incline bench press

blackmantis

New Member
It seem that everybody, or most of you, prefer incline bench press instead of the regular one!! Why? Did you get better result with it or it's just your feeling?
 
I was wondering the same thing. I think those are the main reasons:
1) Incline bench hits the front delts harder than flat bench, so it is more efficient as a compound lift when the objective is to hit as many muscle groups as possible.
2) They go together with dips very well (less interference than flat bench). And seen as a compound movement, dips is the best pushing exercise there is, so the whole pushing routine should be geared towards dips.
3) Some people are afraid of "lifter's breasts", i. e. overdeveloped lower pecs. Whether incline bench really does a better job than flat bench in developing upper pecs I don't know, but at least it seems to be clear that it does a worse job developing lower pecs.
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Right.

Simply put:

Dips or declines are better for overall pec development; they target the pectorialis major better.

Inclines are the best bet for activating the pectorialis minor, which is a smaller muscle that runs higher across the chest. It produce most of the bulk of the upper chest.

Flat bench is ideal for neither, but tends to tear up a lot of people's shoulders when they get heavy.
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ]Inclines are the best bet for activating the pectorialis minor

I think edziu means the upper (clavicular) head of the pec major. Pectoralis minor isn't involved at all in incline bench, since its purpose is scapula depression and rib elevation. Dips hit pec minor because scapula depression is a basic movement of dips. Other exercises involving scapula depression (like pullovers) will also activate pec minor - more or less. There is another exercise trying to target pec minor using its rib elevation potential, the dubious Rader chest pull.
 
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