What is with the incline bench press? | Thread profile

I've been at my gym for a while now, and for bench presses I do dumbbell benches on a flat bench. Something I've noticed however, absolutely no one else does. Almost everyone who does any sort of bench press goes for the incline benches, especially when using dumbbells. I'm aware that certain changes affect different muscles, but is there something I'm missing here? Are they so much ...

Nah, with the incline it's just easier/safer to cover up if you fail and bar comes down at you. You should however mix your flat BP up with incline and decline presses. I do one variation of smith press/dumbbell press/CloseGrip smith each week with a different incline each week, just mix it up. They do hit different parts of the same muscle. Declines can be a pain though because not all ...

Mix and match, man. On one lift day, I'll do incline BB bench and weighted dips, and on the next, close grip BB bench and decline DB flys. Don't restrict yourself to so few movements. There are many ways to work the chest.

Grab a cup of coffee... here comes "the science" : Variations In The Bench Press by Tom McCullough MEd. The bench press may be the most popular and widely used exercise used for developing the chest (Thompson, 1994). But go into any gym today and you will see quite a few different variations being done. There’s the decline, the incline, the flat bench and to make ...

^So what good is the decline bench exactly?

Quote: Originally Posted by Illuminate ^So what good is the decline bench exactly? Little...do dips. Decline is good for your ego because you can do more...but its also a great way to put extra stress on your shoulder girdle and increase the likelihood of injury...decline is pretty useless in my opinion....

In general, it is the upper, middle, lower thing. there is no one thing. try them all. Don't forget good machines and cable work. I always start chest work with flies or pec deck. Do flies flat, incline and decline. Find what works for you. Strange, over the years, I have seen pictures of nearly all the named bodybuilders in the article using machines and then supposedly explaining ...

Quote: Originally Posted by digitalnebula Little...do dips. Decline is good for your ego because you can do more...but its also a great way to put extra stress on your shoulder girdle and increase the likelihood of injury...decline is pretty useless in my opinion.... I agree. Decline offers "impressive" numbers...

Quote: Originally Posted by digitalnebula ...its also a great way to put extra stress on your shoulder girdle and increase the likelihood of injury...decline is pretty useless in my opinion.... Duly noted... I'll rotate decline off then. TY

i don't decline at all and i only incline with DB's. the bb incline seems like a recipe for pain in the shoulder dept. switch off flat BB with dips or something maybe. dips are awesome.