I read somewhere that you shouldn’t do decline bench presses as they cause “bitch tits”. Is this correct. I think it was the very own Pavel Tsatsouline that said this in a couple of muscle media years ago when EDT was being hailed as the answer. Any informaiton on this would be most welcome.
Wayne
I’m no expert and don’t claim to be, but I find it very difficult for an exercise to give you “bitch tits”.
Bitch tits arise from fatty deposits at the nipple area, caused by possible hormonal or steroidal side effects as I understand it.
In Puberty this happens to some males as their hormonal levels are imbalanced.
The decline bench press is a good exercise to hit the chest with minimal shoulder involvement (compared to the normal bench press).
Hope that helps, and I’m sure if I’m wrong I will be corrected.
I really dont know how to respond to this one.
I will just say that I think you have been wrongly informed by some source somewhere.
Decline Bench can be a very effective movement to add in with other various angles of pressing work.
Hope this helps,
Phill
Pavel Tsatsouline most definately said that this exercise should never be done. Ever. Now, i’m not a fan of his regardless, but it would be nice to know “why” he thinks its such a bad, bad exercise.
I substitute weighted dips for decline bench press. Declines seem to be hard on my shoulder joints. But then again, I have some issues in that dept.
The decline press actually takes stress of the shoulders and places it on the the chest and triceps. Some strength coaches may be “against” it because it has a much lower functional carry over into the athletic arena. However, many coaches employ it im small mini cycles to still overload the Chest and Tricep muscles while giving the shoulders a bit of a break. Also, people who have strong shoulders and who cannot recieve enough pectorial stimulation with regular and incline presses may be able to recieve a better chest workout in the decline press.
With “bitch tits” I believe it is caused by an imbalance between estrogen and testosterone. Therefore, people that have way to much test or estrogen may develop them. I could be wrong but I think that is what they are caused from.
Hope that helps.
Tags
lol.
just do them occassionaly instead of flat bench. it will give you some variation and works the muscles very similar to flat bench, unless you get enough of an incline. Several years ago i would do incline, flat, and decline, but not anymore. Now all i do is pair incline and flat up or incline and decline and mix and match barbell and dbs.
I personally don’t do declines because I don’t like hanging upside down with a heavy weight over my head. I feel very vulnerable, and I don’t like the feel of the blood rushing to my head.
But, I still occasionally do them, just not very often. I do weighted dips far more frequently.
I don’t know a lot about Pavel and his ideas but I think what he was trying to hint at with the comment about “bitch tits” was that some people do them too often and it may overdevelop the lower pecs and give the appearance of having man boobs…but in my opinion doing them on occassion is a good thing…
but I don’t believe you can completely isolate one part of your chest though. No matter what angle I hit my chest from I can feel it in my entire chest…
Thats just me…everybody is different