Incline Raises Flat Bench Max

[jth250]

ive heard that if you do incline bench press instead of flat bench for a month or two it will increase your max on flat bench. can someone tell me if this is true or if its just another urban ledgend. i need to develop my upper chest a bit and i plan on doing incline instead of flat. that would be nice if i could develop my upper chest and at the same time raise my max flat bench.

 

[Presser]

not sure it will increase ur flat, depends on you i suppose as some guys are stronger naturaly that way anyhow and some are stronger with decline then any other as I am , I do know that it will build ur upper pecs for sure, and i wouldnt worry about strentch unless ur powerliftiing, if your lifting for aesthetics then who cares, just my opinion, i know you didnt ask all that but i threw it out there for the other younger guys, anyhow not sure ur flat will go up, most likly will i suppose if you rarely do incline bench,

 

[BiggerStronger]

I actually dislike flat bench. I stopped doing it for about 3 months straight and as I grew on incline my flat bench grew even more. Before I stopped my max was about 295. When I came back to it I maxed out on flat at about 340 or so.

 

[jth250]

when i do chest i do incline but i use dumbells instead of the bar and i do them after flat bench. i use the bar for flat. what i think im going to do is instead of doing flat bench first im going to do incline. i think ill do incline dumbells too to hit my upper chest

 

[mace]

I started doing db instead of barbell on flat and incline and when I switched back my incline barbell had increased, but my flat barbel really didn't. I use both barbell and dumbell from time to time.

 

[kdog]

I haven't benched in quite some time either. I really prefer DB's as the give me a feel of greater control of the weight. I can really get a great mind-muslce connection using them. When I bench, I am to concered with getting the weight up. The DB's really let me focus on contraction and form. I do incline bench from time to time, but haven't noticed the gains as I have with DB's.

 

[PJT]

My flat bench goes up when I work on flat bench. I think doing Incline bench as well as flat bench may help with strength, but working only on Incline doesn't do anything for my flat bench. Same with DB's. Should I switch to DB's for a while, my Barbell Press goes down. I actually prefer the Barbell Press to DB's. My current routine has me doing 1 heavy workset of Flat Bench (4-6 reps) and 2 worksets for Incline Bench (6-8 reps). I finish off with 1 set Flyes, and 1 set Cable Cross overs or Pec Dec. Sometimes I throw in dips. I know some would consider this overtraining, but my chest actually is way ahead of the rest of my body in both size and strength.

 

[jaywooly]

I ran the DC program for 3 months and change. In that, there was only incline, NO flat. When I got back to trying flat, it shattered what I was doing before, I'm talking about adding a wheel on each side for sets.

 

[saudades]

I have also switched to doing incline work. I do decline barbell and then incline flyes. I seem to be increasing strength so I'll have to see how it affects my flat bench in a bit. Bench is my worst lift so I've been trying to find ways to improve it.

 

[PJT]

I ran the DC program for 3 months and change. In that, there was only incline, NO flat. When I got back to trying flat, it shattered what I was doing before, I'm talking about adding a wheel on each side for sets.

I wish this had worked for me as well...I guess everyone is different.

JTH, the only way to be sure is to try it out. If your upper chest is lagging behind, then switch to Incline for a while and see how it goes. Could always do 1 set of each to improve on strength....

I'm not sure if this is the case, but it seems like people are hell bent on doing one or the other (Flat/Incline). I get my best gains and strength when I do both. If my upper chest was that much behind, I would just do Incline and not worry about strength for now.

 

[Glen Whitestone]

incline to decline

ive heard that if you do incline bench press instead of flat bench for a month or two it will increase your max on flat bench. can someone tell me if this is true or if its just another urban ledgend. i need to develop my upper chest a bit and i plan on doing incline instead of flat. that would be nice if i could develop my upper chest and at the same time raise my max flat bench.

It depends, I have tried it and it did not at all work for me. Killed my flat bench. I always start with flat bench either dumbells or bar. I think for most this is the way to go. However, if you seriously lack upper chest mass it would not be a bad idea. Try it every other week as not to kill your flat bench. Then for further upper chest stimulation when your do shoulders try military press and then Arnolds. That is start with palms facing your chest at chest level and when you get to the top extention your palms would be facing out, slowly rotate them from in to out on the way pushing up. This stimulates the shoulders and the upper ridge of the pecks. Prognoses, give the switch a try if you want, nobody is the same but for me I must always start with flat bench. I found other ways to hit the top chest.

 

[jth250]

i do inclines every time i do chest. i use dumbells. i think im gonna start throwin the barbell in. upper isnt really laggin too bad. it couldnt hurt to throw it in

 

[mass-master]

Bro's for me I have found that I started with inclines barbell on smith or DB's with bench/ then superset good set of DB flyes every-other weak I try this and have gotten great results. Now as far as flats I try to only us DB's for I get a good stretch
and then I 2 times a month I go back to barbell............

 

[da_Fonz]

I prefer to do incline over flat ingeneral b/c i get more lift to my chest and the upper portion is what i'm targeting at the moment. One reason why incline would help out on flat would be the fact that incline incorporates your front delts in the movement more so than flat. If you want o increase your flat you want to stregthen your secondary muscles used in the lift such as the tris' and the delts. So exercises like push presses would help, close grip benc would also help. I think ppl put to much emphasis on lift the maximum amt of wieght instead of just making sure that you are using progressive overload ecvah and everytime to ensure continued gains.

 

[ironrod]

my old bulgarian powerlifting coach used to tell me that many times incline will help an individual increase in bench because not only does it build upper pecs but also strengthens the shoulders...a little more incline and your doing military presses. i have also found true that if you increase your military presses that your bench also increases...how true that is depends on the weeknesses of that individual in a particular bodypart. So if you focus on your upper body weeknesses almost anybodies bench press will increase...maybe he was just a dumb old man, but it helped me bring home a few wins!!!

ironrod

 

[Big A]

my old bulgarian powerlifting coach used to tell me that many times incline will help an individual increase in bench because not only does it build upper pecs but also strengthens the shoulders...a little more incline and your doing military presses. i have also found true that if you increase your military presses that your bench also increases...how true that is depends on the weeknesses of that individual in a particular bodypart. So if you focus on your upper body weeknesses almost anybodies bench press will increase...maybe he was just a dumb old man, but it helped me bring home a few wins!!!

ironrod

You don't own ironrod.com by any chance?

 

[Big A]

You don't own ironrod.com by any chance?

I guess he's ignoring me now :suspect:

 

[jth250]

well, i took about a month to 5 weeks off from flat bench. i just did it this past week and i was quite a bit stronger. the last time i did flat i was getting 315 for about 5. after a month of just incline i went back to flat and was able to get 315 for 7. pretty sweet

 

[younggunzz]

i always do incline first then flat bench, the best mass building exercises.