Body And Fitness Blog

The most common chest exercise is the bench press. This can be done with either a barbell or using a dumbell in each hand. Beware that you will not be able to lift the same weight in dumbells as with a barbell, but the exercise will still give good results.

You can do a bench press on three different bench settings, incline, flat or decline. For anyone that doesn’t understand, I’ll just explain what each means:

• Decline means when you lie on the bench, your head is lower than your bum
• Flat means when you lie on the bench, your head is level with your bum
• Incline means when you lie on the bench, your head is higher than your bum

When you train on a flat bench, the press will exercise the whole of the chest muscle. This should result in your heaviest sets being done on a flat bench.

When you train on an incline bench, the press will exercise the upper part of the chest, and front (anterior) deltoids.

When you train on a decline bench, the press will exercise the lower part of the chest. It is important to train all three to give your chest that well rounded and filled out look that pro body builders have.

To do a good bench press, lie on the bench, grip the bar slightly wider than shoulder width apart, lift off the stand, lower to your chest, but don’t let it rest on your chest, then push it (press it) up to your arms are almost locked out, but don’t lock out. If you rest the bar on your chest and lock out when extended, you are giving your chest muscles a little rest at the start/finish and midpoint of your rep. This will decrease the intensity of your workout so don’t do it, unless you want to spend even longer in the gym than necessary.