Incline Vs Flat Bench Press
The incline and flat bench press are great exercises for building your chest and shoulder muscles. While they train the same major muscle groups, there are still some differences.
The incline bench press activates your upper pecs slightly more than the flat bench press, and it seems that an incline of about 30° is enough to elicit this effect. As the bench is inclined, the middle and lower pec activation decreases.?
This is because when the bench is at an incline, your upper pec muscle fibres will be directly below the line of force. In the flat bench press, the line of force passes through the centre of your chest muscles. Your anterior deltoids (aka front delts) are activated to a greater extent in the incline bench press due to the line of force.?
However, your front deltoids are active in pretty much any pressing movement done in front of your body, and the degree of incline doesn’t seem to have an effect. Even the classic flat bench press works your front delts, and most people are 20/30% stronger in the flat bench press than the incline bench press.
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A study on physically active young men with at least a year of resistance training experience found that their 1RM in flat bench press was 28.6% higher than their 1RM in the 30° incline bench press. This study tested the participants’ strength in 15°-steps from 0° to 60° and found the following relationship between 1RM bench press strength and the degree of inclination.
An increased range of motion is generally associated with greater muscle growth and strength gains. Especially training at long muscle lengths (when the muscle is stretched) seems important for muscle growth, and that is exactly the range of motion that is added in the incline bench press: you can lower the bar a bit further and stretch your upper pecs and front deltoids a bit more under load in the bottom position.
Many people feel that the incline press places less stress on their shoulder joints than the standard bench press. They get shoulder pain from flat benching but seem to tolerate incline benching well.