Does incline pressing really work the upper chest?

[Maul]

Incline hammer strength always works my upper chest well. Along with doing drop sets will make my upper chest area sore.

I only do incline and decline chest presses.

 

[mymre21]

Yeah they work. IMO declines are a joke, but we respond differently to exercises, types of foods, gear etc.try em for 12 weeks and see

please elaborate on why

 

[NPCS FINEST]

Ill tell you guys something. Now I'm not a pro or even top amateur, but whatever chest size I have was built doing decline bench and dips.

Starting with my current prep though I wanted to change things up and stimulate the muscles a little differently.
Buselmo turned me on to Gironda style training. Two of his most famous exercises are the neck press and "Gironda" dips.

The neck press is done on a flat bench with a wide grip and elbows out wide, not tucked like a proper bench press. Lower the bar all the way down to where your neck meets your clavicles.

Now, you are going to have to lower your poundages cause this is not an easy exercise and I imagine it pits your pecs in a great spot to tear if you go to heavy, BUT by doing this exercise I have dramatically changed how my upper chest looks.

I also have recently started to develop good inner split/separation between upper and lower pecs. I feel that the gironda dips are the cause. They are hard to explain, but basically you want to take a wide grip. And have your elbows out to your sides. Tuck your chin to your chest and do deep dips.

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YES YES YES!!!!

He turned me on to this as well....and my chest has made big improvments. The dips I think helped a good bit but changing how I bench made the most improvments by far.

I dont go completely flat...I use the adjustable bench and set it on the first setting ...I consider that my flat....then I do a slight incline...and then incline it a little more...but still not as much as a normal incline bench...to me that is to high and hits my delts way to much.

Correct...you need to check your ego cause you wont be throwing around 315 lbs like most are used too....BUT once you get used to training like this I feel you can go heavy again....it took me a good 2 months before I even got back into the 300 lbs range and in those 2 months I made more progress then I did the 8-10 months before that doing it how I normally did and much heavier.

Every now and then I will toss in some DB flys or some cables....I used to hit the pec machine but its so easy to max it out and I dont like doing reps of 20-25 so I stick with DB....really go for the stretch and squeeze. Most ppl at the gym cant believe how light I do my DB flys with.....BUT...its easier for me to get a good stretch and squeeze with 30-50 lbs rather then pushing more weight...again ..going lighter gave me better results.

The dips....love them....started out with body weight...and after a month or so started to add 45's. This is the only chest movment I do where I really push the weight...I keep the reps around 6-10.

I can say that I have built some really nice delts over the years and I think it was mostly because I was benching wrong LOL....it wasnt doing much for my chest and my delts were always ahead of every other muscle. I never had a "lagging" chest..but it wasnt in the same shape as my arms,delts and back thats forsure....now I feel like its caught up alot and give me the rest of this year and I am sure my progress will be huge with my pecs all because of Buselmo help.

Now I been slacking on my declines and I need to start putting them back in on chest day....I will add them back next week!!!

 

[Iron Worker]

I recently increased the angle of my inclines and could really feel it in the upper chest. After reading some of these posts, I think I'll try some decline and dips. Always good to change up the routine.

 

[thebigguy84]

Or just shift more emphasis onto the front delts?

No it works the calves the most!!!! Na-Seriously it all depends on the angle of the bench.

 

[thebigguy84]

I believe it definitely improves upper chest. I know of at least 3 Pros that will never flat bench, they concentrate on incline and decline. That's all I do myself, big fan of it, haven't flat pressed in years. God bless you. Minister.

I will not flat bench myself unless it is some type of machine. A guy told me a long time ago the uppper chest was the hardest to get to pop out so I decided to start focusing on it the most. I mean I do all angles just no regular flat bench or dumbells It seems to bother my chest bicep tie in. I am hoping with my new FST7 training to get even more out of my chest.

 

[powerrack]

I'm finding a very slight incline works best. I take a flat bench and place it in the smith machine, place two - 45 pound plates under one end side by side to prop it up just enough. I feel it in my upper chest without much front delt.

 

[powerup]

for what it is worth.
**broken link removed**

saved the lnk it looked rather long but i will read it in the am. Thanks( valiums are kicking in severe sleep appnea along with insomnia( yah i feel like i won the lottery...lol)

 

[highlife]

incline and dips only.stopped flat bench along time ago.yah declines your stronger but for me i realized it was just jerkin my brain off.