EMG studies have shown that the decline bench press achieves the greatest overall activation of the pec major, and pro BBers like Yates and Hernon calls it the best overall pec builder out there.
Yet it is very rare that I see anyone doing them, and most people seem to think focusing on declines will make your chest bottom heavy.
Has anyone here done them as their main chest builder for any length of time? What were your results?
Been doing a full session every week. Layers program - basically a one lift a day program with massive workload - and it is doing all sorts of good for me.
I never really got full thick chest development from flat work, as my delts and tris were always quite dominant. Decline work, in the standard angled commercial gym benches, always seemed a bit awkward to me despite being able to press considerably more weight.
What helped me immensely though was to stack 3 Olympic plates under one end of a flat bench, thereby creating a very low decline angle. This was a serious mainstay of mine for a period of years where I like to think my pecs went from ‘suck’ to ‘at least decent’. Cordova was the one who put the low angle in my head waaaaay back in '08, and as I couldn’t adjust any benches in the gym to a 15-30 degree set up, I just made my own.
S
Stu, did you use the decline only those years, or did you also include something for upper chest/pec minor? I’ve seen claims that the decline is all you need, and EMG studies seem to support this. I feel I lack development up near the clavicle, a common complaint I know. I mostly do flat DB pressing for chest.
[quote]Purple wrote:
Stu, did you use the decline only those years, or did you also include something for upper chest/pec minor? I’ve seen claims that the decline is all you need, and EMG studies seem to support this. I feel I lack development up near the clavicle, a common complaint I know. I mostly do flat DB pressing for chest.[/quote]
Nearly every BBer I’ve ever heard from has said something to the effect of “you can never have too much upper chest, and incline dumbbell pressing is the best thing ever”.
So I would be extremely surprised if anyone thought decline was all you needed.
Yeah, like Csulli said, I don’t think you’re going to find many BBers who develop complete top to bottom, inner to outer pecs just from doing declines. In my case, I used the low decline work instead of any flat pressing.
I still made use of inclines, as well as what I like to think is a smart approach to doing cable work (focusing on the angle the muscle gets stretched at, and not just hammering away at my front delts thinking it’s building my upper pecs like so many gym rats seem to do).
S
I used Decline for a long time when doing Hernon-inspired routines. I really liked it, and is probably the one pressing movement that I naturally feel almost entirely in my chest.
My chest was a lagging BP until I started doing other movements for it, though.
Well I tried a shallow decline BB press, and it felt more or less the same as a flat bench, but with less stress on the pec/delt tie in and front delts. I got 9 reps with a weight I normally would have gotten 8 with on the flat. I’ll keep it in the rotation together with incline db pressing, thanks.
Btw, there are quite a few bodybuilders on one of the biggest BB forums that say they built a complete chest from decline and dips only, though I agree the majority still favor incline work for upper chest.
This will sound very counterintuitive, but: Back in the day, by far the most effective upper chest exercise for me was decline guillotines. The bench angle should be fairly low, around 25-30 degrees. (By way of reference, 30 degrees is the angle formed between the clock-hours 2 and 3, so you can compare the angle of the bench to the clock on the wall.) The bar should touch no lower than the sternoclavicular junction, maybe a little higher (ie, on the base of the neck).
I know it sounds crazy, but I swear, the upper-chest gains I got from this one exercise were phenomenal.
[quote]EyeDentist wrote:
This will sound very counterintuitive, but: Back in the day, by far the most effective upper chest exercise for me was decline guillotines. The bench angle should be fairly low, around 25-30 degrees. (By way of reference, 30 degrees is the angle formed between the clock-hours 2 and 3, so you can compare the angle of the bench to the clock on the wall.) The bar should touch no lower than the sternoclavicular junction, maybe a little higher (ie, on the base of the neck).
I know it sounds crazy, but I swear, the upper-chest gains I got from this one exercise were phenomenal. [/quote]
Yes, this is in line with EMG studies… declines supposedly activates a lot of fibers in the upper chest. Of course, incline presses may do more for the pec minor, and give you more of a balanced looking chest that way.
Maybe most people lower the bar on declines to low on their upper body… how did your shoulders feel when bringing it down that high? I lowered to the nipple line myself.
[quote]Purple wrote:
Maybe most people lower the bar on declines to low on their upper body… how did your shoulders feel when bringing it down that high? I lowered to the nipple line myself.[/quote]
I never had any pain/trouble in my shoulders from doing these.
[quote]The Mighty Stu wrote:
I never really got full thick chest development from flat work, as my delts and tris were always quite dominant. Decline work, in the standard angled commercial gym benches, always seemed a bit awkward to me despite being able to press considerably more weight.
What helped me immensely though was to stack 3 Olympic plates under one end of a flat bench, thereby creating a very low decline angle. This was a serious mainstay of mine for a period of years where I like to think my pecs went from ‘suck’ to ‘at least decent’. Cordova was the one who put the low angle in my head waaaaay back in '08, and as I couldn’t adjust any benches in the gym to a 15-30 degree set up, I just made my own.
S[/quote]
I was just watching you explain this on the muscle and strength youtube vid…lol, Im gonna use alot of your suggestions, especially the cable fly tweak. I recently sustained an injury and many of the pushing movements are severely limited. For chest, the only thing I could do to hit my chest is flys (which I havent done in at least 5 years). That tweak you mentioned with regards to arm/hand placement with the slight incline fly was spot on! I am very front delt tri dominant with my pressing and found (like you said) getting a pretty good pump in my anterior delts but not as much activation in my chest. Thanks for this Stu.
sorry for the hijack
Feel everything in my pecs on the declines. Flat and incline is all shoulder for me.
I believe DB presses helped “groove” the MMC on the flat decline though. I really focus on firing the pecs at the top explosively and not touching the chest on the neg. If I remove the declines from my routine for a bit then add it back, my upper pecs get sore. That’s feedback enough for me.
do you guys feel like the ROM is too short on declines with the bar? That’s my only issue with them, but they still get hard if I do them Ronnie Coleman style
I’ll try out decline guillotines sometime
[quote]MattyXL wrote:
I was just watching you explain this on the muscle and strength youtube vid…lol, Im gonna use alot of your suggestions, especially the cable fly tweak. I recently sustained an injury and many of the pushing movements are severely limited. For chest, the only thing I could do to hit my chest is flys (which I havent done in at least 5 years). That tweak you mentioned with regards to arm/hand placement with the slight incline fly was spot on! I am very front delt tri dominant with my pressing and found (like you said) getting a pretty good pump in my anterior delts but not as much activation in my chest. Thanks for this Stu.
sorry for the hijack[/quote]
Can you provide a link to this, or is it against the forum rules?
I found last night that doing Pec-Deck pulling my shoulders down and back - just like proper form for pressing - really put more emphasis on my chest and there was no shoulder soreness (until the last set) as I’ve had the past couple weeks. Figured I’d share since we’re on the subject of building a chest.
Dips can really work the chest. If looked at from a certain perspective they are the most declined angle one could get.
I remember how Dorian Yates did nothing but incline and decline. I think he did them on the smith as well. I’ve had better lower chest results from wide grip dips then I ever did with decline barbell or dumbbell. Declines just feel awkward to me.
Dips are just declines at an extreme angle.
Mind = blown.
[quote]mutantcolors wrote:
Dips are just declines at an extreme angle.
Mind = blown.[/quote]
Yes I knew that. Thanks.
Dips are a great chest builder for me, but I do feel they are a little riskier for the shoulder joint than a decline bench. You don’t actually have to go super deep to get a full chest stretch, but I tend do to it anyway when it gets real heavy.