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BB beginer program- Bench press

S

Sydking

Member
ive been thinking and reading, and its left me a little confussed.

I only have ever done a flat bench, I know there is many mixed views on with the whole flat vs incline thing.

So it wouldn’t hurt for me to do both? Alternate each session with flat and incline?

Anyone do this? Or just stick to the one?
 
Sticking with incline is fine
I actually regard the flat bench pretty shitty for body building because for it to be performed safely it requires you to shorten the range of motion and get into a position that takes much of the load off the chest. With incline you do not have to do this you can just press away bringing the bar high on the chest

Now I'm not saying that flat bench will never give you the results you want before someone shits themselves - I just think incline is a more efficient way to do it from a mechanical point of view. Dips also, and probably dumbbell bench
 

Is doing both an issue though? Have been considering this myself, adding incline bench in to my workout after flat bench.
 

Can't believe rapeys going to say this but listen to 0ni on this one..... (fuck me that was hard to type)

Rapey generally finds incline db bench is better for bb purposes, barbell isn't too shoddy either but again id probably use dumbbells before a barbell. just do a shit ton of dips as well and it'll all sort itself out...
 
Do them all to some degree. Flat, incline, bb, db, heavy and light. My old bb chest staple split was always something like this:
Flat bench press-work to a heavy triple or double then 3x10
Incline db press-3-5 sets of 8-12
Dips-3 sets to fail.
 
El Freako said:
Do them all to some degree. Flat, incline, bb, db, heavy and light. My old bb chest staple split was always something like this:
Flat bench press-work to a heavy triple or double then 3x10
Incline db press-3-5 sets of 8-12
Dips-3 sets to fail.
Click to expand...

Do you go weighted dips if possible?
 
Franco Columbu said:
Is doing both an issue though? Have been considering this myself, adding incline bench in to my workout after flat bench.
Click to expand...

I have no idea. Probably not. I wouldn't try to increase both at the same time. The best routines I see are laid out like:

Big exercise: 8RM
Smaller exercise: sets of 10-12
Isolation: Sets of 12-15

So you can do incline then flat bench then flies if you wish I guess
 
If you're going to follow any progression do so on the main barbell exercise which you will do first then perform higher reps, variations afterwards.
 
I think il stick to my barbell, And just play around with the incline,

I actaully feel with my bench press that im usign mainly my arms, Never get a sorness or feel or actaully working my chest. Although im sure it is.
 

I do 10 reps on every lift atm- But my thoughts were incline one session and Flat the other session.

meh it cant hurt, Will give it a go for a few weeks
 
I agree Syd.

You can always get around the issue of whether to do incline or flat first by just doing an upper/lower split and doing incline and flat on separate days. I've been doing them on separate days and I progress each of them as my primary chest move for that day.

I've enjoyed the progression on both exercises over the last few months (12.5/15kg -> 32.5/37.5kg) whereas normally one of them is done in a pre-exhausted state.

Anyway, I can't speak for anyone else, but unlike every other year that I've been lifting I have not any shoulder issues from benching. There are only three differences that I have made:

1. The abovementioned splitting of my chest (and obviously back and shoulders) work over 2 workouts and just focusing on progression, rather than 1 all out workout to failure for back, chest, shoulders.
2. Changing from bb incline and bb flat to db incline and db flat.
3. Always warming up before chest or shoulders with internal and external cable rotator cuff work (eg 2-3 sets of 10-15 reps).

Upshot? I wouldn't just do incline or flat. I would either rotate them every 2-4 weeks or give the upper/lower split a try and do them on separate days.

Hope this helps.
 
Sydking said:
I think il stick to my barbell, And just play around with the incline,

I actaully feel with my bench press that im usign mainly my arms, Never get a sorness or feel or actaully working my chest. Although im sure it is.
Click to expand...

Try dumbells then if youre not 'feeling' it in your chest if muscle gain is your main goal... You might push with your delts too much on barbell bench... l think barbell bench is a little over rated in terms of muscle gains.....
 
Pushing your hands together on the barbell will pump your pecs effectively I find
Dumbbells it just happens
 
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