Decline Bench Press

decline bench press

Exercise Details for Decline Bench Press

  • Primary Muscle
    Pec
  • Secondary Muscle
    Triceps, Front Delt
  • Equipment
    Barbell, Bumbbell
  • Level
    Average

Why should you do decline bench press?

Decline Bench Press is a version of a classic Bench Press with the big difference that it is made with a tilting bench; the butt is higher up than the head compared to the floor. This decline means that the lower muscle fibers of the chest will have to work extra hard during this exercise. The pectoral muscle is a single muscle (however, one on each side of the chest) that originates out at the shoulder with two major attachments. One runs along the collarbone, and the other runs from the sternum down to the ribs. The muscle, therefore, becomes a bit triangular. This causes the muscle fibers in the muscle to tilt a little differently. By doing exercises that tilt the bench or lift your arms at various angles, you load the chest differently. This exercise aims at just this, to put extra strain on the lower parts.

Preparatory

Adjust the bench so that you get a decline of the bench downwards. Your head should therefore be lower than your butt in height. Select the appropriate weights for the exercise and adjust the bench so that you can easily reach the barbell. Ensure that you ALWAYS have a friend or safety railing in place, as you will not be able to roll the bar off if you can no longer bear it. Then lie down on the bench. Grab the bar with an overhand grip slightly wider than shoulder-width. Your thumb should not be on the same side of the bar as your other fingers; you can easily drop the bar if the thumb does not hold up, with hazardous consequences. Lift the bar and hold it over your shoulders. Pull back the shoulders and pinch the shoulder blades together so that the chest moves forward. This is your starting position.

Performance

Slowly lower the bar to your chest. Try to have your hands above your elbows during the movement. When you lower the bar to your chest, hold the position for a few seconds before pushing up the bar at a slightly faster pace than on the way down. Inhale on the way down and exhale on the way up. Your shoulders should not move forward when you push up the bar, but they should remain retracted so that the chest performs the exercise to the maximum.

Guide for Decline Bench Press

  • Your thumb should be on the other side of the bar from your fingers as you may drop it
  • Make sure you always have a friend or safety railing in place, you can not roll off the bar
  • It is safer to do this exercise with dumbbells
  • Do not bounce the bar on the chest but lower it slowly, pause quickly and push up
  • Lower the weight in a slow and controlled manner, tense the muscle you are exercising 
  • Pull back your shoulders and pinch your shoulder blades 
  • The shoulders should not move forward when you push up the bar

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The back muscles on the side of your body, latissimus dorsi or your lats, are responsible for pulling your arms back and down. When you lift your arms above your head, you can easily feel the muscle fully stretched out.

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On the upper back is a muscle called the trapezius. The muscle looks a bit like a flying kite. It attaches to the top of the skull and extends to the shoulders. Then the muscle continues down along the spine between the shoulder blades a reasonable distance down the back. The upper part of this muscle holds the skull in place, which you can see in wrestlers and boxers who often have a well-developed Trapezius, but it also helps the body carry really heavy things or do deadlifts or Farmers walk. In the upper part of the muscle, the muscle fibers go obliquely upwards. You train this part by holding heavy things in your hands or pulling your shoulders up towards your ears when you have heavy items in your hands. This is exactly what you do in a Shrug, whether you are lifting dumbbells or a writing bar.