what's your bench of choice? incline barbell or incline dumbbell?

[waray214]

which do you guys feel is better for hypertrophy- slight incline barbell or slight incline dumbbell bench press? obviously you can push more weight with the barbell but you get better range of motion with dumbbells...i'm having a hard time choosing for my next cycle. i'll alternate with weighted dips

 

[wobbles]

Theres no "better" option. They both have there advantages and disadvantages as you outlined. Most people generally go with the barbell and increase the angle from flat to incline which has been said to reduce the risk of injury on the shoulder joints. But it all comes down to personal preference.

 

[grunt11]

I do both for the reasons you stated. The usual way of incorporating them would be to alternate between cycles, however there is another way that I used very effectively but it will complicate your increments.

I start a cycle with DB and progress them about twice as fast as the other exerciaes so that I’m completing the 5s by the end of the 3rd week and then start the 4th week switching over to BB and progress them to the end of the cycle. Doing this also helped because it was hard to increment DB throughout an entire cycle just because the top weight I could use was so low compared to BB.

Just a thought in case you want to give it a try.

 

[alam906]

Would you guys choose flat barbell bench over incline barbell bench if alternating with weighted dips for any reasons?

 

[grunt11]

I would only do it if I planned on powerlifting and wanted to practice my Bench Press form or if I just wanted to change things up for variety, but for hypertrophy my preference is Incline over Flat Bench.