HighIntensity.net View Mike Mentzer Bodybuilding Topic

I know this has been discussed before but I still wanted to clarify:

I have recently developed problems with my chest. For some strange reason, the insertion point of the chest tendon hurst when I do flat presses -both flat chest presses and machine presses give me the same problem. Inclines and declines do not hurt at all. So the logical concusion may be to ditch flat presses and do inclines and declines. By the way you may think that flat benches hurt becuase this is where I can use the most weight but not so. I can decline bench more weight.

The only confusion I have here is: People previsously suggetsed substituting flat bench presses with inclines where the bench was just barely titled up (perhaps 10 degrees?). The incline benches I have at my gym are inclined at around 30 degrees and I am wondering if the combination of those inclines and declines would leave the center of the chest underdeveloped?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Sub7

I know others may disagree, but I believe decline would be all you need.

The standard incline benches of 30 degrees at the gyms is too much. It′s more of a deltoid workout. Decline bench works MUCH better for me than even 10 degree incline. Of course, dips works even better than any kind of benching, but that′s a different exercise altogether.

I′m speaking about what has worked personally for me the best. I′ve tried many different chest exercises in the past, and none of them change the shape of my pecs, they either make it larger overall or smaller overall. Dips make them largest overall, followed by decline, followed by incline.

Good-luck!

Darrell

Good advice Darrell-

Also, I don′t think it′s possible to have the center of your chest underdeveloped, even though the tension can be across the fibers differently since it′s a multi-insertion type muscles, the whole muscle still is under a decent amount of tension.
Also, of you do ANY overhead pressing at all, that hits the upper pec pretty good also. Declines and OHP should be all you′d ever need 🙂

Az

Thank you very much Gentlemen. You know what, I actually went to a different branch of the same gym just an hour ago and saw a set-up where I can bench press using almost any angle I desire. (There is a set-up where a barbell is attached to pressure-sensitive wires. It moves freely while you are gripping the barbell, but stops as soon as you relase the grip. I can just pull an adjustable bench under that machine). In that case, do you guys still think that an agle of around 10 degrees -i.e. very slight incline- combined with decline presses would be ideal?

Sub7

Sub7, yeah, if you can handle 2 exercises for chest, it would be ideal. Of course, it′s only ideal IF you can recover from that. If not, I′d personally stick with decline, but that′s just me. Probably doesn′t really matter much at all in the end.

Darrell