Thread: Incline Press

-30 degrees.

Otherwise known as a "decline".

So Chicken, I guess you don't believe that inclines are effective in building your chest!

I love inclines, I do them first in my chest workout. I usually use about a 45 degree angle, although I am thinking about lowering it a bit.

Originally posted by The Rose
So Chicken, I guess you don't believe that inclines are effective in building your chest!

He does not believe that it's physiological possible to "target" any part of a muscle.

i've always wondered about this question too - i've never done declines, but am considering starting just to see what it does to the shape/development of my chest

anyone have some good anecdotal/otherwise evidence one way or the other?

chicken, do you ONLY do declines and skip the flat stuff as well? any reason, or just personal gains you've seen?

Originally posted by The Rose
So Chicken, I guess you don't believe that inclines are effective in building your chest!

I never said that.


I just don't agree that inclines hit the upper chest. Inclines are a chest exercise, just a piss-poor one in comparison to flat and slightly declined exercises.

Freag: flat press 2 sets, weighted dips 2 sets, decline machine press 1-2 sets.

I haven't done incline work in a year in July. I don't like inclines in general, i just feel them more in my delts than i'd like. I'm doing fine, if not better, without them.

Neil, i think you should re-adjust to a 30 degree angle. 45 recruits a lot more delts than you'd like (IMO). Oh, and that is only if you insist on doing inclines.

If you think that inclines are a piss poor exercise for building your chest, I think that's more or less the same thing as saying you do not think they are effective, isn't it?

Not as effective, no. Compared to flat and decline exercises.

semantics

Originally posted by The_Chicken_Daddy
Not as effective, no. Compared to flat and decline exercises.

I agree.

One thing I have realized is that inclines tend to involve the shoulders, equal to chest.
So due to my shoulder problems I dropped them from my chest work-outs, I now only use flat, decline and pec dec.

I still do some incline work but it still bothers my shoulders so I keep the weight lighter and go for 10-12 reps when doing them.

Chick -- you have fallen victim to the all-to-common "works-for-me-so-it-must-be-applicable-to-everyone" problem.

I can't dispute that inclines are a piss-poor exercise for you. Indeed, I know many people that complain they only hit there shoulders. But they are amazing for me.

For years I did bench first then incline. I was always very strong, benching over 300 6 mos after I started lifting. But I NEVER had a developed chest. Until I started doing inclines first. To me, there is no better exercise for chest (except inclince dumbbells).

I find declines to be a TOTAL waste. I won't argue that this is always true, just that it often is.

I agree, experience is most important!

Find out what works for you. Incline presses were my favorite exercise for many years, in fact I used to be able to incline as much as I could flat bench. Which was around 225lbs for 4 sets of ten on incline.

I do believe that inclines incorporate a lot of shoulder work though, and they are not the best way to isolate your pecs.

"you have fallen victim to the all-to-common "works-for-me-so-it-must-be-applicable-to-everyone" problem."


No i haven't.

Oh yes you have!

No i haven't.

Oh by the way, something i learned the other day. WWF wrestler the Rock does inclines every chest workout.

Oh yes you have!!!!

And if its good enough for the Rock....

Yeah, cause we all know the rock has superb upper chest development in relation to his lower chest...

Yes, we all know so freaking well about TCD's opinion about inclines, "upper chest," blah, blah, blah....however, if inclines are done properly they will destroy your clavicular pectoralis and help "fill in" that area. I vary my angles between 30 and 45 degrees, but tend more toward 30. My chest took on a much more complete look after I started repping away on incline movements, and they still make up the bulk of my chest training.

Originally posted by The_Chicken_Daddy

Neil, i think you should re-adjust to a 30 degree angle. 45 recruits a lot more delts than you'd like (IMO). Oh, and that is only if you insist on doing inclines.

That's probably what I'm gonna try. I figured between 30-35 would be good.

I am certain that you can at least EMPHASIZE the muscle fibers in the clavicular region of the pecs. Yesterday I mainly worked on inclines and today my clavicular region is pretty sore whereas my sternal region of the pecs. is relatively soreless.

Emphasis doesn't equate to growth.

Either does soreness.

Originally posted by The Rose
I am certain that you can at least EMPHASIZE the muscle fibers in the clavicular region of the pecs. Yesterday I mainly worked on inclines and today my clavicular region is pretty sore whereas my sternal region of the pecs. is relatively soreless.

Don't listen...you WILL affect growth in the upper portion of the pecs with inclines. The soreness you feel is a good indication that you recruited the upper pec fibers to a greater extent.

Wrong.

I have a question.

During incline the contraction of the pectoralis major in a press movement seems to cause a greater reaction in the upper regions of the pectoralis major than in the lower portions. Now, we all knows it the same muscle... but why cant a muscle contract differently in different areas of its fibers. Are we saying that a muscle is simply mechanism and that there is a certain movement that will cause maximum growth through-out all of the muscle and that it is not possible for other portions of the same muscle to be influenced via a different lift.

I'm not sure, and I'm certainly interested in this. It seems rather strange because I can flex at seperate times the upper and lower portions of my pec, and if I can do this, what is to say that I cannot cause stress (followed by growth) to a certain region of my muscle while not targeting another region of the same muscle.

This seems to be a popular conversation!

Eggs

Originally posted by Eggs
I have a question.

During incline the contraction of the pectoralis major in a press movement seems to cause a greater reaction in the upper regions of the pectoralis major than in the lower portions. Now, we all knows it the same muscle... but why cant a muscle contract differently in different areas of its fibers. Are we saying that a muscle is simply mechanism and that there is a certain movement that will cause maximum growth through-out all of the muscle and that it is not possible for other portions of the same muscle to be influenced via a different lift.

I'm not sure, and I'm certainly interested in this. It seems rather strange because I can flex at seperate times the upper and lower portions of my pec, and if I can do this, what is to say that I cannot cause stress (followed by growth) to a certain region of my muscle while not targeting another region of the same muscle.

This seems to be a popular conversation!


The answer is....YOU CAN! While the entire pectoralis will contract during an incline press, you will cause more damage to the upper pecs because of the angle of pull. When a person does inclines and gets sore in the upper pecs and not in the lower, what does that logically tell you. You stimulated the fibers in that area to a greater degree. If the muscles could be fully developed with one grip width, one angle, and one exercise, there would be no need for more than one movement per muscle group.

The conclusion...don't listen to Chickens...
Eggs