Part dumbbell bench press and part isometric dumbbell flye, the hex press is a novel high-tension chest-builder. The hex press is performed on a flat bench with the dumbbells squeezed together throughout the pressing motion. This feature explains why one alternate name for this unique chest exercise is the “squeeze press.”

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This exercise also goes by “Champagne press,” however the hex press isn’t only for special occasions. Like Champagne, the hex press compliments absolutely anything — it’s great for lifters training for a stronger press, a more muscular chest, or healthier shoulders.

Able to pop the cork on recent chest gains? Find every part it is advisable know below. 

Hex Press

Hex Press Video Guide

See the hex press in motion, demonstrated by writer Dr. Merrick Lincoln. Note the important thing techniques, then take a look at the Step-by-Step breakdown with additional form suggestions. 

Learn how to Do the Hex Press Step By Step

It could seem like a close-grip dumbbell bench press but, while there are some similarities, there are crucial differences that make the hex press stand out. Follow these steps for correct, efficient, and effective technique.

Step 1 — Set Up Five Points of Contact

Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube

Just like the bench press, the hex press is performed on a flat bench. Hold a dumbbell in each hand, arrange with five points of contact for stability — the back of your head on the bench, your shoulder blades on the bench, your buttock on the bench, your right foot touching the ground, and your left foot touching the ground. (1)

Form Tip: Recruit a “spotter,” or individual who can assist you in the event you run into trouble through the exercise. Any exercise involving weights passing over the body requires a spotter. (1) A spotter is very essential when learning an unfamiliar exercise. The spotter stands behind the bench and, if assistance is mandatory, they’ll assist by grasping your wrists to guide the dumbbells. (1)

Step 2 — Set Your Shoulders and Squeeze the Dumbbells Together

Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube

Lift your chest toward the ceiling by arching your back and pulling your shoulder blades together. Maintain this position throughout the exercise. With a neutral grip (palms facing one another), bring the dumbbells together just above your sternum and squeeze them together hard.

Form Tip: In the event you’re using hexagonal-shaped dumbbells — the namesake equipment for the hex press — ensure flat surfaces of the dumbbells are aligned and squeezed together. 

Step 3 — Maintain Pressure, Press to Lockout

Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube

Initiate the press by flexing your shoulders and lengthening your elbows. Keep the dumbbells squeezed together and elbows tucked throughout the movement. Don’t decrease inward pressure as you reach the highest, locked out, position.

Form Tip: Keep tension. Along with the profound contraction you’ll feel in your chest, you must feel tension in your upper back and lats, which keep your shoulder blades pulled together (retracted) and keep your elbows tucked toward your sides. 

Step 4 — Lower without Separating

Credit: Merrick Lincoln, DPT, CSCS / YouTube

Lower to the middle of your chest using the identical arm path because the upward movement phase. Concentrate on keeping the dumbbells firmly squeezed together throughout the lowering phase, which can feel barely unnatural at first, for the reason that lowering phase of most exercises emphasizes a muscle stretch.

Form Tip: Take into consideration “rowing” or actively pulling the dumbbells back your chest. “Rowing” the weights back to the starting position reinforces tension in your upper back and eliminates the necessity to reset your arch before the subsequent repletion.

Hex Press Mistakes to Avoid

Dodge these common errors for cleaner technique and more practical hex presses.

Losing The “Squeeze” Between Dumbbells

The pressure exerted between the dumbbells is an element of the special sauce that makes the hex press effective — and further spicy. It promotes muscular engagement in parts of the chest that may not otherwise be as lively.

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At the underside position of the exercise, the lifter’s elbows are bent, and shoulder internal rotation force is required to maintain the dumbbells together. Toward the highest position, arms are straighter, and shoulder horizontal adduction force is required to maintain the dumbbells together. Even though it may get harder to maintain the squeeze at the highest and bottom of the movement, firm pressure between the dumbbells should be maintained throughout.

Dropping Your Chest, Freeing Your Shoulder Blades, or Flaring Your Elbows

Loss of tension within the back allows the chest to drop, shoulder blades to spread, and upper arms to drift away from the lifter’s sides. These three errors are inclined to occur together, they usually could make the hex press less effective.

