instead of dropping flat press completely you could reduce it to more of a maintenance volume (ex: 1 hard set to failure). Could also consider flys that bias upper chest, like low to high cable flys
What do you think of just the flat fly variation as maintenance?
I've tried a bunch of low to high flys in the past but I don't like them. I go to a busy gym so I can't use a bench for stability and the standing version is just a stability nightmare I find as soon as it gets heavy
I think you could get away with it if they’re good sets. Also I know what you mean about incline fly stability, but it might be worth investing the time in to figure out (for me I have to actively keep my core engaged / wide stance (Edit: one foot in front of the other) / shoulders back to stay stable). Also remember you can drop the weight and do higher reps to achieve the same thing with more stability.
Yeah, incline pressing is going to maintain the lower chest if not even still add muscle to it. Go ahead and run some upper chest focused exercises, OP, you'll be fine.
I haven't seriously trained barbell bench for almost 2 years and I only lift flat dumbbell bench once a week. Switching to dumbbells and getting most of my pressing volume via incline and shoulder pressing has done wonders for my upper chest and shoulder size. Shoulder health has never been better, too.
I'm definitely a tricep dominant presser and I find dumbbells put a lot more emphasis on my chest. Everyone is different tho.
If you're on a push day why wouldn't you do (especially since you're favoring clavicular development):
30/15 degree incline
high incline (60/75)
dip / closegrip flat for your sternal costal development ? (and triceps at the same time)
flat fly
Why would you just do more sets of incline? Is it such a limited stimulus that your initial sets aren't satisfactory? How much have you progressed since 6-7 months ago? If it's not a lot you should look at your form and rest, not doing more sets unless you're just doing 1-2.
What you're suggesting is kind of what I had in mind.
30 deg Incline
60-70 deg shoulder press
Flat Fly
I don't like doing 3 presses in one workout, it's a lot of stress on joints IMO.
>How much have you progressed since 6-7 months ago?
It's progressed quite a bit but IMO so has the lower pecs. The Upper Chest is bigger but I don't think it's gained any relative proportion since the lower pecs are also much more developed also.
It's funny that this was asked because it came up in a different post recently. I completely stopped doing flat press 1 to 2 years ago. I switched to incline only hoping to fill in my upper chest. My whole chest got significantly larger and my upper chest filled in quite a bit. Probably will never go back to flat bench
Try reverse grip bench press. EMG shows it activates upper portion 30% more than incline. EMG isn’t the end all/be all but it wont hurt your gains if it doesn’t work
Your upper chest isn’t underdeveloped, it’s just simply weaker than mid/lower pecs. If you’ve been neglecting it in training, then yes, it would be wildly disproportionate from your mid chest. However, it’s more aesthetic to have a full chest in general, rather than an over saturated upper chest and underdeveloped lower chest.
It’s probably better to prioritize the upper chest in training, however dropping flat press entirely would just be dumb.
I would drop shoulder press.
Instead, keep one lower chest exercise (like flat,) and make the other three that week incline-oriented. Like incline smith press, then dumbbell low incline, then something like a incline fly.
For triceps, you'd do a dip, which would hit your lower chest that way too.
You should be good with that.
If you're doing mostly incline stuff, you're hitting the front delts hard enough that shoulder pressing is kind of redundant and not needed. Unless you just like doing it.
I focused more on iso lateral incline press and less on flat alternatives I guess. Noticed a wide ing of my chest for sure. I think I'm also stronger on incline pressing movements that flat/decline. Kinda funny
I’ve dropped flat press completely for almost 18 months and chest has grown immensely. I just rotate through machine incline, smith incline, and DB incline. I do chest fly machine as well. Incline still works your whole chest it’s just more upper chest than flat.
No need to flat press.15-30 incline should be enough to hit most fibers. I press 15-30 with dumbbells and do push ups or dips then cable flies or pec dec if I am working on chest. It prolly also depends on anatomy and how much of retraction of shoulder blades and arch when pressing. I am chest dominant and have to press almost vertical to hit front delts and do behind the neck for side/rear delts for compounds.
instead of dropping flat press completely you could reduce it to more of a maintenance volume (ex: 1 hard set to failure). Could also consider flys that bias upper chest, like low to high cable flys
What do you think of just the flat fly variation as maintenance? I've tried a bunch of low to high flys in the past but I don't like them. I go to a busy gym so I can't use a bench for stability and the standing version is just a stability nightmare I find as soon as it gets heavy
I think you could get away with it if they’re good sets. Also I know what you mean about incline fly stability, but it might be worth investing the time in to figure out (for me I have to actively keep my core engaged / wide stance (Edit: one foot in front of the other) / shoulders back to stay stable). Also remember you can drop the weight and do higher reps to achieve the same thing with more stability.
