Incline bench press

[mike314]

Question, I recently started weightlifting for about 6 months I've been having trouble doing the inclined bench press and I was wondering what could it be. To workout my chest I do the incline, decline and flat bench press usually for 3 sets of 10 on each, twice a week. On the flat bench press I can bench a total of 95lbs (with the bar) for 3 sets of 10. I can also bench 115lbs for 3 sets of 6. When I try the incline I can only bench 85lbs on the first set I can only do 8 reps and by the second and third I only get to 4 reps. What can I do to improve my reps and weight on the incline? Which should I do?

A. Go back to the basics and start at 65lbs and work your way up
B. Do other routines to strenghten your clavical muscles then hit the incline
C. Never workout the incline, decline and flat bench all on the same day, you're tiring yourself out and working out nothing

Also, to workout my chest is just the incline, decline and flat bench sufficiant? or should I do more?

Thanks for your tips!!

[.V.]

D - Drop the weight slighly - just enough that you can get all your desired sets and reps with. Then very gradually in the smallest increments available to you - increase the weight, drop the reps by a couple and work your way up through that new weight until you get the desired sets/reps...repeat.

BTW- for many of us - the incline is very hard - but worth the effort. Some of the more experienced lifters have said that if you use a very slight incline it is better so you are using more chest instead of anterior delts. My bench only has a 30 degree incline so I have no experience using different amounts of inclines. Maybe one of them can help more with that information.

[rrouleau]

Are you doing incline bench last? Maybe if it is last then you are tired by then and just cant do that much. I am this way. I cant do that much compare to decline and flat. Alot of people are like that. So maybe just switching around your chest routine a little can shock the muscles into doing evenb more. I also agree with the post above.....maybe not so much of an incline can better you with gaining more weight and reps and sets too. Hope this helps.

[Cort]

Consider working incline first, or increasing your rest period between sets.

[threenorns]

i agree with teh incline: if you set it too high (+30 degrees) you're putting a whole lot of the load on your upper pectorals (pectoralis minoris, not the "upper part of your pec muscle", as commonly described) and delts. the upper pecs are very small muscles that function to shrug your shoulders forward. as you can imagine, with such small muscles, your triceps play a larger role and the weight *must* go down.

if you want to focus on overall mass-building, then drop the bench so you're only 30 degrees or even lower - i use the lowest setting, which is about 10 degrees.