What is the best version of the chest press? The answer, of course, is that there is no best, only different. However, if you are trying to decide which one is right for you there are a couple of things to consider.
Bench Press
Flat bench press is a gym favorite. One of the pros to this version is that you can load it up very heavy. The straightbar helps with stability and control, meaning you can get more total weight on the bar than you would with dumbbell presses or loaded push ups. That’s all great if you are going for absolute chest strength. There is a downside though to the rigid straightbar, which is that it can be very unforgiving on the shoulders. The bar does not allow much freedom for the joint to find its own path meaning you need to have good mobility through the chest and shoulders or else risk over-stressing them.
Push up
The drill sargeant’s go-to. An advantage to push ups, besides the fact that there is no equipment required, is that it trains the core and other postural muscles a little more than a bench exercise. You are holding a plank during the exercise which means that, assuming you are doing it well, you’re getting all that extra work stabilizing your posture. Another less talked about but hugely important difference is the fact that because the back is exposed, as opposed to pressed against a bench, the shoulder blades are able to move more freely. Shoulder blade movement is extremely important to shoulder health and using push ups over other pressing exercises can help to promote it.
A con with push ups is that if you do not have good posture and good core stability it can be very difficult to do them well. They end up being a butchered version of what they should be, which makes for subpar results and higher risk for injury.
Dumbbell Chest Press
Dumbbell presses are a serious shoulder stability exercise. Since the weights are independent from each other it’s much more challenging to control them. This can be great for strengthening the rotator cuff and for adding to overall shoulder stability. The flipside though is that this lack of stability means you’ll be pressing less weight. Less weight is not necessarily a bad thing, it just means that you won’t be working at the same absolute strength level as you would with a bench press.
Know What You Need
In the end, the exercises you choose always depend on what your goal is and the more specific you are about that, the better. If you are looking for absolute strength, you’ll probably do bench press more often. If you need to work on shoulder stability or you have mobility issues, dumbbells may be the way to go. If you need more postural and core work, then push ups are best.
What do you need?