Incline Bench Press

K

kidkurious

New Member
For my next cycle, I plan to do incline bench press instead of flat.

My bench at home can only incline at 45 degrees. Is this a good angle? - or should i stick with flat bench?

EDIT:
attached is a pic (please ignore the messy background lol)

It measured it this time, and it's actually about 30 degrees lol.. my bad.

anyway, is this a good angle? it's the lowest angle my bench can incline to.
 
45deg is a little steap for incline, if u can pull the pin out and stick a peice of wood underneath the bench. id say 20-35deg is in the park.


if not stick with flat.
 
Yeah, 45° is much more shoulder work than chest. 20° is fine, but anything more than 30° and you're working your shoulders more than your chest. I believe that flat bench press works the chest better. If that isn't enough, try to add some chest dips.
 
I'd even suggest trying an incline as low as 10-15º. I use some 4x2 timber to pack up the head end of my bench as my incline bench starts at about 20º. It's noticeably different to flat bench.

Like XFatMan said, adding in some dips for more of a decline bench effect is a really good complement to incline bench (and flat bench for that matter).
 
EDIT:
i've attached a pic of my incline bench.

i measured the angle, and its actually about 30 degrees... my bad lol..

30 seems to be the common degree posted by u guys.

thanks!
smile.gif
 
For what it's worth, my chest growth has been best with little or no incline.  This cycle, I'm actually trying decline press (dumbells) and getting a nice response so far.  I can seem to get more stretch on the chest as opposed to the shoulders with declines.  I believe there was a recent thread on decline presses which was mostly positive.
 
A 30 degree incline like your bench has is a great alternative to add in to activate the upper region of the chest and the front deltoids. You will need to use a slightly lighter weight than you use for the flat bench press. The decline positions are best to isolate the lower region of the chest complex and allow you to press slightly heavier weights. I try and incorporate incline, flat and decline into most all of my programs.

The front deltoid development you get from the incline work will transfer well to your flat bench press and will make your lifts more stable. The decline work is even more important though if power is your goal. To press for power your technique should be to get your torso into an arched position that will most closely resemble a decline press. This will reduce the ROM and allow you to activate the more powerful muscles of the lower chest and lats.

Many guys forget or dont even realize that the lats are activated fairly strongly in a power bench press position. The decline press will activate the lats even more so due to the exaggerated position of your torso. So dont forget to get your chins, lat pulls, pull over work in as well.
 
I'm with Lol on this one, 10-20 degrees. Any steeper and I feel it as too much of a shoulder exercise.

Of course it all depends on your goals. As Wildman suggested, higher angles will really bring up your front deltoids...
 
I've been doing 20 degree ever since I've been doing HST and no flat benches. Its been a great chest developer but I can tell its also a major shoulder exercise because my shoulders just can't take the weight anymore now that I'm getting heavier and heavier. I'm having to go back to flat presses for a while to get my shoulders out of it and boy what a difference!
 
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