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In the event you feel any of those faults, reset by arching your spine, retracting your shoulder blades (and pinning them to the bench), and tucking your elbows toward your ribcage. Now, keep this tension and finish.

Non-Perpendicular Pressure Between Dumbbells

When squeezing the dumbbells together, it’s essential to keep up opposing forces from the left and right arm which are horizontally aligned and nearly equal in magnitude. Otherwise, dumbbells may slip or roll apart, resulting in lack of tension, missed reps, or worse.

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Get the texture of making the squeeze using light dumbbells during your “work up” sets and give attention to maintaining even, regular pressure throughout the workout. 

Learn how to Progress the Hex Press

When first performing the hex press, start with relatively light dumbbells to hone technique. When you’re comfortable with the exercise, a “working weight” 20 to 30% lower than what you’d typically use for a standard dumbbell bench press will likely be appropriate. From there, lifters have several great options for progressing the hex press.

Squeeze Harder

The best approach to progress the hex press is to use more inward pressure to the dumbbells. Increasing the “squeeze” makes the exercise tougher and boosts the training stimulus experienced by the chest and shoulder muscles.

Increase Weight

Squeezing harder through the hex press could make virtually any weight tougher, but this progression method isn’t more likely to stimulate triceps growth or carry over to heavy pressing as efficiently as increasing the burden.

When you’re in a position to hit or surpass your repetition goal on the ultimate working set, it could be time to make use of heavier dumbbells. Ideally, jumping as much as the subsequent pair of dumbbells on the rack will drop you back toward the underside of your goal repetition range.

Increase Repetition Volume

As you get stronger with the hex press, consider performing additional repetitions per set. For instance, in the event you normally perform eight to 12 repetitions, and also you’re consistently hitting 12 reps with more left within the tank, change your goal to 12 to 16 repetition sets. Shifting the repetition range upward helps to make sure difficult sets and ongoing muscle gain.

Advantages of the Hex Press

The hex press biases your chest while requiring only light to moderate weights and minimal shoulder extension. Altogether, the hex press may provide recent chest growth and a more shoulder-friendly pressing experience.

Robust Chest Training

Performed properly, the hex press enables maximal or near-maximal chest contraction throughout every repetition — a feat impossible during traditional presses. Here’s why: 

Traditional exercises are limited by the quantity of resistance our muscles can overcome through the sticking point, or probably the most difficult portion of the movement. For presses, the sticking point occurs toward the start of the upward movement phase. (2) In the course of the remainder of the movement, your muscles aren’t maximally challenged. In the course of the hex press, you may ensure your muscles are adequately stimulated by squeezing the weights together as hard as you desire. 

Not feeling adequately challenged? Simply squeeze the dumbbells together harder to demand more force from the chest. Furthermore, squeezing as you press virtually ensures thorough engagement of pectoralis major — Read more within the “Muscles Worked” section below.

Reinforces Mind-Muscle Connection and Pressing Technique

Horizontal pressing exercises, akin to the bench press and dumbbell bench press, are a mainstay for strength training and physique development. Several technical elements are common across all bench-supported horizontal pressing exercises, including the necessity for shoulder blade retraction and co-contraction of muscles across the shoulder joints. Also desirable is the feeling of muscular effort from the chest. Lifters spend months, even years, honing their form to enhance efficiency and effectiveness.

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Fortunately, the hex press might help lifters to construct strength, technique, and a mind-muscle connection that may reinforce proper performance of other horizontal presses. In the course of the hex press, squeezing the dumbbells together creates the sensation of peak pectoralis major contraction throughout the pressing movement. This sensation of “flexing the pecs” might help to boost the mind-muscle connection, which could also be conducive to greater gains. (3)

Squeezing the dumbbells together also encourages greater involvement of your rhomboids and middle trapezius, as they need to counteract forces from pectoralis major, subscapularis, serratus anterior, and other muscles on the front of the torso. Rhomboids and middle traps are the muscles primarily accountable for maintaining retraction of the shoulder blades. Increased demand through the hex press may encourage lifters to create a tighter setup for bench-supported horizontal pressing.

