My Experience with Decline Bench

I recently started using the decline bench in place of incline/regular, and i cant use as much weight as i can with flat…and its my understanding that u can normally use more? I chalked it up to being that my shoulders are more dominant since unless i use a wide grip on flat i really dont feel it much in my chest at all, and with decline i feel it much more no matter what width i use…or maybe its that im just uncomfortable with the movement. Anyone have any similar experiences?

nope. My decline is a lot more than my flat bench. I wouldnt recommend replacing flat/incline bench with decline but thats just my opinion. It seems to me you just need more time lifting and getting your mind-muscle connection better. But whatever works for you.

Nope.

Maybe you’re just weak.

Maybe you’re just not used to the movement, have only done decline once and expected to be instantly lifting more load.

Maybe the world just went crazy and up is now down, pull-ups are for chest, and decline is the weakest chest movement…

You aren’t the only one to experience this. For several years, I alternated between flat and incline bench without much emphasis on decline. This caused me to become significantly stronger on flat bench. In the past few weeks and months, I have been doing neutral grip and pronated grip decline dumbbell presses and feel that my chest has improved.

based on recruitment of the back muscles in addition to chest and deltoids…never mind

i would do dips instead of decline.

[quote]seth.ewan wrote:
i would do dips instead of decline.[/quote]

Always for EVERYBODY?!

Some people with shoulder issues struggle with dips especially if moving big weights, the smaller ROM on decline does seem to benefit some individuals.

Blanket statements suck.