Hex Press

What the hex press actually trains

The hex press is a dumbbell press performed with the two dumbbells pressed hard together throughout the set. The name comes from hexagonal dumbbells, whose flat faces make the contact easy, but any dumbbell with a flat face works and round ones are fine.

Two things happen at once. The pressing motion loads the chest, front delts and triceps in the usual way. And the constant inward squeeze adds horizontal adduction, which is the pectoralis major's primary action, held for the entire set.

That combination is the reason for the exercise. A normal press loads the chest by moving weight, and the chest is only strongly shortened at the very top. A fly supplies the adduction but cannot be loaded heavily. The hex press does both at once: real load moving through a real range, with the chest actively squeezing the whole time.

The trade-off is weight. You cannot press as much when the dumbbells must stay pinned together, because part of your effort goes sideways rather than up. Expect to use noticeably less than on a standard dumbbell press.

The narrow position also means the triceps work harder than in a wide press, and the elbows stay closer to the torso. That last point makes it a comfortable option for a lot of people whose shoulders dislike wide pressing, since the arm never reaches the flared position that tends to cause trouble.

Setting up and executing

Sit on a flat bench with a dumbbell on each thigh and kick them into position as you lie back.

Bring them together over your chest with the palms facing each other and press them hard against each other so the flat faces stay in contact. That pressure should be established before the first rep and never released until the set ends.

Set the shoulder blades down and back into the bench and plant the feet.

Keep the elbows relatively close to your torso rather than flared wide. Wide elbows make the squeeze impossible.

Lower the dumbbells together towards the middle of your chest under control, maintaining the inward pressure the whole way down. Touch the chest lightly with the dumbbells still pressed together.

Press back up by driving through the palms, stopping just short of locking the elbows.

The mistakes that cost you the most

Letting the dumbbells separate is the fault that removes the point of the exercise. If they drift apart you are doing an ordinary neutral grip dumbbell press, which is a fine exercise but not this one. Check the contact mid-set.

Relaxing the squeeze at the bottom is the subtler version of the same problem, and it happens exactly where the squeeze is hardest to maintain and most useful. Consciously press harder as the dumbbells reach your chest.

Using hexagonal dumbbells only is a misconception worth clearing up. The name is descriptive of where the exercise started, not a requirement. Round dumbbells with flat ends work perfectly well.

Going too heavy is self-limiting here in a useful way: weight you cannot squeeze together is simply too heavy. Accept a lighter load than your normal dumbbell press.

And flaring the elbows makes the squeeze mechanically impossible while also putting the shoulder in a less comfortable position. Kolber and colleagues, reviewing resistance training shoulder injuries, describe wide-flared pressing among the positions most often implicated, which is another reason to keep them close.

Sets, reps and rest by goal

For muscle gain, three sets of ten to fifteen with about a minute of rest. For strength work, three sets of eight to twelve with ninety seconds, though a standard press is the better strength tool. In a fat loss phase, three sets of twelve to twenty with shorter rests.

Moderate reps suit this exercise. Very low reps make the squeeze difficult to maintain, and very high reps usually see the dumbbells drift apart as the chest tires.

Schoenfeld and colleagues found a dose response between weekly hard sets and hypertrophy, and these count as chest pressing volume. Because the load is lower than a standard press, this is usually a second or third exercise rather than the main one.

Refalo and colleagues found stopping a rep or two short of failure produces comparable hypertrophy to going to failure, and here the practical stopping point is when you can no longer keep the dumbbells pressed together.

Schoenfeld and colleagues also found a range of loads produce hypertrophy provided sets are taken close enough to failure, which is reassuring given the lighter weights this exercise requires.

Where it fits in your split

After the main pressing, as a second or third movement.

On push, pull and legs it goes on push day. On an upper and lower split it belongs in the accessory block. On a bro split it lands second or third on chest day.

The clearest case for programming it is that it replaces both a lighter press and a fly with one exercise. If your session is short, a heavy press followed by hex presses covers more ground than a heavy press followed by a light press.

It is also a reasonable choice when a shoulder is grumpy, since the narrow elbow position keeps the arm out of the flared position that tends to cause complaints.

If you already do a heavy press and a cable fly, this adds redundancy rather than coverage, and there is no strong reason to include all three.

Once a week is enough.

Variations worth knowing

The incline hex press, on a bench set to around thirty degrees, biases the upper chest while keeping the squeeze. This is arguably the most useful version, since the upper chest is undertrained for most people and the squeeze is preserved.

The dumbbell crush press is the same exercise under a different name, and the two terms are used interchangeably in most gyms.

The neutral grip dumbbell press is the same hand position without the squeeze, which lets you use more weight but removes the adduction component. Worth knowing as the heavier alternative.

The Svend press is the standing plate version of the same idea. Lighter, more of a finisher, and needs no bench.

The close-grip bench press is the barbell equivalent of a narrow press, with substantially more triceps involvement and no squeeze.

And the flat dumbbell press is the standard version, allowing heavier loading and more range at the bottom where the dumbbells can travel past chest level.

What the evidence says

The rationale rests on mechanics. Pressing the dumbbells together produces horizontal adduction, which is the pectoralis major's primary action, so maintaining that pressure keeps the chest under tension throughout a press rather than only near the top.

Saeterbakken and colleagues examined bench press variations in competitive athletes and found differences in strength and muscle activity across variations, which supports treating grip and elbow position as meaningful variables rather than cosmetic ones.

Vigotsky and colleagues caution against interpreting muscle activation amplitudes as a direct ranking of hypertrophy potential, which is worth stating because the case for the hex press is frequently made on how strongly the chest feels engaged.

Brandao and colleagues examined the triceps heads and how exercises load them, which is relevant because the narrow elbow position here increases triceps involvement relative to a wide press.

Kolber and colleagues on resistance training shoulder injuries supports the narrow elbow position as a comfortable option, Pallares and colleagues found full range training beat partial training, and Schoenfeld and colleagues on volume and Refalo and colleagues on proximity to failure supply the programming.

Common questions

Do I need hexagonal dumbbells?

No. The name describes where the exercise came from, not a requirement. Any dumbbell with a flat end works, and round dumbbells with flat faces are perfectly usable. The only genuinely awkward ones are heavily rounded or bulbous heads that will not sit against each other.

How is this different from a normal dumbbell press?

The dumbbells stay pressed hard together throughout, which adds horizontal adduction to the movement and keeps the chest actively squeezing the whole set. A normal press only shortens the chest strongly near the top. The cost is that you will use less weight, because part of your effort goes sideways.

Is it the same as the dumbbell crush press?

Yes, in practice. The two names describe the same exercise and are used interchangeably. Some people reserve crush press for versions with a more deliberate squeeze emphasis, but there is no meaningful distinction.

How much lighter should I go?

Noticeably. Most people use somewhere between two thirds and three quarters of their normal dumbbell press weight, though it varies. The correct load is whatever lets you keep the dumbbells pressed firmly together for the whole set. If they separate, it is too heavy.

Should this replace my flat dumbbell press?

Not as your main press, because you cannot load it as heavily and load matters. It works better as a second movement, where it covers both a lighter press and a fly in one exercise. If your session is short, that efficiency is the main reason to use it.