Wait until you see the most recent exercise Chelsea Handler demonstrated on social media if you think standard chest presses are challenging. Ben Bruno, the comedian’s personal trainer, posted a video of the session to Instagram, including a one-arm, one-leg dumbbell push. (Related: Chelsea Handler Made This Strength Training Exercise Look Simple.)
In the clip , With her right foot on the ground and her right knee bent at a 90-degree angle, the handler rests her upper back on a bench. Her left knee is bent at a 90-degree angle, and her left leg is raised off the ground. She performs a single-arm chest press while gripping a dumbbell in her right hand with a neutral grip at chest level. She holds her left hand straight up. She maintains a flat torso and elevated hips at all times.
According to Bruno’s post, Handler completes 10 reps on the right side, shattering her previous record of eight reps, before switching to the left side soon away. She adds in the video when she shifts her weight to her left hand and shifts where her feet are placed, “Let’s see what happens on this left side.” She completes ten reps on the left side as well, as expected. (Related: Reasons Why You Can’t Lift As Much on Your Left Side and Solutions)
Bruno noted that Handler was using a 30-pound dumbbell in his Instagram caption, adding, “I love this exercise, and this is incredibly strong.”
Over the video, Bruno commented, “I employ ‘this exercise’ with both my male and female customers. Once they get the hang of it, folks can use roughly the same amount of weight as they would for a standard one-arm dumbbell press, plus they receive an extra workout for their glutes and core, according to the expert.
Still, having a basic dumbbell chest press in your repertoire is a good idea. According to Lisa Niren, head coach for the running app Studio , “the bench press uses your shoulders, triceps, forearms, lats, pecs, traps, rhomboids, and pretty much every muscle in your upper body.” The best chest exercises for women are related.
You get a full-body exercise when you combine it with the strength needed to stabilize the body in Handler’s perilous position with only her upper back on the bench. In addition to the chest and arm work needed to press the dumbbell, as Bruno indicated in the post, this exercise also works the glutes and the core.
Not to mention that it is a unilateral, or one-sided, approach that has a ton of additional advantages. Alena Luciani, M.S., C.S.C.S., a certified strength and conditioning coach and the founder of Training2xl , previously stated to Shape that “yes, ‘unilateral training’ can build a more symmetrical body, but it can also help prevent injury, give you the extra strength you need to bust through a plateau, and improve stability and mid-section strength.”
Try this celebrity trainer-endorsed version of the chest press the next time you work out if you find it uninteresting or that chest presses have gotten too simple.
