1 arm dumbbell chest presses? | Lifting 101 | Forum

The main role of performing 1 arm chest press( or any 1 limbed exercise) is that it engages the anti-rotational muscles in the body – internal/external obilques, and it turns a single plane movement into a multi plane movement. For many years to train these muscles, I used to, like many trainers, used the old oblique crunch/hanging leg raises with twist/ russian twists etc. I dont any more. The reason I dont is that we know understand the role of 'the abdominal region' much better these days thanks to people such as McGill, Cook & Sahramann. (Again many people still believe in performing flexed spine exercises under load i.e. weighted sit – ups/crunches. My advice, is to keep doing them if you want a bad back later in life, but heh, most people dont care if they are in pain as long as they look gd)

Getting back to the original point why we use one arm/leg in exercises. Imagine if your obliques did not work when performing a 1 arm press. You would fall off the bench.

I've tried these a couple of times, and they are tough.  You definitely must drop down in weight.  I think they're fine as a combo chest / ab exercise after doing regular dumbbell chest presses.

My turn :)

Upper Body Progressions:

2-arms

Alternating arms

1-arm

1-arm w/ rotation

Lower Body Progressions

2-legs stable

2-legs unstable

1-leg stable

1-leg unstable

Those are the BASIC "core training" progressions set by NASM standards.  The point of these IS NOT TO BUILD MAXIMAL STRENGTH.  They actually go more in depth, and can be combinations and middle grounds inbetween them, but for the argument's sake this will work.

For starters an NASM certification is almost the opposite of an ISSA certification.  ISSA is geared more towards an athletic perspective whereas a NASM certification allows you to work with health disabilites and highly unfit persons.

In order to build maximal strength in an exercise you must allow a muscle to exert full force.  This means you MUST be in a stable environment.  By being in an unstable environment you are sacrificing some strength gain for stability/balance gain.

So to answer your question Darrin, by doing a single arm DB press you are doing just that.  Sacrificing strength gain for functionality in the exercise.  And while yes, I don't recommend this for a bodybuilder or power lifter, it does do some good in a normal persons exercise library.

NOW, saying that it will do damage to your body is the exact same thing as saying squats are bad for your back.  While in actuality they are good for your back.  the catch is a squat is clasified as a 2-leg controlled unstable exercise.  Which is a progression from something like a leg extension or a leg press which is stable.  Yes, you could hurt your back with improper technique or advancing to quickly.  But, if done properly it does wonders for you.

The same holds true for the chest press.  A dumbbell is inherently unstable, as opposed to a machine, which is stable, or even a barbell, which is classified somewhere in the middle; depends on the person lifting it.  Now by removing an arm you are increasing the need for the stabilizing muscles to activate, which in turn progresses the exercise.  As you can tell, a 1-arm exercise is apretty far down on the list.  So naturally you shouldn't jump right to it from a normal dumbbell press.

Hope that helps you out some Darrin

Lol, it probably isn't listed.  It just supposed to be "common knowledge" among NASM certifiees then.