole movement instead of your body being the main mover of the weight?
Thoughts?
Fri, 2011-03-04 15:13
#3
That's a good question/point, Craig.
I have two thoughts here:
1) It can be very effective either way. Overload is overload assuming the joints are in the right position. On this exercise that can honestly be achieved a couple of different ways. Leaning into it (I do it that way to favor my bum shoulder) is just fine. But you have more leverage there and subsequently you need more weight to offset that.
2) Form and technique have only one goal - maximum muscle stimulation. So however you choose to do this exercise you must first consider safety and once you have a good position established, you simply need to load the weight correctly so that you hit muscle failure in the right rep range.
3) Thanks for the thought - just started writing an article on isolation.