Shoulder-Friendly Pressing

Individuals with certain shoulder problems, akin to shoulder instability, may not tolerate traditional pressing. (4)(5) Individuals who present with apprehension and pain within the front of the shoulder when the arm is brought out and prolonged behind the body can have a selected kind of instability called anterior instability. (4)(6) This problem is common amongst lifters. One small study reported over two-thirds of recreational resistance trainees showed signs and symptoms of anterior instability. (6) 

Unlike the essential dumbbell bench press or barbell bench press, the hex press limits shoulder extension at the underside of the movement. Your arms cannot travel behind your body, since the dumbbells aren’t allowed to clear the chest. This feature could also be higher tolerated by lifters with functional anterior instability. 

Because every brand of shoulder pain is different, those suffering with shoulder issues should seek a professional sports medicine provider — and the hex press is perhaps value discussing, as it could present a chance to coach around or train through certain shoulder issues with the suitable guidance.

Muscles Worked by the Hex Press

As a neutral-grip pressing movement, the hex press trains the muscles that flex your shoulders and extend your elbows. Squeezing the dumbbells together also trains the muscles of shoulder horizontal adduction (i.e. those trained during a chest flye) and the muscles of shoulder internal rotation. Listed here are the foremost players.

Pectoralis Major

You’ll feel the hex press most profoundly in pectoralis major, the largest, most superficial muscles of your chest. The pectoralis major has two major parts — the clavicular head, or upper chest, and the sternocostal head, which composes the center to lower a part of the chest. Each part contributes to numerous shoulder actions and the hex press covers virtually all bases for training your pectoralis major.

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Shoulder flexion is resisted through the pressing movement of the hex press. The clavicular head of pectoralis major is trained during resisted shoulder flexion. (7) Shoulder horizontal adduction is trained by squeezing the dumbbells together toward the highest of the hex press.

Each heads of the pectoralis major are trained during shoulder horizontal adduction, together with a handful of various muscles. (7)(8) Shoulder internal rotation is trained when the dumbbells are squeezed together toward the underside of the hex press. Again, each heads are trained during internal rotation exercise, albeit the sternocostal head is probably going biased. (9)

Anterior Deltoid

The deltoid is the “cap” of muscle surrounding the front, back, and side of your shoulder. It is split into three functional parts, each with different actions — anterior, middle, and posterior. The anterior deltoid, or front delts, flex the shoulder and assist with squeezing the dumbbells together through the hex press. (7) While typical pressing exercises hit this a part of the delt, the additional squeeze of the hex press makes this exercise more practical for anterior deltoid development.

Triceps Brachii

The hex press trains your triceps brachii, the three-headed muscle on the backside of your arms. Along with filling your sleeves, the triceps brachii helps improve your bench press numbers by enhancing lockout strength. For an important triceps pump, try three or 4 sets of hex press with light-to-moderate weight dumbbells for high-repetition sets with 60 seconds rest between each set.

Rotator Cuff

Although traditional pressing largely trains muscles on the front of your chest and shoulders, the movement also prompts essential muscles positioned deep behind the shoulders— the posterior rotator cuff. (10) The posterior rotator cuff serves a stabilizing function through the press.

By actively squeezing the dumbbells together, particularly through the bottom half of the hex press, the deep muscle on the front of the shoulder, or anterior rotator cuff, is engaged. Hence, the hex press appears to be uniquely suited to coach each the posterior and anterior rotator cuff muscles.

Learn how to Program the Hex Press

The hex press could be programmed in quite a lot of ways on push day, during a selected chest workout, or during a full body workout. Hex presses can construct muscle and strength. As well as, they prime your chest and shoulders for heavy work and work nicely for intensification techniques.

As a Low-to-Moderate Weight, High-Repetition Chest Builder 

Whether training for constructing muscle (i.e. “hypertrophy”) or strength, high effort sets — those carried as much as or near muscular failure — are effective even relatively with light weight. (11)(12)(13) 

Select light-to-moderate weight dumbbells (e.g. 40 to 70% of what you’d use for a regular dumbbell bench press). Then, take each working set to inside two or three repetitions of failure. Two to 4 sets of eight or more repetitions will promote strength and size, provided sets are performed with high levels of effort.

