declines

[wild willie]

i know i am going to get flamed for this but i really prefer declines to any other chest movement.

much better pec pump and almost no shoulder involvment.


ray mentzer and kenny waller felt the same way.

how do you folks feel about declines?

[Rinc]

I have tried them on and off and they do nothing for me. Incline/Flat work best for me.

[local hero]

i used to love dbell presses on a very slight decline, im talking a thick plate under the front of the bench,,, any steeper angle and they were shite, most people do these to look as tho there lifting alot of weight

[JasonH]

They're a nice exercise to do but I've never really had that much luck with them so I tend to stick to the flat bench for lower pec development.

[big man]

Declines work better for my chest. My shoulders take over too much on flat and incline even when I concentrate and squeeze them.
Took me a long time to realize this and my chest is coming up slowly, but surely.

[dyslexic]

In the decline press you are basically doing diagonal extension, which is a combo of the bench press and a couple of versions of the dip. Kinda cool if you can have a spotter for declines...


they make a lot of blood rush to yer head.


If they work for you, who the hell can say they're wrong?

[Palpatine Q]

I love the decline bench.

the way I'm built it works the best....i don't feel my pecs half as much on a flat.

What i do sometimes is put 4 25's (2 stacks of 2) under the end of a flat bench for a less extreme decline. it's pretty effective IMO

[webcake]

Rarely do them. No real reason why, just seem to forget about them. Might give them a try next chest day.

That being said, dips are probably my favourite chest exercise, and i wouldn't be replacing them any time soon.

[Montague]

The cranial blood rush in the semi-inverted position can be a bit distracting (for lack of a better word).
Anybody here do decline presses with dumbbells?

I think decline benches in general are underutilized – especially for triceps work. They’re very good for lying extensions, lowering the bar behind the head, and I’ve even done reverse grip bench presses (for triceps) on them. The RG presses aren’t my first choice for tri’s, but are nice to do to occasionally switch things up.

As far as chest, I tend to get more out of dips using a modified grip.
But as mentioned here, a lot of that has to do with how you're put together.

[dyslexic]

They are good for triceps because of their mechanical advantage of leverage.


So are dips... especially if you can add weight to your bodyweight and get some decent reps. The guys I see at the gym doing declines always look like their heads are about to pop though.

[Montague]

The guys I see at the gym doing declines always look like their heads are about to pop though.

 

[ngm21084]

They are good for triceps because of their mechanical advantage of leverage.


So are dips... especially if you can add weight to your bodyweight and get some decent reps. The guys I see at the gym doing declines always look like their heads are about to pop though.

i used to like declines and ive done them with DB which is interesting....i used to love doing skullcrushers on the decline bench with a db in each hand which does add a different approach to it...also what modified grip are you using while doing dips?

[Montague]

I place my palms on the extreme ends of the handles with my knuckles pointed inward.  Elbows flare way out to the side, and feet are held outwards in front of the body. Chin tucked.
Dip down deep, pause a second, and explode up.

This is analogous to Gironda-style dips performed on a V-bar, which is something of a rarity these days.

[ngm21084]

ok i got ya...i thought you had some tricky hand grip or something....

[Montague]

The direction of the knuckles is the biggest difference.
Balancing the center of your palm on the very end of the handles is a bit tricky. Once you find “the spot,” it’s pretty easy from there.

[ngm21084]

ive been doing dips for a while i just always used them on chest/tri day and use them as a finishing move after presses...

[dyslexic]

I place my palms on the extreme ends of the handles with my knuckles pointed inward.  Elbows flare way out to the side, and feet are held outwards in front of the body. Chin tucked.
Dip down deep, pause a second, and explode up.

This is analogous to Gironda-style dips performed on a V-bar, which is something of a rarity these days.

I've never been in a gym that had a V bar for dips. Talk about "rarity"--maybe someday.

The other variation would be elbows back and close to the sides to slam the hell outta the triceps.

[Montague]

I do these, also.
The closer spaced parallel dipping bars that are “standard” nowadays are well suited for this technique.

I prefer triceps dips over CG’s for lateral triceps development.
Behind the head extensions, however, have given me the most bang for my buck in terms of overall triceps growth – primarily because they hit that long head better than anything.
I foolishly neglected them big time until several years into my training.