Exercise
DUMBBELL TATE PRESS
Form cues
About
The dumbbell Tate press is a lying triceps exercise popularised by powerlifter Dave Tate where the dumbbells are held vertically above the chest and lowered by flaring the elbows out to the sides rather than back. It creates a unique shearing force on the triceps that complements standard extensions.
Common mistakes
What goes wrong — and why
Moving the wrists instead of the elbows
Tilting the dumbbells with the wrists rather than moving the elbows changes the exercise into a wrist rotation, not a tricep isolation.
The elbows are the hinge point. They flare outward and then close. The wrists and dumbbells simply follow — they do not drive the motion.
Not touching the chest at the bottom
Stopping short of the bottom removes the full range of motion and the stretch-mediated stimulus in the tricep.
Allow the dumbbell plates to contact the chest on every rep. This confirms you are completing the full range of the movement.
Using dumbbells that are too wide
Wide dumbbells make it physically impossible to touch the plates to the chest, limiting the range of motion automatically.
Use hex or round dumbbells of an appropriate size for your chest width. The plates need to be able to reach the chest during the descent.
Variations · Progressions · Regressions
Adaptations for every level
Dumbbell Lying Triceps Extension
Build triceps isolation strength with the standard lying extension before attempting the more unusual elbow-flare motion of the Tate press.
EZ-bar Tate Press
Use an EZ-bar in place of dumbbells for a bilateral Tate press with a more controlled bar path and heavier loading potential.
JM Press
Progress to the JM press — a hybrid between a skull crusher and a close-grip bench press — for heavier tricep loading through a combined pressing and extension movement.