Squeeze the life out of your inner chest.
The squeeze is the whole point. Force the plates together the entire time.
Crushing two dumbbells together while pressing them out front keeps the chest under constant squeezing tension, since the inward crush is exactly the arm-across-body action the pecs exist for. The triceps assist as the elbows extend through the pressout, but the crush is the point, lose it and the exercise disappears. It works best light, as a burnout or pre-exhaust where the goal is a vicious contraction rather than heavy load.
Embarrassingly light. The exercise lives in the inward crush, not the weight, and heavy dumbbells just turn it into a shaky front raise. Most lifters get everything they need from a very light pair squeezed as hard as possible.
Constant-tension chest work. Pressing while crushing inward keeps the pecs contracted through the entire rep with no rest at lockout, which makes it a brilliant finisher or mind-muscle primer before heavier pressing. It is not a mass-building main lift.
The classic version squeezes flat plates together, the dumbbell version presses two dumbbells flat against each other, same crush, same effect. Use whichever your gym setup makes easier to squeeze hard without slipping.
