Decline bench press

toby123 · Post by **toby123** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:32 pm

In theory, should the weight I press for a decline bench press be more or less than a flat bench press?

PS. Decline of ~15 deg.

Post by **stuward** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:38 pm

Usually it's slightly more but it depends on your training.

toby123 · Post by **toby123** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 4:57 pm

So normally, for the average person, it's the opposite to incline, which is always less weight than flat?

Strangely enough, there always seems to be someone in the gym doing incline presses. It must be one of the most often performed exercises by the average guy in the gym. It's a good exercise, of course, but I reckon it's something to do with 'mirror muscles'. Much less often do I see people doing back or leg work like pull-ups or squats. And the deadlift, well that's very rare indeed.

tostig · Post by **tostig** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 6:30 pm

Pressing is a popular exercise. I include it as part of my routine that does include the Deadlift and Squat.

I rotate between incline, decline and flat presses. I discovered (which was confirmed in another post) that if you did flat presses only, your pecs will grow in such a way that it would resemble man-boobs. So I've added inclines.

I don't care much for declines but I do it anyways just for variation and balance to my routine.

brook011 · Post by **brook011** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:34 pm

I never saw the point of decline bench. I always saw flat bench as the most even recruitment of chest muscles, with incline recruiting the usually overworked front deltoids. I only saw decline as a way to add weight to the bar, like the original poster said, though I'm not 100% on why, possibly more tricep recruitment? And chest shape is genetic.

hoosegow · Post by **hoosegow** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 10:59 pm

I use close grip decline for more tricep work.

quadfrog · Post by **quadfrog** » Sat Feb 21, 2009 11:37 pm

I did decline barbell presses for awhile, but I got more addtional pec development from weighted dips (leaning slightly forward). This also puts a heavy load on the triceps, which eliminates wasteful isolation exercises like the triceps pushdown.

Post by **TimD** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 5:46 am

As for declines, back when I was into powerlifting, we used them for a 4 week cycle during an :offseason: type of thing, for overload purposes. Most people can decline more then flat due to the leverages involved combined with a shorter ROM.
Tim

strathmeyer · Post by **strathmeyer** » Sun Feb 22, 2009 12:33 pm

toby123 wrote:In theory, should the weight I press for a decline bench press be more or less than a flat bench press?

Why, how much can you dip?

brook011 wrote:I never saw the point of decline bench. I always saw flat bench as the most even recruitment of chest muscles, with incline recruiting the usually overworked front deltoids.

That's pretty funny, I was in love when I started doing inclines because because I saved time skipping other front delt work.

brook011 · Post by **brook011** » Mon Feb 23, 2009 11:54 am

Incline is okay, but honestly most peoples front delts do not need any extra work.