nike2323

you're only using your chest muscles when you have the bar on or near your chest.... from your chest to about 4 inches up is all chest from there on up is all triceps and shoulders. However, in having to touch your chest to "work your chest" you ultimately stretch the shoulder muscles to dangerous levels. plug this one into google and find a website that actually has medical studies to prove what they are stating.... i'm not on here to argue with anyone about the effects of the bench press, but by changing the angle at which you are benching, ie; incline you will get better results... but don't take my word for it ASK DORIAN YATES!!!

KelJu

Cite your argument. It is your responsibility, not mine to check your sources.

Witchblade

Actually the powerlifting and the safe way of bench pressing (as everyone on this forum should be doing) are both pretty mediocre chest exercises. They're really good shoulder and triceps exercises though.

Now bodybuilder's bench presses are a completely different story. That's a pec exercise.

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PreMier

i agree with this statement.

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Malley

Agreed, and please dont make FLEX magazine a source.

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NordicNacho

both are good, mix that shit up

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buening

I will agree with you KelJu.

The higher the incline the more the deltoids are recruited. If you incline to the maximum (completely vertical), you will essentially be doing seated shoulder presses. I'm not saying that incline presses don't produce good results for your chest, but saying the incline bench targets the chest more than flat bench is in my opinion incorrect. Ever wonder why you can flat bench more than you can incline (a typical person anyways)? The pectoral muscle is larger than the deltoids, therefore typically the larger muscle will move more weight when utilized. There is a greater ROM in the incline bench, depending on the angle, but that extra ROM is taken by the deltoids as well as stabilizers. With that said, i alternate between incline dumbbells and flat dumbbell presses and occasionally add in some DB flies. Variety is the key to any workout regimen, especially angles and grips.

Powerlifting vs Bodybuilding flat bench is a different case, but this only applies if you use a barbell. My results were much better using the bodybuilding style, but wreaked havoc on my shoulders after doing them awhile. I switched to the powerlifting style and my lifted weights increased, but my overall growth stagnated. Lifted weight increased because of more recruitment from triceps/delts/lats. I don't seem to get much from barbell presses compared to DB presses, and i feel that my shoulders are much healthier since making the switch to dumbbells. I recommend it to everyone regardless of the angle of pressing. Leave your ego at the door though, because 250lb barbell press doesn't mean you can do 125lb dumbbells

Please don't take advice from genetic freaks. Those guys can grow just by looking at a weight. Doesn't really matter what exercise you do when on the juice

I don't trust too many "studies" because where you find one that says something, you'll find ten others that disprove that study. I don't need studies to prove or disprove what I have experienced with real world results. I don't mean to argue with anyone either, just stating my opinion on the matter.

KelJu

I agree with all of that. You sound very knowledgeable buening, so maybe you can help me out. I have tried doing dumbbell presses, but they wreck my shoulder. Do you have any idea why? My theory is that I have never done them, and my barbell pressing power is somewhere close to 400lbs, and that power is destroying my shoulder when I switch to dumbbells because my supporting muscles have been neglected. That is the only thing I can think of.

buening

Thanks. I'm by no means a pro and have a long way to go. What ratio is your dumbbell to barbell weight in presses? To me, i had to really start low on the dumbbells to bring up the stabilizer muscles as well as get used to the motion. There is a big difference pressing a bar that keeps you hands in one spot compared to dumbbells which your hands can go all over the place. My advice (and others could chime in on this) would be to start out with a weight that doesn't hurt your shoulders and slowly increase it. When I switched to dumbbells, i was only benching 200 and had to start out with 60lb dumbbells just to get the motion down and the stabilizers up to speed.

On a similar note, do you use dumbbells for overhead presses as well as barbell? Do you have similar pains?