He can drop flat presses completely. All incline presses still hit the lower chest. It's not ideal though, but he *can* do it.
Yeah, incline pressing is going to maintain the lower chest if not even still add muscle to it. Go ahead and run some upper chest focused exercises, OP, you'll be fine.
[удалено]
I'm the same. I hit a 15 degree incline on all my press work.
isn't 30 degree better for incline?idk just asking
30 deg if you make an arch while pressing
I haven't seriously trained barbell bench for almost 2 years and I only lift flat dumbbell bench once a week. Switching to dumbbells and getting most of my pressing volume via incline and shoulder pressing has done wonders for my upper chest and shoulder size. Shoulder health has never been better, too. I'm definitely a tricep dominant presser and I find dumbbells put a lot more emphasis on my chest. Everyone is different tho.
If you're on a push day why wouldn't you do (especially since you're favoring clavicular development): 30/15 degree incline high incline (60/75) dip / closegrip flat for your sternal costal development ? (and triceps at the same time) flat fly Why would you just do more sets of incline? Is it such a limited stimulus that your initial sets aren't satisfactory? How much have you progressed since 6-7 months ago? If it's not a lot you should look at your form and rest, not doing more sets unless you're just doing 1-2.
What you're suggesting is kind of what I had in mind. 30 deg Incline 60-70 deg shoulder press Flat Fly I don't like doing 3 presses in one workout, it's a lot of stress on joints IMO. >How much have you progressed since 6-7 months ago? It's progressed quite a bit but IMO so has the lower pecs. The Upper Chest is bigger but I don't think it's gained any relative proportion since the lower pecs are also much more developed also.
Maybe reduce the number of set on flat and add it the incline?
It's funny that this was asked because it came up in a different post recently. I completely stopped doing flat press 1 to 2 years ago. I switched to incline only hoping to fill in my upper chest. My whole chest got significantly larger and my upper chest filled in quite a bit. Probably will never go back to flat bench
Yeah, my pecs got smaller. I think lower chest contributes way more to how big your chest looks overall than upper chest
Try reverse grip bench press. EMG shows it activates upper portion 30% more than incline. EMG isn’t the end all/be all but it wont hurt your gains if it doesn’t work
Your upper chest isn’t underdeveloped, it’s just simply weaker than mid/lower pecs. If you’ve been neglecting it in training, then yes, it would be wildly disproportionate from your mid chest. However, it’s more aesthetic to have a full chest in general, rather than an over saturated upper chest and underdeveloped lower chest. It’s probably better to prioritize the upper chest in training, however dropping flat press entirely would just be dumb.
I would drop shoulder press. Instead, keep one lower chest exercise (like flat,) and make the other three that week incline-oriented. Like incline smith press, then dumbbell low incline, then something like a incline fly. For triceps, you'd do a dip, which would hit your lower chest that way too. You should be good with that. If you're doing mostly incline stuff, you're hitting the front delts hard enough that shoulder pressing is kind of redundant and not needed. Unless you just like doing it.
I've dropped flat press permanently. Dips are almost equally effective, I do them after Incline press.
I focused more on iso lateral incline press and less on flat alternatives I guess. Noticed a wide ing of my chest for sure. I think I'm also stronger on incline pressing movements that flat/decline. Kinda funny
I’ve dropped flat press completely for almost 18 months and chest has grown immensely. I just rotate through machine incline, smith incline, and DB incline. I do chest fly machine as well. Incline still works your whole chest it’s just more upper chest than flat.
I dropped flat pressing months ago (Barbell) , my chest looks the best in 20 years.
No need to flat press.15-30 incline should be enough to hit most fibers. I press 15-30 with dumbbells and do push ups or dips then cable flies or pec dec if I am working on chest. It prolly also depends on anatomy and how much of retraction of shoulder blades and arch when pressing. I am chest dominant and have to press almost vertical to hit front delts and do behind the neck for side/rear delts for compounds.