hypothetically speaking.
say somebody could perform a 6rep max dumbell benchpress with 50kg dumbells. what would his approx barbell benchpress be for a 6rep max.?
There is not much of a correlation. Yes, stronger benchers can press heavier dumbells, but in our little group, almost everyone can do 8 with 50kg dumbells, and doing dumbell benchpress with much more would be difficult for everyone. However the range in raw bench in this group is from about 280lbs. to 425lbs.
Personally, I don’t like doing dumbell work with dumbells over 100lbs., except for rowing exercises.
i like for my football players to be able to 1 arm db bench 125 for 5 reps.
yes im just speaking hypothetically. i want to know what an appropriate correlation would be.
I would imagine the correlation is moderate, like star said people with big benches will obviously dumbell press more than people with weak benches, but besides that there will be no real one to one correlation.
the best way would be to try a 6-rep max on the bench. It’d give you a true figure, and if you didn’t want to repeat the process of barbell benching, a one-off would give you a rough estimate of YOUR correlation between the 2 activities.
BTW, be careful with barbells and how heavy you go with them until you get good strength levels and ensure your technique is good coz they can be dangerous if progressed too quickly or not performed properly with all their weight force concentrated through one arm. I thought they were more for hypertrophy anyway? Is that your aim?
hmm no, not hypertrophy. i just reached a plateau in barbell benchpress, so i changed excercises. any other excersises i could do besides dumbell benchpress?
3 of my fav:
floor preses
incline press
close grip bench press
I’d say around 275lbs.
I usually go with one or a combination of the following:
Incline Press
Isometric Bench Press at the bottom position
Ballistic Bench Press
If they are not used to bench pressing then there wouldn’t be an accurate % carryover, if they had their combined dumbbell bench press weight would be about 80% of their bench press weight.
That’s just general though, there can be a lot of issues to go into that.
Incline benchpress, close grip bench press, weighted dips, and one of my favorites, board presses. Board presses are bench presses down to one, two, or three 2 x 4s on your chest. Using a spotter or two, it allows you to get the feel of handling heavier weight. If you’re stuck in the bench, do a few weeks of board presses using a weight thats about 10 - 20% higher than your max bench. When you return to normal bench press, the weight will feel much lighter, and your lock out will be much stronger. I wouldn’t rely on them on a regular basis, but they are a good tool for moving through sticking points, which you seem to be experiencing now.