As a Lightweight Activation Exercise

Do you or someone you already know suffer from the lack to feel the chest working during presses? Don’t despair. The hex press is perhaps the fix. 

Simply perform one to a few light sets of hex presses before your primary press of the day (i.e. before the bench press, incline press, etc.). Concentrate on the “squeeze” through the hex press. Then, like an overfilled shaker bottle, the mind-muscle connection to your pecs will spill over to your primary pressing movement.

Maximally squeezing the dumbbells together during a set of hex pressing may increase power output during a subsequent set of presses via a phenomenon called post-activation potentiation. (14) This effect could also be especially appealing for athletes and lifters training to be more athletic. 

As A part of a Giant Set

An enormous set is an intensification technique consisting of 4 or more exercises in series without rest between. Like supersets, the exercises used giant sets can goal non-competing muscle groups or an identical muscles.

When all 4 exercises in the large set goal the identical muscles, they’ve been shown to provide similar hypertrophy to supersets and traditional sets that used 90 second rest intervals. (15) But here’s the kicker — giant sets take less time than supersets and traditional sets. 

The hex press requires easy equipment, minimal setup, and compliments many various giant set configurations. Here’s a sample giant set:

• Dumbbell Bench Press — 3-4 x 12
• Dumbbell Pullover — 3-4 x 12
• Dumbbell Flye — 3-4 x 12
• Hex Press — 3-4 x 12

Take no rest between individual exercises. Switch dumbbells if mandatory and immediately begin the subsequent lift. Rest 60-90 seconds between giant sets.

Hex Press Variations

Searching for other effective and shoulder-friendly ways to coach the chest? Depending in your preferences and available equipment, you would possibly select certainly one of the next variations: 

Single-Arm Dumbbell Floor Press

The dumbbell floor press could be an important exercise for learning and training horizontal pressing movements. In comparison with the essential dumbbell bench press, the ground press limits shoulder extension, because the upper arms will probably be stopped by the bottom. The shoulder extension range of motion of the ground press is comparable to the hex press, meaning it is probably going to attenuate stress on the front of the shoulder, as discussed within the Advantages section, above.

One major drawback of the dumbbell floor press, nonetheless, is that it will likely be limited to light dumbbells because of difficult setup. Performing the ground press one arm at a time (“unilaterally”) helps to attenuate this problem.

Perform the single-arm dumbbell floor press lying in your back, either along with your feet flat on the ground or your legs prolonged out in front of you. Begin the press with a single dumbbell held in conjunction with your chest and your upper arm resting on the ground. Keep your shoulder blades pinned to the ground as you drive the dumbbell toward the ceiling and lower with control. 

Incline Hex Press

Limited research suggests the incline bench press may provide greater gains in upper chest, or clavicular head pectoralis major, muscle thickness in comparison with the flat bench press. (8)(16)

Although we should be cautious extrapolating these findings to the hex press, lifters wishing to construct their upper chest might consider the incline version of the exercise. The incline hex press is performed similar to the hex press, except an incline bench or adjustable bench set to roughly 45-degrees is used.

Hex Press to Flye Press Combo

A possible shortcoming of the hex press is the lack to show the chest to training at long muscle lengths (e.g. “under stretch”). Enter the flye press. The standard flye press involves pressing to lockout after which allowing the dumbbells to spread apart in a “flye-like” motion through the downward movement phase, thereby training pectoralis major at long muscle lengths through the eccentric (lowering phase).

For the hex press to flye press combo, get the advantages of the “squeeze” by performing the upward movement phase like a hex press and lowering the weights like a flye. You should definitely use lighter dumbbells than usual for this movement, because the eccentric flye is amazingly difficult. 

