Thread: Whats a better exercise, the decline bench press or the incline bench press ?

Incline chest for overall growth purposes. I have read, been told and believe incline press is the key to chest growth

I'm a decline bench whore...

I am a female however, so working the lower part keeps the "girls" perky...And since gravity has a BAD habit of taking over a woman's "girls", I gotta give them all the EXTRA help I can...

One is not better than the other, they are completely different exercises. If you are trying to hit your pecs, use decline and standard benchpress. If you want to spread the load out between your pecs and shoulders, do inclines.

Every exercise has it's place somewhere.

I clicked submit like a retard. I didnt do flat bench or decline for 3 months, in my younger days. I concentrated on incline barbell and dumbbell press, fly movements, all somewhat heavy for 6-10 reps. I was suprised at how well my chest grew. When i went back to normal bench again, my strength was much better than i expected.

But again, different strokes for different folks

I was always turned off by the decline bench. All the idiots in my gym would do 12 sets of them because they could use more weight due to the shorter range of motion. I'll incorporate them from time to time, but I love doing incline because it works best for me.

On chest day, I like to do both

Chest day-
Dumbbell flat bench
Incline bench
Decline bench
Chest flies
Dips

Yates swears by declines. That said, both have their place in routines. Just make sure you're not overusing your front delts which inclines really hammer.

do them all either db or bb but youll hit it good doing the 3 exercises all in one workout. but dont overtrain. i love declines i dont get gyno with them but i think its in my head. iam old school though 32 yrs training lol.

Originally Posted by Killermonkey

On chest day, I like to do both

Chest day-
Dumbbell flat bench
Incline bench
Decline bench
Chest flies
Dips

good routine brother i might give those dips a try. thnx.

Originally Posted by Mrs.V.

I'm a decline bench whore...

I am a female however, so working the lower part keeps the "girls" perky...And since gravity has a BAD habit of taking over a woman's "girls", I gotta give them all the EXTRA help I can...

Stopped doing decline anything 10 yrs ago - the girls feel like they are going to fall out.

I find decline painful in the delts. I also find it more of a try excercise. I generally focus on upper inner now to create a fuller look. I think alot of people like decline because they can handle a litlke more weight.

upper chest grows much slower for most people, and if you have a weak upper chest your pecs end up looking kinda like tits lol. Incline will give you that nice turtle shell look coming up over your clavicle, which is much better than droopy pecs in my opinion :P

Originally Posted by KelJu

One is not better than the other, they are completely different exercises. If you are trying to hit your pecs, use decline and standard benchpress. If you want to spread the load out between your pecs and shoulders, do inclines.

Every exercise has it's place somewhere.

^^^
This.

For pec growth, many find that either the flat bench or benching with the slightest decline possible will give the best chest development. However, it's not doing much for the anterior delts.

For me...I'm a dip whore. Why? I never made much chest progress no matter how I benched. My genetics say I'll have a small chest like my dad, my grandfather, my brother, and most other people in my family...except for the fat ones with moobs. However, when is started dipping exclusively and then adding weight to my dips... I noticed that my chest started to actually improve a little. I'll never have a big chest but it's certainly bigger with dips than any kind of benching. My shoulders and tris grew too. Interestingly enough after going 3 months without benching...I decided to see what my 1RM was just for the hell of it and it had gone up 40lbs. I guess my body weight + the weight chained around my waist with dips made a difference.

I guess it was worth putting my toes on a bench and cheating while I taught my body to dip. That said, most of my clients do either flat or decline benching because it gives them the best results for the chest...and their shoulders grow enough without doing inclines.

Incline bench press...