You are definitely looking for an exercise that burns your chest muscles well, the Dumbbell Hex Press exercise is designed to do just that so that it is a good exercise that activate your chest muscles during chest training exercises because it works 100%, despite its strong effectiveness that it is not widely known in the fitness halls.
The Hex Press exercise focuses on working your chest muscles and isolates your triceps muscles as well.
In this post, we will learn everything about this exercise, how you can benefit from it, how to do it safely, and the mistakes that you must avoid.
Let’s continue together!
What is a Dumbbell Hex Press?
First it’s called a hex press because it requires a type of hex dumbbell that has hex sides because it helps you keep your fists narrow.
It is a pressure exercise for the chest muscles on the bench using hex dumbbells so that the grips are narrow and neutral, with the hex pressure forming the slope of the angle of the weights, and pressure is directly placed on the upper and inner chest muscles and making them tense.
The hex press is often used at the middle or end of the chest exercises, because athletes need an isolation exercise that works the chest muscles perfectly after doing a compound exercise.
Athletes usually do not do several repetitions with this exercise, especially if it is at the beginning of the session, many prefer to hold their full energy in order to do other exercises such as the bench press as a main exercise for the chest muscles, while the hex press focuses more on the inner chest muscles.
Force: Push
Mechanics: Isolation
Function: Strength
Dumbbell Hex Press Muscle Worked
The dumbbell hex press exercise works mainly on the chest (inner) muscles and also has a secondary effect on the triceps muscles. shoulder joints, biceps.
The inner chest muscles are targeted when you apply a narrow fist directly to the center of the chest, and this is the core and purpose of this exercise.
While the triceps muscles are secondarily targeted, because the triceps muscles expand with the elbows well bent downward when the dumbbells are pressed to the chest, and they contract well when the arms are pushed straight over the chest, if the muscle expands and contracts with an exercise, it will definitely benefit from the exercise This is what makes the triceps muscles targeted as well.
Shoulder joints are also targeted with each repetition, but it is not a strong impact, but it improves shoulder movement and stability.
The biceps muscle occurs with it like the triceps muscles, but not with the same effect so that the effect on the biceps muscle is less.
How to Dumbbell Hex Press Correctly
Well, we must point out some things before getting into the details of the movement. Many people complain that this exercise did not help them target the inner chest muscles, and this is sad, but why do many bodybuilders rely on it then?
If you are doing this exercise in order to increase the muscle or increase the mass, this may not work, because you need to do exercises that target the chest muscles completely, but when it comes to the inner chest muscles, this exercise requires some vigilance.
You must prepare your chest muscles well and keep them engaging because it is not about the weight, but it is related to the way you target the muscles.
You must keep your chest muscles contracted throughout the exercise and keep the dumbbells close together throughout the exercise as well.
We will find out now.
Dumbbell Hex Press Video Guide:
- Choose a weight that matches your fitness level, the weight should not be too heavy.
- Pick up the dumbbells and sit on the edge of the bench, put the dumbbells above your knees so as not to waste more energy.
- Lie on the bench, keeping your fists neutral, and lift the dumbbells straight over your chest.
- Keep the dumbbells touching each other throughout the exercise.
- Pull the weight until it touches your chest muscles, keeping your elbows close to your body as you pull down.
- Push up and contract your chest muscles with your arms but don’t bend your elbows Push up on your chest Push your arms in a little bit to contract the inner chest muscles.
- Pull back straight to the center of your chest.
Pro tip:
First, make sure that you are training with a hex,dumbbell because it will make things easier for you and you will not have a problem keeping the dumbbells touching each other, if you do not have a hex dumbbells, you can go with any type of dumbbells, but make sure that it will remain in contact with each other throughout the exercise.
It is important to keep pressing the dumbbells towards each other in order to maintain the tension and it is also important that your fists are in the middle of the chest so that this tension is equal to the muscles of the inner chest.
Because every time you allow your fists to go outside, that tension that we want to target the inner chest muscles affects other muscles that are not involved in the exercise, such as the shoulder muscles.
Also, there is another thing, in order to improve performance, focus on pushing your shoulders back and pushing your chest up, because this also allows you to keep your focus on the inner chest muscles.
Hex Press Training Program
As we have already mentioned, you can rely on this exercise as an addition to the main chest exercises or in chest sessions, so that you can do a few repetitions immediately after a complex exercise.
