How to do the incline dumbbell bench press
Add size and definition to your upper chest by mastering the incline dumbbell bench press
Want to build a bigger and broader chest? Of course you do. But to achieve that goal you need to do more than a few press-ups, or the ever-popular dumbbell bench press.
Why? Because to add size and strength as quickly as possible you need to work your muscles from different angles. And if you do you’ll work more muscle fibres and that will result in faster and more impressive gains.
Build a bigger chest
Take your chest. The flat dumbbell bench works all parts of your chest. But the incline dumbbell bench press works more of the upper part of the pecs. So it asks the muscle fibres there to do more of the heavy lifting.
And the decline dumbbell bench press shifts more of the workload to the lower pecs. So to build a bigger chest you must do flat, incline and decline dumbbell bench presses. Why? Because then you’ll work the whole of the chest muscle: the top part, the middle part, and the lower part.
Remember, a good pair of dumbbells is all you need to make big changes to your physique. The dumbbell lateral raise sculpts wider shoulders, dumbbell biceps curls build bigger arms, and dumbbell pullovers add back width and definition.
How to do the incline dumbbell bench press
Targets: Upper chest, triceps, front shoulders
• Lie on an incline bench with back against it and your feet planted firmly into the floor.
• Hold a dumbbell in each hand with an overhand (palms facing away) or neutral (palms facing each other) grip either side of your torso.
• Press the weights up powerfully to straighten both arms.
• Keeping your chest muscles fully engaged, slowly lower the dumbbells back down to the start position, using your muscles to control their descent. This will place more tension on your chest and recruit more muscle fibres to move and manage the weight. That’s one rep.
• Pause in this bottom position to prevent the “stretch reflex” from kick-starting the next rep. (That will reduce the workload on your upper chest, and you want your chest to do all the work to get bigger faster.) Repeat for the target number of reps.
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How to do the decline bench press for big, strong and defined pecs
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