Push the whole world beneath your arms.
When you hear “dumbbell press,” I’m guessing your first assumption is to lay on your back and lift dumbbells up above you, right? A solid assumption, and a good choice of exercise. But have you ever considered instead pressing the dumbbells into the ground and pushing up? It sounds silly, right? If the weights are on the ground, then how are you going to get any force from them? I’ll tell you how: by getting them up off the ground.
The dumbbell press-up is a four-way pec-buster of an exercise incorporating push-ups, deadlifts, jerks, and squats in a nearly non-step conga line of fitness. If you can pull off this entire routine as designed, well, your arms will probably feel like noodles for a bit, but afterward, you’ll be able to shove a sumo wrestler over.
The base state of the dumbbell press-up is a push-up with two dumbbells placed on the floor by your sides. Bring your chest down to the floor while holding the dumbbells, then shove yourself right back up. The goal is to perform 150 of these, but inevitably, you’ll need to take a rest. Thing is, though, the rest isn’t really a rest in this case.
Whenever you take a rest, you have to deadlift your dumbbells off the floor to your full standing height three times, lift them up and over your shoulders to head height for three hang power cleans, then perform three front squats with the dumbbells still in that position. After you’re done with all that, then you place the dumbbells back on the floor and get back to pushing-up. Trust me, if this is the alternative, you’ll want to get those push-ups done as soon as possible.
I won’t lie to you, this routine is absolutely brutal, but the pecs you’ll get as a result will be tough enough to cut diamond.
