Dumbbell Bench Press Standards: Is Your DB Press Good?
Dumbbell bench press standards per dumbbell by bodyweight: the average man presses 85 lb in each hand, the average woman 44 lb. Check your level here.
Dumbbells stuck at the same pair for months? Find out why.
Standards scale with bodyweight.
The weight of one dumbbell, not the pair.
1 if it was a true max.
Enter your bodyweight and one hard set to see your level.
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Dumbbell bench press standards are counted per dumbbell. The average dumbbell bench press among people who log it on Strength Level is 85 lb in each hand for men and 44 lb for women. A man who has trained for about two years presses roughly half his bodyweight in each hand: about 90 lb at 180 lb. Check your own level above.
What are the dumbbell bench press standards?
These are Strength Level's standards, for the weight of one dumbbell including its handle (Strength Level). Intermediate beats half of the people who log the lift.
| Bodyweight | Novice | Intermediate | Advanced |
|---|---|---|---|
| Man, 150 lb | 52 lb | 75 lb | 103 lb |
| Man, 180 lb | 64 lb | 89 lb | 119 lb |
| Man, 200 lb | 71 lb | 98 lb | 129 lb |
| Man, 220 lb | 78 lb | 106 lb | 139 lb |
| Woman, 130 lb | 26 lb | 41 lb | 60 lb |
| Woman, 150 lb | 29 lb | 46 lb | 66 lb |
As a rule of thumb for men: about 0.35 times bodyweight per hand is novice, 0.5 intermediate and 0.7 advanced.
Is 70 lb or 100 lb dumbbells good?
For a 180 lb man, a pair of 70s is novice, beating about 27% of logged lifters; 80s beat about 39%; 100s are intermediate and beat about 61%. For a 150 lb man, 75s per hand are already intermediate.
How does a dumbbell press compare with a barbell bench?
Dumbbells are lighter in total because each arm has to balance its own weight. In 12 trained men, the two dumbbells together came to 17% less than their barbell bench max (Saeterbakken et al., 2011). So a 225 lb bench suggests roughly 90–95 lb dumbbells per hand. If your dumbbells lag well behind that, stability, not chest strength, is usually the limit.
What if your dumbbell press has stalled?
If you have used the same pair for six weeks, you may simply be waiting for a jump that is too big: going from 70s to 75s is a 7% increase. Add reps first, up to the top of your range, then move up a pair.
More weekly hard sets also build the muscle behind the press: each extra set added about 0.37% to growth on average (Schoenfeld et al., 2017). If that is in place and you are still stuck, find out what is holding you back.
FAQ
What is the average dumbbell bench press?
About 85 lb per dumbbell for men and 44 lb for women who log the lift on Strength Level.
Is the dumbbell weight per hand or combined?
Per hand. Strength standards for the dumbbell bench count the weight of one dumbbell, so a pair of 80s is an 80 lb press.
How much should I dumbbell press if I bench 225?
Roughly 90–95 lb per hand, based on dumbbells totaling about 17% less than the barbell. Less experienced lifters often fall short of that until their stability catches up.
Written and maintained by LiftDecode. Training and nutrition education for healthy adults, not medical advice — if you have a health condition or an injury, talk to a professional who can examine you.