How do you get heavy dumbbells into position without exhausting yourself before the first rep?
The tutorials I've found spend five minutes explaining elbow angles, but somehow the guy already has both dumbbells up. I need the bit before that.
Been lifting about eight months. I do incline dumbbell press first on upper days, bench at roughly 30 degrees. Currently using 20kg in each hand for 3 sets of 10 and trying to move to 22.5kg. When a friend helped me get the heavier pair into position, I managed eight controlled reps without him helping with the actual pressing.
On my own, getting started is a mess. I get one dumbbell up, hold it there while I struggle with the other, then need to readjust on the bench. By the time I'm ready to press I've already spent a decent amount of effort just holding everything. Usually get about five reps that way.
I'm basically hammer curling them off my thighs one at a time. I've seen people use their knees, but I can't seem to get the timing right.
Do you practise that transition separately with lighter weights? Or stick with the lighter pair for your actual sets until you can do the whole thing smoothly? I train alone most days, so relying on someone to hand them over isn't really a long-term solution.