- Joined
- Jan 26, 2007
- Messages
- 1,966
DB incline has always been my staple, I rarely do flat and never do decline at all. I was always taught that incline works your upper chest which lifts your chest up and you don't want to do decline because it works your lower chest and gravity will eventually take over and make your shit sag if you build up your lower chest. For bodybuilder who is all about here and now that doesn't matter but for me who wants to look good for life it made sense.
Kinda sobering to read I may have had that very wrong all these years, I think I'll incorporate more flat and maybe no do much of an angle on incline anymore.
Sorry but my understanding and I think through viewing of the EMG or whatever studies have seen that decline actually works almost the ENTIRE pec not just the lower portion but it does wind up missing a small amount of the upper chest. For this reason my bench is db decline followed by db incline because I think if done correctly (as they mentioned not a steep incline) this would be the best method for hitting pecs as a slight incline press EMG did look like it hit most of what the decline missed even though it didn't quite get all the upper chest I don't think...
https://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/teen-mark4.htm
not sure if the actual links to the EMG are sourced there (though I know I've seen em) but it says 93% of the chest which certainly involves more than the lower chest... Oh and meant to point out flat is actually the least effective I believe
Also I believe if trying to hit the entire chest with bench my interpretation of what I saw on EMG was a med-wide grip db decline press followed by a close grip incline. Can't re-find em easily but that's stuck in my head.
Last edited: