What's up, guys?
Jeff Cavaliere, ATHLEANX.com.
We're breaking out Jeff's marker today to help you get more out of the incline bench
press.
No doubt, it's one of the best upper chest exercises you can do if you can figure out
a way to minimize the front delt from dominating the movement.
You see, we know that these two muscles – the front delt and the upper chest fibers – are
really close to each other, which means they can really start dominating one or the other
if we don’t do the exercise correctly.
So I want to carry over and show you the two biggest problems with the exercise that most
people are making.
I can tell you, it was backed up with a recent trip to the gym where our international chest
day – Friday now, a lot of guys getting their swole on for the weekend – there were
so many guys doing incline bench incorrectly at the gym that I felt like it warranted a
video to recover this important topic.
So first of all, what is the angle that you want to use on the bench in order to hit the
upper chest the most?
Now, I'm not saying that you want to totally exclude the front delt, but the fact of the
matter is, our front delts get a lot of attention from a lot of the other exercise that we not
only do in the gym, but every day activities that we do with our body.
If I were to do a shoulder press you guys know that an upright shoulder press is going
to maximize the attention that the shoulders get – the front delts get.
Why?
Because it's straight up against gravity.
You can see this muscle is working and shortening up against the force of gravity, right through
here.
Well, if I were to back off the angle of the bench 30 degrees to 60 degrees – which is
one of the most common places that people will do an incline bench press from – then
you're going to shift the focus down a little bit.
But you can see this muscle is a pretty large muscle and it's not enough.
It's not enough to put the focus down through the mid-belly of the upper chest.
So 60 is not enough.
You might want to go a bit lower.
You can see me make that adjustment here on the bench, down to 45 degrees.
Well, 4t5 degrees is better.
Anytime you start going lower and lower, you're shifting that focus down.
Remember, completely flat bench-press, 0 degrees would represent one that's going to target
more of the middle chest.
So at 45 degrees you're still not really there.
You've got a little more room to play.
As a matter of fact, research shows that 30 degrees is the best angle for targeting the
upper chest.
Now, that leads to the second point.
As you've seen me bang out a couple reps of th 30 degrees, notice the position of my shoulder.
Now, the position of my shoulder is key.
This is why the 30 degree angle works better, because when you look at these two muscles
– again, I talked about the dominance of the front delt.
When the front delt becomes dominant our shoulders tend to round forward.
I know a lot of people watching this are probably sitting here right now like this watching
the video.
That's common, unfortunately.
What happens is, the front delt is actually put in more of a position of power in relation
to the chest.
It's actually here more willing, proud, standing out, willing and able to push more quickly
and spring to the task more quickly than your upper chest.
The way we can silence that is by getting it back where it belongs, allowing the chest
to now being a better position to contract.
The way we have to do that is through positioning our shoulders in the right direction.
So we want to make sure that whenever we press the shoulder blades have to be back and down,
okay?
Back and down.
What the does immediately, you can see here, is it puts the front delt back in its place
and allows the upper chest to be in a better position of pushing power because we're laying
back flatter, and flatter, and flatter on a 30 degree versus a 60.
We're actually allowing that to take place more naturally.
So you have to not only rely on the fact that the bench is helping you get there, but you
have to consciously be sure that you're contracting those shoulder blades to ensure that it's
there because a lot of us will continue to press.
Over time, even as we fatigue, more and more we're trying to recruit a little bit of help
from the front delt and that's when the exercise falls apart.
So, guys, I hope you've found this detailed breakdown of the incline bench to be helpful.
Remember, this is about putting the science back in strength.
I don’t like to just tell you "Oh, do inclined bench because it's good."
We all know it's good, it's why it's good that allows you to get better results, faster
when you follow our training.
Guys, if you're looking for a complete training program, step by step, put the science back
in your strength, you can head to ATHLEANX.com right now and get our ATHLEANX training system.
If you've found this video helpful, if you like Jeff's marker, make sure you let me know
in the comments below and I'll make sure to break it out again and do more of these detailed
breakdowns.
All right guys, I'll be back here again real soon.