Incline benching has greater athletic strength transfer & develops a more aesthetic upper body
Unless you compete in powerlifting, theres no compelling reason to flat bench press
Incline is more joint friendly, less likely to lead to pecs tears
The man that popularized the flat bench press, Bill Starr, he thought the INCLINE BENCH was the superior exercise
he said on record many times in interviews that he considered the incline to be the superior the lift
But most HS gyms in the 1970s didnt have good incline benches
So Starr made a compromise. He made flat bench the main pressing exercise in the beginner program that would go on to become so famous.
While other programs would include the OH press & incline bench, the Bench press became cemented as THE premiere upper body lift
The Incline Bench Press has a few distinct advantages over the bench press
1. It is a “Pure” pressing pattern that you cannot cheat:
The ROM cannot be shorted like the bench press with a back arch, the weight cannot be bounced
The more you arch, the less functional it becomes
2. It is a superior muscle builder for the upper chest, shoulder, and triceps:
Unlike the flat bench press, which can sometimes be a mediocre muscle builder unless a lifter has the inherent structure for it, the incline bench press works for any body type.
3. The Incline bench more closely mimics a natural pressing pattern in stand up contact sports, especially specific for tackling
tackling takes SHOULDER and arm strength more than pec pressing
4. Aesthetics:
For building a thick, wide chest and powerful shoulders, the incline bench press cannot be beat. It was with good reason that it was a staple with classic and golden age bodybuilders (Steve Reeves used to incline bench exclusively for 3 month blocks)
5. The Incline can be customized
45 degrees works shoulders, upper chest, triceps
30 degrees is middle and upper pecs, plus shoulder
15 degrees, low incline, works the entirety of the pecs (and its the strongest position biomechanically)
6. WAY less injuries
Pec tears happen to about 100% of people that flat bench seriously
The irony to flat bench technique is that all the arching and shortening the ROM is to make it into a DECLINE kind of press
You'd be better off doing DIPS if you want chest development
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