Incline vs flat chest work, does it matter?

[Deleted member 33117]

Since I'm starting back training, I'm sticking with heavy basic compound movements (with a little isolation work for arms) and mostly dumbell work, however when it comes to chest we always seem to have this idea that incline work is needed for upper chest. Is there any real research to back this? I plan on doing flat dumbell and incline dumbell presses (one of my favorite movements), however is this really necessary for complete chest development?

It still amazes me that even after all these years of training, reading and research how little I still know to be absolutely fact about training. LoL

 

[enigma4dub]

It still amazes me that even after all these years of training, reading and research how little I still know to be absolutely fact about training. LoL

both are good movements. your going to get a lot of responses saying they are both great excercises. and they are, neither one of them are CHEST EXCERCISES. they are presses. for 10 weeks i flat pressed on monday and inclined on friday. your chest shape is largeley genetic. also the load differential between db's an the barbell is huge. i.e. more load more results. remember its all about the load you are subjecting your body.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

I fully understand that they are not exclusively chest movements, however the do work the chest, and I will not be doing any isolation work other than skull crushers and dumbbells for biceps. IMO fluff cable, machine and light isolation movements with free weights do not stimulate much if any additional growth and can push one into overtraining.

 

[enigma4dub]

so why not flat press one day incline another and throw dips in somewhere as an acc. that should cover everything work one heavy and one for volume. then after emphasizing those presses for a microcycle pick another, maybe cgbp and declines. just split the volume up and add some frequency.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

I'll be doing high frequincy anyways. Each bodypart 2-3 times a week. A few sets of heavy compound movements, without a great deal of volume.

I'm not a big fan of change movements constantly. I prefer to stick with basics, and maybe change to other moves for a week if I stagnat, then return to the old ones and continue to work on pressively increasing the weight load.

 

[BiggT]

I fully understand that they are not exclusively chest movements, however the do work the chest, and I will not be doing any isolation work other than skull crushers and dumbbells for biceps. IMO fluff cable, machine and light isolation movements with free weights do not stimulate much if any additional growth and can push one into overtraining.[/QUOTE]

You're absolutely right. Fluff provides little to no bang for your buck and it inhibits recovery and takes focus away from the stuff that matters.

Enigma4dub posted pretty much what I would have.

Just take your hand over your chest and perform the flat bench motion with the other hand.......then do the same with the incline movement.....no difference. Inclines are a more difficult lift one because of the angle, it is closer to an overhead lift, and two because you can't use as many 'technique' tricks as flat bench.

I believe barbell work provides greater stimulus due to the bigger load you can handle compared to d-bells. I feel flat bench provides more stimulus than incline as again you can handle more load. But, inclines are an excellent lift and yield great results when trained.

 

[BiggT]

I'll be doing high frequincy anyways. Each bodypart 2-3 times a week. A few sets of heavy compound movements, without a great deal of volume.

I'm not a big fan of change movements constantly. I prefer to stick with basics, and maybe change to other moves for a week if I stagnat, then return to the old ones and continue to work on pressively increasing the weight load.

I share this philosophy.

 

[enigma4dub]

I'll be doing high frequincy anyways. Each bodypart 2-3 times a week. A few sets of heavy compound movements, without a great deal of volume.

I'm not a big fan of change movements constantly. I prefer to stick with basics, and maybe change to other moves for a week if I stagnat, then return to the old ones and continue to work on pressively increasing the weight load.

hold on a second. i said train specific lifts in a given microcycle. not to change it up for the sake of changing it up. i just pushed inclines push presses and heavy flats for ten weeks. now its inclines, cgbp and btn push press. its not simply changing up to change up. im looking for carry-over effect to the previous lifts with the current ones.

 

[anthrax]

IMO, flat DB press is the best chest builder movement

Incline DB puts more stress and my shoulders and I can't lift as much weight

 

[Deleted member 33117]

hold on a second. i said train specific lifts in a given microcycle. not to change it up for the sake of changing it up. i just pushed inclines push presses and heavy flats for ten weeks. now its inclines, cgbp and btn push press. its not simply changing up to change up. im looking for carry-over effect to the previous lifts with the current ones.

Ah. I understand now.

 

[future]

EMG testing shows the actually decline presses work best for pec major recruitment while dumbell incline presses are best for the pec minor.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

EMG testing shows the actually decline presses work best for pec major recruitment while dumbell incline presses are best for the pec minor.

Good to know that there is actually some research to show incline work does actually matter on upper chest. I always noticed that incline dumbbell presses gave me the best burn in my upper chest.

 

[future]

Yeah I have read alot of stuff from universities on this. I will post a thread for you.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

We just joined 24 hour fitness today. We, my wife and I, did both movements today.

 

[Tweakle]

don't change constantly as that's M&F fluffery.. but imo it's a good idea to rotate between 2-3 different movement and if you have good motor learning you'll be able to stave off CNS adaption/falloff for a longer time than if you did the same exact exercise each time you train. Especially if you're going heavy 3 times a week

But make all 3 heavy basics.. incline, flat then decline or dip on day 3.

 

[Deleted member 33117]

Eventually we may replace the flat dumbbells with weighted dips. Tweakle, I am limiting the total number of movements for each bodypart because we are training very high frequincy without the aid of drugs to speed up recovery.

Yesterday for example, for working sets was
Flat dumbbell presses X2
Incline dumbbell presses X2
One arm dumbbell rows X2
Seated dumbbell presses X2
Dumbbell curls X2
skullcrushers X1

10-12 reps on all sets

Today will be heavy squats, deads, stifflegged deads and shrugs. Then tomarrow upper body again.