It may be a good idea to incorporate this exercise into your chest exercises once a week and allow your muscles to recover well, for example if your goal is to work multiple muscles in the upper body you would go with a compound exercise such as the bench press because it allows heavier weights and recruits more muscles, and You can use the remaining energy to do a hex press to engage the inner chest muscles as an isolation exercise.
If you are looking to build chest muscle mass, the hex press exercise will help you build the strength that you will use while doing compound exercises for muscle hypertrophy.
So you can go with 8 to 10 repetitions and 3 sets of classes each week with moderate weights that are not resistant to muscle failure.
Hex Press Mistakes
Like any exercise, mistakes come with any exercise and can not be avoided, especially if you are a beginner, but it teaches you well how to go on the right track, as well as hex press. There are some simple mistakes that you must avoid while doing it.
- Going with heavy weights:
This is a common mistake because this is not the same as a bench press, we like to target a small section of the chest and heavy weight may be unhelpful and you may spoil muscles with this, so go with lighter weights.
- Going away with your fists:
This is also a mistake that may prevent you from getting good results, because the exercise requires that the dumbbells keep touching each other throughout the exercise and take advantage of that tension as much as possible.
- wrist wrap:
This may also lead to injury to your wrist, as many people twist their wrists forward or backward. This also obstructs the way the dumbbells go, so focus on keeping the wrist aligned with the forearm.
- Not engaging your chest:
This is due to lack of experience, because in chest exercises, you must be prepared to compress the chest muscles and operate them before even starting the exercise, so many beginners keep their chest muscles outside the scope of the exercise even though it is a chest exercise, so avoid making this mistake.
What Are The Benefits of Hex Presses
- It helps to target the inner chest muscles and strengthen them well and helps to separate the chest into two equal parts.
- Improve your performance with compound exercises such as bench press and other press exercises.
- Will helps you gain strength as well and develop it with other exercises.
- Stretching the triceps muscles well is good for your arms as you will multiply the results of arm exercises.
- Check for more upper body activity.
- It improves the stability of the shoulder joints and makes them more flexible.
3 Variations of Hex Presses
Variables also play a role in improving performance and getting the most benefit, as they make you not rely on the same exercise over and over again, which may get you somewhat bored, so here are 3 variables that you can rely on and get the same result.
1- Incline Bench Hex Press
Also, doing the exercise on the inclined bench has a different and good effect on the muscles. It performs the same role and targets the chest muscles and strengthens them well. It is also more stimulating to other muscles such as the front delts.
This exercise can also be relied upon secondarily in chest muscle training sessions, it does not require heavy weight because that may be harmful to the shoulder muscles, and for how to do it, it is like a hex press on the regular bench.
2- Landmine Hex Press
This is also a completely different exercise and it is very good, in which a standing hex press is done and works approximately the same muscles and performs the same role.
It is also a little easier compared to the rest of the variables because you are in a position of strength so that you push your hands forward, this makes you deal with weight and adjust the movement well, also it is very safe and does not pose real risks to you.
It is a good variant that you can count on as a secondary exercise during your chest muscle training sessions, it will improve your performance well.
3- Hex Press With Resistance Bands
You can’t provide dumbbells? Don’t have a bench? It’s not a problem, you can still do the hex press using only the resistance band. It is also effective and targets the upper chest and also stresses the inner chest muscles.
The effectiveness of this exercise is measured by the intensity of the band, the tighter it is and its strong resistance, the better the exercise. It is also done in a standing position so that the movement of the elbows is as you do it on the bench every time you press the band from in front of your chest to in front of your eyes straight and with a narrow fist. It looks like the exercise we are talking about today and achieves the same result.
Use the bands to strengthen your quads at home
Useful Links
There are more strength exercises that will make you progress and build muscles, strength and endurance as well. These links will help you to find more chest exercises with dumbbells, barbells and bands, as well as body weight exercises, and they will be your guide to building strong chest muscles.
Raise your cardio with 50 bodyweight exercise
Target your calves with the best jump ropes exercises
Triceps exercises without equipment
If you have some equipment such as dumbbells, or a bar and some weights and you are a fan of building muscle, you may want to try the best CrossFit workouts for strength and build muscle endurance.
Focus on growing your shoulders with the best shoulder presses
Build your lower body with most powerful compounds exercises
Effective exercises for leg strength and hypertrophy
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Leg press alternatives at home
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