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Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

A dumbbell bench press with dumbbells held together to increase triceps involvement.

Upper arms · Dumbbell · Intermediate

Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press — start position, flat illustration
start
Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press — peak position, flat illustration
peak

Muscles worked by the Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

Primary

TricepsTriceps Brachii

Secondary

Front DeltsAnterior DeltoidChestPectoralis Major

Also called: tricep, triceps, triceps brachii, horseshoe, tris.

Equipment

Dumbbell

Also called: db, dumbell, hex dumbbell, rubber dumbbell, hand weight.

How to do the Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press

  1. Lie on a flat bench and hold two dumbbells together over your chest.
  2. Lower them to your chest keeping elbows close.
  3. Press back up.
  4. Repeat.

Form tips

  • Press the dumbbells together throughout the movement.
  • Keep elbows tucked.

At a glance

Body partUpper arms
CategoryStrength
Force typePush
MechanicCompound
DifficultyIntermediate
EquipmentDumbbell
GoalsHypertrophy, Strength
TagsArm day, Push day, Knee safe, No axial load, Lower back safe, Shoulder safe, Requires bench
MET6.0 (metabolic equivalent, for calorie estimates)
UnilateralNo
BodyweightNo
Dataset idclose-grip-db-bench-press

Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press in German & Spanish

GermanKurzhantel-Bankdrücken enger Griff
SpanishPress de Banca con Mancuernas y Agarre Cerrado

Descriptions, instructions and tips ship in all three languages in the JSON.

Exercise data (JSON)

The record below is exactly what exercises.json ships for this exercise — names, descriptions, instructions and tips in English, German and Spanish.

{
  "id": "close-grip-db-bench-press",
  "name_en": "Close-Grip Dumbbell Bench Press",
  "name_de": "Kurzhantel-Bankdrücken enger Griff",
  "name_es": "Press de Banca con Mancuernas y Agarre Cerrado",
  "description_en": "A dumbbell bench press with dumbbells held together to increase triceps involvement.",
  "description_de": "Kurzhantel-Bankdrücken mit zusammengehaltenen Kurzhanteln zur stärkeren Trizepsbeanspruchung.",
  "description_es": "Un press de banca con mancuernas sostenidas juntas para aumentar la participación de los tríceps.",
  "category": "strength",
  "force_type": "push",
  "mechanic": "compound",
  "difficulty": "intermediate",
  "equipment": "dumbbell",
  "body_part": "upper_arms",
  "primary_muscles": [
    "triceps_brachii"
  ],
  "secondary_muscles": [
    "anterior_deltoid",
    "pectoralis_major"
  ],
  "goals": [
    "hypertrophy",
    "strength"
  ],
  "tags": [
    "arm_day",
    "push_day",
    "knee_safe",
    "no_axial_load",
    "lower_back_safe",
    "shoulder_safe",
    "requires_bench"
  ],
  "variation_group": "bench-press",
  "is_unilateral": false,
  "is_bodyweight": false,
  "instructions_en": [
    "Lie on a flat bench and hold two dumbbells together over your chest.",
    "Lower them to your chest keeping elbows close.",
    "Press back up.",
    "Repeat."
  ],
  "instructions_de": [
    "Leg dich auf eine flache Bank und halte zwei Kurzhanteln zusammen über der Brust.",
    "Senke sie zur Brust, Ellbogen nah am Körper.",
    "Drücke zurück nach oben.",
    "Wiederholen."
  ],
  "instructions_es": [
    "Túmbate en un banco plano y sostén dos mancuernas juntas sobre el pecho.",
    "Bájalas hasta el pecho manteniendo los codos cerca.",
    "Empuja hacia arriba.",
    "Repite."
  ],
  "tips_en": [
    "Press the dumbbells together throughout the movement.",
    "Keep elbows tucked."
  ],
  "tips_de": [
    "Drücke die Kurzhanteln während der gesamten Bewegung zusammen.",
    "Halte die Ellbogen angelegt."
  ],
  "tips_es": [
    "Mantén las mancuernas presionadas entre sí durante todo el movimiento.",
    "Mantén los codos pegados."
  ],
  "met": 6.0,
  "images": {
    "flat": {
      "start": "images/flat/close-grip-db-bench-press-start.webp",
      "peak": "images/flat/close-grip-db-bench-press-peak.webp"
    }
  }
}

Fetch just this exercise

const { exercises } = await fetch(
  "https://exercise-dataset.com/exercises.json"
).then(r => r.json());
const ex = exercises.find(e => e.id === "close-grip-db-bench-press");

Free for personal and commercial in-app use with attribution (“Exercise data by RepDB”) — see the license and ready-made attribution snippets. Redistributing the data as a dataset or API is not permitted.