There’s more than one way to get in a solid upper body workout. What’s the best chest press technique for bringing up a weak point? It depends. A study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research offers insight with a comparison between barbell, Smith machine and dumbbell workouts.
Twenty seven men with weight room experience were randomly assigned to chest press with barbell, Smith machine or dumbbells. All subjects performed 8 sets using 10 rep max resistance with 2 minutes of rest between sets. A couple days after training, soreness in the pecs was similar between groups, but there was no triceps soreness in the dumbbell group and recovery from elbow extensor soreness look longer when using a barbell.
