Incline chest work--angle?

[Bunbun]

Cathe/crowd:
I use a weight bench with preset heights for raising/lowering it. Anyone know what angle I should use for incline chest work? My choices are about 45 degrees or 20 degrees. Right now I've been alternating between the two.

Thanks!

 

[kathryn]

I see you haven't gotten an answer yet!

I vary the angle of my incline work: from a 1-riser incline, to 2-risers (the most frequent) to 3. For your bench, I'd recommend the 20 degree angle. 45 might be a bit two high and start involving the shoulders too much (after a certain angle, the presses change from a chest press to a shoulder press). You can try both angles and see for yourself what feels like it's more in the chest than the shoulders.

 

[Bunbun]

Thanks for the reply. I don't think the 45-degree angle gets the shoulders too heavily into it--my pecs were killing me yesterday at that angle for S&H. But I think I'm going to switch to the lower one, to be certain.

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

Hi Bunbun! I usually fluctuate between 35 to 45 degrees on incline presses. When I do incline flys I usually use 45 angle

 

[Bunbun]

Thanks, Cathe! I really appreciate your taking the time to answer. This site is such a great source of info and motivation (and videos!).

 

[Cathe Friedrich]

You're welcome:7