Bench press order?

[Victor VonDoom]

What is the most effective order of presses?  I usually do

1. flat
2. incline
3. decline

Does the order matter?  Bah!  Doom does not know.

[texasRUSH]

take a look at your chest and your priorites..if you want to be a big bencher than just focus on the flat bench first to get maximum pushing taken care of in your lift you're wanting more.  If you want your upper chest or lower chest to develop more then prioritize your training and use the incline or decline first to put the most effort into that area before you go onto something else.

[JPM]

Actually it's not going to make much of a difference at all. Reverse the order and still the same affect on the  total structure of the pec's. If you were to add pec decks or cable fly's, (and in the order that they were done) in the chest workout, that could change the dynamic's for a more favorable chest training workout. Good Luck.

[blondmusclhunk]

Declines are kind of a wast of time in most seasoned guys opinions.  Gravity will naturally pull your chest downward. Inclines and flat and flyes are the most important.  concentrate on these.  I change the order around just to mix it up every so often but I don't think the order necessarily matters.

[Charlys69]

i train each muscle every 6 days (Split, 1 Day on, one day off,...so 3 Workouts in 6 days).

i have 2 programms for every muscle, so the same workout will come again every 12 th day.

For chest i use a barbell movement as my first exercise (flat + next workout incline at the beginning)
For the second exercise I´m doing after the flat bench press a incline machine exercise, last and third exercise is an isolation movement like flys or pec deck.


Example chest-workout A + B

A

Barbell bench press
Incline machine, plate-load
dumbell flys on a low incline bench (around 20 % angle)


B

Incline bench-press
vertikal chest machine, plate-load
Pec-Deck

i train with PITT-System which is much like ROB-Training (1 rep, one short rest, until faillure occurs,
warm up + 1 "Pitt-Set", than next exercise, ....)

example of my 2. Second chest exercise in "PITT-Style". (I`m 43, 6 "2,5" tall, natural)

 

[NoCalBbEr]

if your looking for  overall mass building. i would say flat, incline and decine. but for a bodybuilder it should be inclines first b/c most guys have a small upper chest.. then DB flat press.. then decines press

I personally, dont enjoy doing decines.  so I go to dips or cable crossovers to work the lower chest

thats my 0.02

[AVBG]

target the weekest section first. whatever that maybe.

[triple_pickle]

decline = waste od time.  if you feel you really need it, use dbs, not bb.

[Jr. Yates]

decline = waste od time.  if you feel you really need it, use dbs, not bb.

I dont' think decline is a waste of time....same with back training, even in the angle and grip is just slightly different your going to hit different muscles. Same with chest, and it is an extra press to do to make your workouts not so "routine" sometimes i start with decline bar or dumbs or i start with flat...its always different. one of my personal favs is decline flyes, i really feel it.

[barnabas]

take a look at your chest and your priorites..if you want to be a big bencher than just focus on the flat bench first to get maximum pushing taken care of in your lift you're wanting more.  If you want your upper chest or lower chest to develop more then prioritize your training and use the incline or decline first to put the most effort into that area before you go onto something else.

that's very good advice.

[DarthNemesis21]

I personally rotate the press I start With every 2wks.Then I finish off my chest with flyes that work the area I started with.(Incl./Dcl./Flt.)
Heres food for thought.When you start training chest.Your streingth is up,And your muscles are fresh.You start with inclines we'll say.You can throw some weight up easier than when your at the end of your presses.We'll say Declines.If your doing all three presses.Your declines going to be lagging in the poundage dept.Right?!

So thats why I rotate the press I start with every couple weeks.It helps keep things even.(Size/Streingth/Cond.)It keeps the pecs. from adapting.And it keeps things fresh,And from getting brutally borring.

As far as declines being a waste of time is Bull.Experiments were conducted where MRI's were attached to test subjects pecs.And the three presses were performed.Test results showed that more electrical impulses were registered with Decline bench presses.Than the other preses registered.Which means More muscle fibers were recruted/Built/Streingthed with declines.

Thats not "someone at my gym told me".Thats science.it's up to you what you do.Hope that helps

Good luck!

[pobrecito]

I would start with flat - you really want to put the most stress on your muscles - and that will be accomplished with the heaviest weight. Generally this is on flat bench. If you are worried about your shoulders (thats for you pumpy ) use DBs.

[Samourai Pizzacat]

I personally rotate the press I start With every 2wks.Then I finish off my chest with flyes that work the area I started with.(Incl./Dcl./Flt.)
Heres food for thought.When you start training chest.Your streingth is up,And your muscles are fresh.You start with inclines we'll say.You can throw some weight up easier than when your at the end of your presses.We'll say Declines.If your doing all three presses.Your declines going to be lagging in the poundage dept.Right?!

So thats why I rotate the press I start with every couple weeks.It helps keep things even.(Size/Streingth/Cond.)It keeps the pecs. from adapting.And it keeps things fresh,And from getting brutally borring.

As far as declines being a waste of time is Bull.Experiments were conducted where MRI's were attached to test subjects pecs.And the three presses were performed.Test results showed that more electrical impulses were registered with Decline bench presses.Than the other preses registered.Which means More muscle fibers were recruted/Built/Streingthed with declines.

Thats not "someone at my gym told me".Thats science.it's up to you what you do.Hope that helps

Good luck!

The point being made was that the lowerchest isn't what's usually lacking. Declines are a good excercise but in most cases inclines for upperchest have priority because upperchest is lacking.

[Old_Rooster]

What is the most effective order of presses?  I usually do

1. flat
2. incline
3. decline

Does the order matter?  Bah!  Doom does not know.

The decline bench is a rather useless exercise, find any pro that even does them, hits the tricep more than the chest.
The incline bench is better than the flat bench.
One week I do incline first, then flat, next week flat first, then incline.    And I alternate each week , db's one week, bar the next week.

[DarthNemesis21]

The point being made was that the lowerchest isn't what's usually lacking. Declines are a good excercise but in most cases inclines for upperchest have priority because upperchest is lacking.

Oh.Thats true! a lagging body part must take priority.I my self have had that problem with my pecs.Inclines were first.Finished with incl. flyes.

My point with decl.is they recrute more mucle fibers.(Build size/Streingth/Power)Than incl./flat preses.So why poo poo an angle that science has shown is useful,And mabe more superior than the other angles.
Like incline curls.You dont see them done too often.But they work the upper biceps better than anyother curl out there.

But I digress.