The Incline Bench Press Tutorial

The Incline Bench Press Tutorial
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When it comes to developing a strong upper body, any bench press variation will certainly contribute to it. However, when it comes to developing an aesthetic “upper chest”, the incline bench becomes a must.⁣
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How to perform the exercise:⁣
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To get the best out of the exercise, set up the bench angle at ~45 as that seems to be a good spot to target this area effectively. Your anterior delts will be highly engaged too. ⁣⁣(Trebs et al. 2010)⁣
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1) Grip the bar firmly by holding the weight right on top of the weist joint. A bulldog grip works fine if you know how to do it correcty. ⁣⁣⁣
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2) before you unrack the bar, retract and adduct your shoulderblades to create “a strong shelf” with your upper back muscles, and an overall strong set up to push from. Even just “pushing your chest up” works fine as a cue. A thoracic arch will come naturally as you’ll do that, and that’ll be fine.⁣⁣⁣
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3) As you unrack the barbell, hold the weight perpendicular to the shoulders and slowly lower it to your upper chest (between your clavicles and nipples, is generally a good advice), then once the barbell is on your chest, push it back up to shoulder height. ⁣⁣⁣
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Do you like this exercise ? I personally love it and I like to program it together with the flat bench in order to get the most out of bench pressing. Variations like DBs and cables work great too.⁣
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