Is incline press useless?

[Ondle]

Debating on scrapping this exercise. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I prefer bench,cgbp and even decline. Am I going to miss out if I don’t do it? I do ohp as well, which is prob my favorite press atm. Thinking of making my main chest exercises for now bench and weighted dips

[BeginnerGainz]

Definitely not useless, but it is just a tool in a big ol’ bag of tools.

If you feel you can’t make the movement work for you, I’d suggest trying to work on first, and if you get form nailed down and you find it still doesn’t suit you, THEN scrap it.

[Camarija]

Debating on scrapping this exercise. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I prefer bench,cgbp and even decline. Am I going to miss out if I don’t do it? I do ohp as well, which is prob my favorite press atm. Thinking of making my main chest exercises for now bench and weighted dips

For physique training, it more or less depends on your upper pec insertions. Some people need some sort of incline pressing to develop those upper pecs, some people not really.

There used to be a massive thread about it:
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...5769703&page=1

Personally, I fall in the category where my physique needs that upper pec concentration to grow it.

[BeginnerGainz]

For physique training, it more or less depends on your upper pec insertions. Some people need some sort of incline pressing to develop those upper pecs, some people not really.

There used to be a massive thread about it:
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...5769703&page=1

Personally, I fall in the category where my physique needs that upper pec concentration to grow it.

Have you tried reverse grip BB/DB bench? I find that nails the upper chest quite nicely. For me, incline is mostly in the delts.

[Ondle]

Definitely not useless, but it is just a tool in a big ol’ bag of tools.

If you feel you can’t make the movement work for you, I’d suggest trying to work on first, and if you get form nailed down and you find it still doesn’t suit you, THEN scrap it.

I don’t really feel my chest working. Another reason why I’m debating dropping it is because my ohp and incline ratio seems off. I can overhead press 150x5, yet I struggle with 205 on incline for 3-5 reps.

Maybe I can try a lower incline angle? My bench at home has a 5,10,20 degree angle. I usually do 30 degree incline

[tbonestake]

Incline barbell hurts my shoulders and feels awkward. Incline dumbbell feels godly

[MG5]

Definitely not useless, but it is just a tool in a big ol’ bag of tools.

If you feel you can’t make the movement work for you, I’d suggest trying to work on first, and if you get form nailed down and you find it still doesn’t suit you, THEN scrap it.

This. Some people scrap an exercise far too early. They rather call it quits early than take videos, look at form closely, have others look at their form, and practice, practice, practice.

I would recommend doing some sort of incline work though.

Incline dumbbell bench
Incline dumbbell fly
Incline bench on smith machine
Incline press machine

Still not required, but to really maximize your chest, it'd be best to do some sort of incline exercise.

[WWE-TicK]

Reverse grip bench press actually hits the clavicular head better than incline press. So if you don't wanna do incline, you can do that instead.

[BeginnerGainz]

I don’t really feel my chest working. Another reason why I’m debating dropping it is because my ohp and incline ratio seems off. I can overhead press 150x5, yet I struggle with 205 on incline for 3-5 reps.

Maybe I can try a lower incline angle? My bench at home has a 5,10,20 degree angle. I usually do 30 degree incline

Now that is interesting, usually the lesser the incline, the more lower chest….

Do you bench with a lot of elbow flair?

[MyEgoProblem]

15' incline is the highest angle I can feel my upper chest befiir turned I to just delts n triceps for a press.

Standard fixed incline benches arent nice. Unless I cg high incline for press assistance

Flyes I can hang with 30' tho.

I normally put a bumper plate under the top end of my bench which is 7' at home and/or flip my angled football bar.

Low incline is the goat for upper chest /bench transfer for most people

[EliKoehn]

The flat barbell bench is my primary chest exercise but the incline press with dumbbells would be my choice if I could choose only one variation. The stimulus to the stabilization and the greater range of motion are appealing, plus having the variety of using dumbbells and a bar.

Can certainly agree from experience that incline pressing with the bar seems capped by anterior delts before the upper chest gets properly worked. I don't seem to encounter this with dumbbells however. OP, have you given these a longwinded try?

[coachcalande]

Debating on scrapping this exercise. I have a love/hate relationship with it. I prefer bench,cgbp and even decline. Am I going to miss out if I don’t do it? I do ohp as well, which is prob my favorite press atm. Thinking of making my main chest exercises for now bench and weighted dips

Each to his own. Incline bench press is 100% a staple in my workouts.

[Monty52269]

This. Some people scrap an exercise far too early. They rather call it quits early than take videos, look at form closely, have others look at their form, and practice, practice, practice.

I would recommend doing some sort of incline work though.

Incline dumbbell bench
Incline dumbbell fly
Incline bench on smith machine
Incline press machine

Still not required, but to really maximize your chest, it'd be best to do some sort of incline exercise.

Yeah.

[Xpiro]

For physique training, it more or less depends on your upper pec insertions. Some people need some sort of incline pressing to develop those upper pecs, some people not really.

There used to be a massive thread about it:
https://forum.bodybuilding.com/showt...5769703&page=1

Personally, I fall in the category where my physique needs that upper pec concentration to grow it.

Interesting read... maybe that’s why I can’t feel my upper chest worth ****. Feet elevated handle push-ups hit them pretty nicely though, even though the platform + handle height effectively makes me flat. Hmm... but that’s about it, really. Incline press, incline flies, OHP, reverse grip don’t seem to do anything.

Anyone here have high insertions that finds incline press beneficial nevertheless?

[Xpiro]

I wonder, could a neutral grip be the solution here? Dunno why I haven’t experimented with this before, but I just got done with 2 sets of neutral inclines—one at 30 degrees and 1 at 15—and came out from each with a decent feeling of activation just below my collarbone on either side with the exclusion of my front delts. Granted it’s an off day so they weren’t hard sets so I’m not sure if my shoulders would attempt to take over once it gets tough.

[EjnarKolinkar]

Probably have to experiment to find out for yourself.

[TheShadowMan]

Glad to see the reverse grip press getting some love, I prefer it for upper chest work although I do mine on the ground like a floor press. For lower chest, dips all the way - I never felt pecs working anywhere near as hard on any other exercises such as decline flyes or decline presses. Except pullovers(especially done on decline), for some reason those I always felt in the chest like crazy, great bang for buck cause you get some lats in there too.

[coachcalande]

Incline fly and cable incline fly are GREAT if you otherwise feel your front delt and or tris take over…