Doing incline press with a angle lower than 45 degrees....

[Parker]

I have noticed that in the past I felt that I worked my chest better with a a angle less than 45 degrees. I have a weider bench at home, that has a roughly 20-30 degree angle setting, and one feels the chest doing the work in the exercise, and I don't feel like I am using my delts,  whereas having the 45 degree angle brings the delts more into play. Has anybody noticed this?

[QuakerOats]

seems to be the case for most people, it's very hard to keep the shoulders down and retracted on a steeper angle bench, most pros use the 30-35 degree incline for presses.

[thewickedtruth]

25-35* incline is much more comfortable for most people.. everyone is different.. everyone is MADe differently.. play with them all until you an incline that feels the best to you and have at it. Ther'es no set standard.

[wes]

20-30 degrees is best for pec development...........an ything over this stresses shoulders more.

[DK II]

20-30 degrees is best for pec development...........an ything over this stresses shoulders more.

Yep, i usually stay in this range as well, although i tend to do 35°- ~70° on shoulders days from time to time.

Anything above 35° is something between chest and shoulders, it's good for a change sometimes but not really perfect for neither of them.

[slaveboy1980]

I have noticed that in the past I felt that I worked my chest better with a a angle less than 45 degrees. I have a weider bench at home, that has a roughly 20-30 degree angle setting, and one feels the chest doing the work in the exercise, and I don't feel like I am using my delts,  whereas having the 45 degree angle brings the delts more into play. Has anybody noticed this?

most of my incline pressing is done with bench set at 20-30 degree angle.

45 is too much shoulders if working chest is your primary goal.

[thewickedtruth]

seems we're all in agreement.. the perfect inclines are done on adjustable benches.. not that preset shit all gyms already have. HAHA

adjustable bench in the cage baby!

[DK II]

seems we're all in agreement.. the perfect inclines are done on adjustable benches.. not that preset shit all gyms already have. HAHA

adjustable bench in the cage baby!

preset benches??

That sucks. I have never seen those, all gym i went to had adjustable ones.

[MisterMagoo]

preset benches??

That sucks. I have never seen those, all gym i went to had adjustable ones.

even for the barbell?

anyway, 30 degrees seems golden for chest. same with 80 degrees for shoulder presses.

[Overload]

most of my incline pressing is done with bench set at 20-30 degree angle.

45 is too much shoulders if working chest is your primary goal.

Yup.

25 seems to be the best for myself.

[DK II]

even for the barbell?

anyway, 30 degrees seems golden for chest. same with 80 degrees for shoulder presses.

You're right, the barbell bench is preset in the current gym i go to but it wasn't preset in the one before.

[calfzilla]

I prefer a less steep angle.  I usually use the last notch on the incline bench, still works upper chest great. 

[JasonH]

45 degrees is way too much - the chest won't really get worked to a great extent - between 20 and 30 degrees is fine.

[Charlys69]

Looks like that "the around 30 degree incline" range is working best for most athletes, for me too.....esp. if i train incline presses at the beginning of my chest workout.
For finishing a chest workout i sometimes use 1-2 supersets of an isolation movements (like flys), and directly after this i use a 45 % degree angle for some final reps of incline presses with medium to narrow grip.