# Whats a better exercise, the decline bench press or the incline bench press ?



## larry123 (Sep 16, 2011)

I Know incline works upper chest and decline works lower chest. But if you could only do one, which is the better exercise ?


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## spark (Sep 16, 2011)

Incline chest for overall growth purposes.  I have read, been told and believe incline press is the key to chest growth


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## Mrs.V. (Sep 16, 2011)

I'm a decline bench whore...

I am a female however, so working the lower part keeps the "girls" perky...And since gravity has a BAD habit of taking over a woman's "girls", I gotta give them all the EXTRA help I can...


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## KelJu (Sep 16, 2011)

One is not better than the other, they are completely different exercises. If you are trying to hit your pecs, use decline and standard benchpress. If you want to spread the load out between your pecs and shoulders, do inclines. 

Every exercise has it's place somewhere.


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## spark (Sep 16, 2011)

I clicked submit like a retard.  I didnt do flat bench or decline for 3 months, in my younger days.  I concentrated on incline barbell and dumbbell press, fly movements, all somewhat heavy for 6-10 reps.  I was suprised at how well my chest grew.  When i went back to normal bench again, my strength was much better than i expected.

But again, different strokes for different folks


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## ANIMALHAUS (Sep 16, 2011)

I was always turned off by the decline bench. All the idiots in my gym would do 12 sets of them because they could use more weight due to the shorter range of motion.  I'll incorporate them from time to time, but I love doing incline because it works best for me.


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## Killermonkey (Sep 16, 2011)

On chest day, I like to do both 

Chest day- 
Dumbbell flat bench
Incline bench
Decline bench
Chest flies
Dips


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## pieguy (Sep 16, 2011)

Yates swears by declines. That said, both have their place in routines. Just make sure you're not overusing your front delts which inclines really hammer.


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## unclem (Sep 16, 2011)

do them all either db or bb but youll hit it good doing the 3 exercises all in one workout. but dont overtrain. i love declines i dont get gyno with them but i think its in my head. iam old school though 32 yrs training lol.


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## unclem (Sep 16, 2011)

Killermonkey said:


> On chest day, I like to do both
> 
> Chest day-
> Dumbbell flat bench
> ...


 
good routine brother i might give those dips a try. thnx.


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## sassy69 (Sep 16, 2011)

Mrs.V. said:


> I'm a decline bench whore...
> 
> I am a female however, so working the lower part keeps the "girls" perky...And since gravity has a BAD habit of taking over a woman's "girls", I gotta give them all the EXTRA help I can...



Stopped doing decline anything 10 yrs ago - the girls feel like they are going to fall out.


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## D-Lats (Sep 16, 2011)

I find decline painful in the delts. I also find it more of a try excercise. I generally focus on upper inner now to create a fuller look. I think alot of people like decline because they can handle a litlke more weight.


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## Digitalash (Sep 16, 2011)

upper chest grows much slower for most people, and if you have a weak upper chest your pecs end up looking kinda like tits lol. Incline will give you that nice turtle shell look coming up over your clavicle, which is much better than droopy pecs in my opinion


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## .V. (Sep 16, 2011)

KelJu said:


> One is not better than the other, they are completely different exercises. If you are trying to hit your pecs, use decline and standard benchpress. If you want to spread the load out between your pecs and shoulders, do inclines.
> 
> Every exercise has it's place somewhere.



^^^
This.

For pec growth, many find that either the flat bench or benching with the slightest decline possible will give the best chest development.  However, it's not doing much for the anterior delts.

For me...I'm a dip whore.  Why?  I never made much chest progress no matter how I benched.  My genetics say I'll have a small chest like my dad, my grandfather, my brother, and most other people in my family...except for the fat ones with moobs.  However, when is started dipping exclusively and then adding weight to my dips... I noticed that my chest started to actually improve a little.  I'll never have a big chest but it's certainly bigger with dips than any kind of benching.  My shoulders and tris grew too.  Interestingly enough after going 3 months without benching...I decided to see what my 1RM was just for the hell of it and it had gone up 40lbs.  I guess my body weight + the weight chained around my waist with dips made a difference.

I guess it was worth putting my toes on a bench and cheating while I taught my body to dip.  That said, most of my clients do either flat or decline benching because it gives them the best results for the chest...and their shoulders grow enough without doing inclines.


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## mario_ps2 (Sep 20, 2011)

Incline bench press...


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## rocco0218 (Sep 20, 2011)

It depends on what you are lacking...if your lower chest is lagging do decline more, and if your upper chest is lacking do more incline.  If both are doing good then use both to keep balanced.


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## Edgar001 (Feb 2, 2017)

I'll really suggest going for incline bench press. The position of the body during incline bench press develops the upper chest area and makes the upper pectorals work much harder than having it flat. This means that people who are looking to get a well-developed upper chest area should concentrate more on inclined bench press rather than just flat bench press.
Recently I came across a post about Benefits of incline and decline bench press I can share that post with you 
http://garagegymplanner.com/benefits-of-the-incline-decline-bench/


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## so1970 (Feb 2, 2017)

I like incline bench.


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## CG (Feb 2, 2017)

My 2 cents:

I don't do flat bench at all, too much stress on delts/shoulders. I personally prefer the lowest incline possible (5% or so) with dumbbells

Incline I feel is a necessity (high incline that is) for pec development. No reason to be honest just how I feel

I'm a huge fan of decline bench. It allows me to stack up pretty heavy weight with minimal stress on my shoulders. 

In regards to dips, traditional dips are not my friend. That being said, a weighted machine dip is a new fave that KOS introduced me to


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## Montego (Feb 2, 2017)

Upper chest..... Lower chest..... Just chest.  Whichever feels best


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## JRA (Mar 15, 2017)

Montego said:


> Upper chest..... Lower chest..... Just chest.  Whichever feels best



+1. Chest is chest. No such thing as "upper, middle and chest" during chest exercises. I like and prefer declines on Smith Machine, dumbbell bench with 5% incline to some stress off shoulders and cable fly. I don't do dips anymore (use to do 65 at a time with my body weight at 215) to save my shoulders. A lot like incline, but it puts too much stress on my shoulder joints. I say do what you like, what you like and get the best pump from.


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