To build your chest, you need to focus on the bottom half of the range of motion of the bench press...but without fully neglecting the top half...
Essentially, the idea here is you're going to regress (reduce) the range of motion of the dumbbell bench press as you fatigue in the cluster set.
But instead of doing just the TOP part of the range of motion, you're going to do just the BOTTOM part, where the stretch is.
As Jerry wrote about, the top half of the movement is primarily accumulating fatigue, especially as you get towards the end of the set.
It's not as powerful a stimulus for hypertrophy as the demands on the chest decrease as you get to lockout.
His contention was don't waste energy by trying to keep locking out the movement... keep the tension in the stretched range.
So I've adapted this to Cluster Set training.
We're going to do 6 mini-sets of 4 reps with 10 seconds rest in between.
This allows your muscles time to clear out some of the chemical waste products of muscle contraction, allowing you to get closer to actual FIBER fatigue instead of the combination of both.
The first 3 mini-sets will be done normally.
The final 3 mini-sets will be done in the bottom half of the range of motion only. Get the stretch at the bottom, come up about halfway, pause, then come back down.
When done the mini-set, swing your elbows in to rest the dumbbells on your thighs.
Use a weight you could normally get about 10-12 reps with to gauge how this works.
It's a fantastic combination to really help you build your chest. And yep, it can be adapted to other exercises and muscles.
Another excellent chest-building working is the Positions of Flexion 1 and 1/4 Rep Method.
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