Dropping Flat Bench Press

[aklap]

I'm thinking of dropping flat bench press from my routine and I thought I could get some comments.

I do chest/tris/calves 2x/week (Sunday and Thursday). On Monday I do: 2 working sets of flat bench, 2 sets lying tri ext. On Thursday I do: 2 sets incline press, 2 sets dips.

My flat bench has been going up slowly but not nearly as quickly as my incl. presses. The incline weight and reps are going to PASS flat bench in the next month. I've always felt better doing incline presses; both in the muscle and comfort wise so maybe I'm just naturally a better inlcline presser?! I don't know. But if I can push the same numbers w/ incline bench as flat bench and progress faster maybe I should just drop the flat bench. What do you think? I'm not sure what to do or make of it but it seems pretty odd that my incline is heavier.

If you think it's better to stick w/ flat bench, please tell me why. If you think it would be perfectly fine to drop them, please suggest a substitute exercise (the best I can think of is flyes...I know a lot of people hate them :-).

Ok, enough rambling; your comments please.

[Heisman]

I think you probably need to work on your flat bench form.

You could replace it with leaning forward dips, if you wanted to.

[unity]

it is odd that your incline is bigger. i dont see a reason to drop them just for that. if your dips are for tri's you can do leaning forward dips in place of your flat bench.

[LoN]

how much of an incline are you using?

[Steveo31]

Originally posted by LoN
how much of an incline are you using?

Probably the normal.......

[aklap]

Hmmm, well, my dips don't really focus on either tris or chest; I figure they're more for both no matter what you do but I do lean forward and look at the floor. What I'm saying is, substituting dips for flat bench when I'm already doing dips wouldn't really be a substitute :-)

Could be my form. I train alone and always have. I'm still making progress just not as much as w/ inclines and the equal weights I'm using just threw me a curve since my incline has usually been 20-40lbs lighter.

BTW, I set my incline at about 30' I guess...not sure exactly.

[trem0lo]

I dropped flat DB bench and replaced them with dips, and I saw better/faster chest development and a strength increase in my incline.

Thing is, a few weeks ago I pulled something in the area around my collarbone doing weighted dips and have left them out the past few chest/tri workouts. I just did 30 degree incline press and cable flyes... feels like my entire chest was hit just fine.

My point is that maybe flat bench is not even needed, and inclines hit the entire chest just as well.

Maybe?? Maybe not...

[Colt Steele]

there's no rules to exercises training chest. just pick a couple that you like doing, preferably compound exercises. weighted dips and a slight incline bench (or flat bench if you don't have a slight incline) should be more than enough for your chest.

[imageek]

actually i know quite a few people who does incline bench and dips in their routine(without flat bench), if you think that's working better for you, just do it. but make sure you set your incline between 15-30 degree (no more than 30). you can either do more sets, or add another exercise to your chest routine.

[aklap]

OK, thanks for the tips everyone; I appreciate it. I'm still a little confused as to what to do (or not do, for that matter). I'm doing chest tomorrow so I've gotta make up my mind so here's what I've temporarily decided:

Sunday chest/tri workout=
db flyes/2 sets
dips/2 sets

Thursday chest/tri workout=
incline bench press/2 sets
lying tricep ext./2 sets

[Defiant1]

Originally posted by aklap
I'm thinking of dropping flat bench press from my routine and I thought I could get some comments.

I do chest/tris/calves 2x/week (Sunday and Thursday). On Monday I do: 2 working sets of flat bench, 2 sets lying tri ext. On Thursday I do: 2 sets incline press, 2 sets dips.

My flat bench has been going up slowly but not nearly as quickly as my incl. presses. The incline weight and reps are going to PASS flat bench in the next month. I've always felt better doing incline presses; both in the muscle and comfort wise so maybe I'm just naturally a better inlcline presser?! I don't know. But if I can push the same numbers w/ incline bench as flat bench and progress faster maybe I should just drop the flat bench. What do you think? I'm not sure what to do or make of it but it seems pretty odd that my incline is heavier.

If you think it's better to stick w/ flat bench, please tell me why. If you think it would be perfectly fine to drop them, please suggest a substitute exercise (the best I can think of is flyes...I know a lot of people hate them :-).

Ok, enough rambling; your comments please.

Don't feel obligated to do certain exercises. Your instinct is obviously developing and telling you something.

Drop the flats and do either Leaning forward chest dips or decline BB or DB presses. Whichever one works best for you.

I haven't Flat benched with a bar in more than 10 years (no joke)

[HOCH]

I think flat bench has its purposes. It's certainly not worth the hype, but as far as increasing your pressing power so that you can use more weight on all your other pressing exercises, I find it to be very useful, and also, with the right form, I think it hits my pecs really well.