Medicine Ball Push-up

While this final variation isn’t a dumbbell press in any respect, push-up variations are criminally underrated. They could be done nearly anywhere. Higher yet, push-ups increase strength and muscle mass similarly to the bench press. (17) 

Performing push-ups along with your hands on either side of a medication ball requires isometric horizontal adduction of the shoulders just like the hex press, while training through an analogous pressing range of motion. Try the medication ball squeeze push-up as a hex press alternative when dumbbells are scarce, when you desire to change-up in the texture of your chest training, or when traditional push-ups grow to be too easy.  

FAQs

“Will the hex press construct my ‘inner chest’?”

In bodybuilding speak, the “inner chest” refers back to the fibers of pectoralis major that attach to the sternum. Specifically, those considering constructing their inner chest are likely most concerned with the proximal or most central portions of those fibers. 
Anyone who performs the hex press properly will let you know they feel a powerful contraction of this portion of the pectoralis major. Although no studies have directly tested the hex press, let alone measured its long-term effects on chest muscle thickness, there’s a case to be made for its use as an inner-chest builder. 
Narrow-grip pressing tends to point out lower muscular activity of the sternal a part of pectoralis major in comparison with traditional or wide-grip pressing. (18) Although the arm path of the hex press resembles a narrow-grip or close-grip press, hex pressing involves the extra task of keeping the dumbbells squeezed together.
Subsequently, it’s protected to assume the “squeeze” enhances sternal pectoralis major contraction, a feat lifters could also be unable to perform through the traditional bench press. (19)

“My gym doesn’t have ‘hex’ dumbbells. Can I take advantage of roundhead dumbbells for the hex press?” 

Although metal or rubber hexagonal-shaped dumbbells are common, many gyms have round or “pro style” dumbbells. The hex press could be performed with round dumbbells, as demonstrated within the video initially of the article.
Nevertheless, it is more difficult. Round dumbbells demand more precise application of inward pressure to avoid movement between the dumbbells.

“Why not only do pec flyes?”

That’s an option. Each exercises train pectoralis major, anterior deltoid, and company. But pec flyes are a single-joint exercise and fail to hit the triceps brachii, which does receive a training stimulus through the hex press.
Machine pec flyes and cable crossovers will also be more taxing on the shoulders, especially amongst lifters with functional anterior instability from a previous injury or cumulative trauma. This pathology is discussed intimately within the Advantages section.

“Are you able to explain more about why hex press is regarded as ‘shoulder-friendly’?”

The radius of the dumbbells gives the effect of a board press, which limits pressing range of motion. Specifically, shoulder extension is restricted. Individuals with certain shoulder injuries, akin to functional anterior instability, may not tolerate loaded shoulder extension. Hence, the hex press could also be an appropriate option. 
Diving deeper, functional anterior instability is regarded as related to decreased activity of subscapularis — a muscle of the rotator cuff. (4) Squeezing the dumbbells together at the underside of the hex press elicits strong contraction of the subscapularis. This feature might improve  tolerance to exercise or help address subscapularis insufficiency. 
Generally, hex pressing tends to be higher tolerated than pec flyes and traditional bench press variations by those with banged up shoulders. Again, go see a professional sports medicine practitioner in the event you’re coping with a shoulder injury.

 

Construct a Magnum Chest with the Champagne Press

The hex press is performed by aggressively squeezing dumbbells together throughout a neutral-grip dumbbell bench press. The squeeze engages greater portions of your pecs, which can result in accelerated chest gains. The hex press also reinforces essential elements of pressing technique, spares sore shoulders from loaded hyperextension, and creates co-contraction conducive to joint stability. Savor the squeeze and rejoice the hex press.

References

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8. dos Santos Albarello, et al. (2022). Non-uniform excitation of pectoralis major induced by changes in bench press inclination results in uneven variations within the cross-sectional area measured by panoramic ultrasonography. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 67, 102722
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10. Wattanaprakornkul, D., et al. (2011). Direction-specific recruitment of rotator cuff muscles during bench press and row. Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 21(6), 1041-1049.
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19. Paoli, A., et al. (2019). Mind-muscle connection: effects of verbal instructions on muscle activity during bench press exercise. European Journal of Translational Myology, 29(2).

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