incline bench question

For my current chest day, I have been doing chest, tris, and shoulders, but for chest, Ive done flat bench, incline dumbell, and then some dips. But something about the inclines just bothers me. How much of an incline should the bench be at? Ive been doing it at about 45 degrees. Should I be a little lower?

And if I try lower, and it still doesn't feel right, what else can I do? Declines?

Thanks.

You might want to be around 35 to 40 degrees.

Don't stop doing inclines. I would rotate with incline, flat and decline,(one each week).

what about it is bothering you? you feel it in your delts too much? you should lower the incline if that's the case.

what bothers me is my shoulders...maybe i should lower the incline a little bit

Why the need to do inclines at all?

The best incline is at -30%.

Why not alter the incline every time you train, or between sets. After all definiton is limitation.

*swats belial* inclines are a good exercise, go with a 30% incline and keep your ass on the bench

Ya; I prefer inclines to flat bench anyday.

an even better incline is where the bench is set at a 30 degree angle in the other corner of the gym and the bar is actually on my back and i descend instead of the bar.

works wonders...

Well certain exercises are more important. If you didn't like back squats but could do front squats then that's fine. If you don't like incline presses but do like flat presses then do the flat presses. Incline's are one of the most worthless exercises for a bodybuilder, so I don't see why anyone would do them unless they really really liked them.

Originally posted by Cackerot69
Incline's are one of the most worthless exercises for a bodybuilder...

Why you think that?

Because all other presses are better. Flats, declines, overheads, dips, etc. There's really just no point in doing them.

Look at the shape of your pecs. The entire pec spans outward from the upper outside corner of your chest, connecting to your shoulder. The most concentrated part of your pec is at the top. Incline is the best press you can do for your pecs. If you're doing incline press with dumbbells, don't worry about your shoulders burning up. Doing your presses with dumbbells causes your body to use a lot of small muscles that are not used with a barebell, because you have soi many different angles of balance. As your body adjusts to exercise, you wont feel it in your shoulders as much. I would recommend doing the majority of your incline presses at 45%, but work in a 30% workout from time to time just to give the muscle something new. You really want to diversify your routine to keep the muscle stimulated and keep it from adapting.

I think they don't do inclines because they can't load up a **** load of weight, then they made up some bull**** excuse because they are a bunch of ego lifters, but hey if you want a little chest and a big ego thats cool but I would prefer it the other way.

I had trouble with inclines for a while... it used to hurt my shoulders. I worked on my rotator cuffs for a couple months (as I had a problem with my shoulders dislocating...) and I haven't had a problem since.

cack:

what the hell are overheads?

Overheads = military press.

kaleido: Your conclusions don't make any sense. "The most concentrated part of your pec is at the top. Incline is the best press you can do for your pecs." How do you come up with that conclusion based on what you said beforehand? So, the most concetrated part of your quad is at the top, how does this translate into what exercise you should do? Incline leg extensions? Basically, the shape of a muscle is genetic, and the pec is no exception. For all functional purposes it is one muscle, and should be trained as such. If you think differently, you have some research to do. Or, you can just ask me and I'll be glad to help

PS - what is this?

"You really want to diversify your routine to keep the muscle stimulated and keep it from adapting."

Muscles adapt from weight training by growing, so I don't exactly want to keep that from happening. Maybe you do? Or maybe you don't know what you're talking about? Hmmm....

Exactly what Cack said if you don't like the exercise and don't feel
right doing it then find an alternative. I like doing 45 degree
inclines with dumbells and do a slower negative(5 sec or so). My
second exercise would be dumbell incline press at 10 degress. I think with those too it will be cool.

I have a question though why do these 2 exercises feel like
they "hit the pecs" different huh? I know maybe you are gonna say no the pecs are 2(major and minor) muscles and they contract the same incline or decline. They sure feel different though.

Cackerot69-

Judging by what I have read you post on here, I can tell right away you are an ego lifter. For anyone else looking to know a little more about incline pressing vs. flat bench, here goes: Flat bench is one of the most overrated exercises. It's primarily an ego exercise, since the universal workout question is, "how much can you bench?". Most guys use it to see how much they can press, rather than to build more mass to their chest. Almost everyone who uses flat bench will over time, develop shoulder problems. The positioning encourages you to carry the weight in your deltoids. In fact, this exercise doesn't even allow you to use the full range of motion of your pectorals. At the bottom of the movement, the bar hits your chest before you've reached a full stretch. At the top of the movement, your delts take the stress of your chest. Incline bench allows a much deeper strecth and more of a peak contraction at the top of the motion. And yes, the upper chest is the biggest part of the chest, from the nipple up. Flat bench works mostly lower chest, for what chest it does work. And as far as diversifying your workout so muscles don't adapt, I'm afraid kaleido has got you there too. Muscles will adapt to the same routine week after week. If you've found a good routine that works for you, stick to it, but don't be afraid to change the order or a couple exercises once in awhile, or those big gains will slow way down.


PS- If you need some more advice, help, information, or basic knowledge, let me know and I'll be glad to help

Toys, can you please explain to us exactly how it is that the muscle does "adapt" to a certain movement, thus making it ineffective?

and also, toys...umm..where exactly is that line of demarcation for the upper chest? is there like a different band of muscles there? insertion point, maybe?

here we go.

It's always amusing how these newbies to WBB always think they are telling us something new about incline presses....no point in even discussing it anymore.

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