Decline bench

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I've seen a lot of guys do inclines incorrectly where they're lowering the bar to the center of their pecs. This will take away more from pec emphasis and bring in more delts. It should be to the base of your neck or slightly under. Of course constant motion using the 1 second down, 3 seconds up will keep tension and stress on those pecs. I am aware of Yates incorporating lots of decline. Can't argue with Yates philosophy. He also never squatted either.
 

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then theres dumbbells to where i see guys clacking the weights at the top. Not wise.
 

Gadawg

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then theres dumbbells to where i see guys clacking the weights at the top. Not wise.

I feel dumbells in upper chest much more so than the bar but Ill monkey with positioning. Thanks.
 

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I feel dumbells in upper chest much more so than the bar but Ill monkey with positioning. Thanks.

nothing wrong with using dumbbells for hypertrophy
 

Mythos

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I love decline and am not happy that my current gym doesn't have one. I will say this though, years later looking back I think it was probably a bad idea to do heavy barbell declines all alone at night in the gym. Not sure how you get out of that if you fail, at least on the bench my old gym had..
 

stonetag

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Used the decline bench a lot during college for football training and I've always stuck with it since. Could be that it is just a workout habit for me?
 

metsfan4life

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I switch my weeks up with doing flat/decline and following week I do primarily focused reps on incline. really enjoy this as gives a solid lift time to each area without the delayed onset
 
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Every time I decline, which is almost never, I feel like one of those benchers that has a huge arch and almost zero range of motion. Sure I can move some weight but I haven’t gotten much benefit from it.
 

gymrat827

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chest day for me is -

first, cable flys to beat things up a bit.

Flat bench, dips, incline bench, push ups to burn out.
 

Beezy

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different times depending on what I'm doing that day but chest day is about 1.5 hours with warming my old ass shoulders up. I do 3 sets of 8-10 flat and decline and 2 sets of incline for 8-10 usually.

How are you warming your shoulders up?
My right shoulder has been killing me after chest lately.
 
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I swap between flat bench and decline every week. I can’t help but notice that I’m the only guy at the gym in the morning who ever used decline. The only major difference I get is different parts of my triceps getting sore, my chest is all sore, so I can’t feel a difference.
Any reason to stop or keep going?

I love decline probably my strongest bench. But also because it’s the bench I started out with when I was younger
 

Uncle manny

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It’s a wise choice to take your pressing through various ranges.(shoulder health allowing) Flat, incline, decline, dips, all good stuff. Decline id say dumbells are a bit better. For a general shoulder warm up grab a band do a few sets of pull aparts and face pulls with some external rotations.
 

Texan69

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I swap between flat bench and decline every week. I can’t help but notice that I’m the only guy at the gym in the morning who ever used decline. The only major difference I get is different parts of my triceps getting sore, my chest is all sore, so I can’t feel a difference.
Any reason to stop or keep going?

Didn’t dorian Yates swear by decline and mainly only use those in his chest training as far as pressing. But if it works for you don’t stop just because nobody else is doing it, most people at the gym don’t know what they are doing anyway
 

Beezy

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Didn’t dorian Yates swear by decline and mainly only use those in his chest training as far as pressing. But if it works for you don’t stop just because nobody else is doing it, most people at the gym don’t know what they are doing anyway

Yates was the reason I started them. Once I realized I could bench 315 instead of 305 on flat with no spotter, I was madly in love.

The bottom inside corners of my pecs only get really sore from decline too.
 

Gadawg

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Yates liked decline mostly because of the stress it removed from the shoulders. He was doing all angles for most of his career though. If I felt decline barbell in my chest I would do it all the time. It just isnt there for me though
 

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