The Decline of...well, declines!

[Akhilleus]

Guys,
I first saw a decline bench at high school and was like, what the bloodclot? I figured it was some fancy piece of equipment that only the top muscle builders used to develop muscles I'd never heard nor knew of...fast forward 6 years...I have not seen many people ever do declines...I think there is a decline bench at Gold's though I never see people use it...I have never seen nor read of a pro bodybuilder doing declines...am I correct in understanding that they develop your lower pecs? And aren't lower pecs what's really gonna stand out at the beach? If declines are so great, as it seems to me that they should be, why do I never see anyone doing them? My bench can be declined and I'm just wondering, is there any point to this? Please help me...:confused:

[IronFist]

It won't work your "lower pecs" because you can't isolate parts of a muscle. Decline bench, once you get comfortable with the "groove," will work your shoulders a little less than flat bench (kind of like how incline bench works your shoulders a little more than flat bench).

You're right, tho. You don't see a lot of people doing it. My old gym didn't even have a decline bench. Personally, I only do flat bench.

[phantom]

Actually, I have read that declines over develop your lower chest at the expense of your upper chest, and there is nothing you can do to offset the balance.

[fa_jing]

Dunno, lots of dudes at bally's will do flat, then incline, then decline bench. Some of them are big. I once worked out with a powerlifter that could only do declines because of a neck injury. Personally I tried them and didn't like it at all. Back in the day I used to incline bench but now I don't even like that. I'd rather do flat bench or overhead work.

In "beyond Bodybuilding," which is a good book, there is a program to increase the dumbell bench 1RM - it has you doing ladders and one day a week you do both incline and decline dumbell bench.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by phantom
Actually, I have read that declines over develop your lower chest at the expense of your upper chest, and there is nothing you can do to offset the balance.

I don't care what you read. Did you read that in a physiology book? No. Because if you did, you would have read that you can't isolate parts of a muscle.

[fa_jing]

Weighted dips are prolly better than declines.

[SevenStar]

Originally posted by phantom
Actually, I have read that declines over develop your lower chest at the expense of your upper chest, and there is nothing you can do to offset the balance.


not a chance. Somewhere on this thread, we posted a diagram of the pecs - you can see how close together the "upper", "inner" and "lower" pecs really are. like iron said, you can't work one without working them all. That said, I only do flat bench as well.

[FngSaiYuk]

Originally posted by SevenStar
not a chance. Somewhere on this thread, we posted a diagram of the pecs - you can see how close together the "upper", "inner" and "lower" pecs really are. like iron said, you can't work one without working them all. That said, I only do flat bench as well.

Was it this thread or another in this forum?

Also, I used to do the flat/incline/decline bench thing. I think it added variety more than anything else. I wasn't very efficient back then. A whole lot less science to my working out at the time. Mostly went w/the idea of move as much weight as often as possible in as many different ways as possible.

Lots of good info and links to better ways of developing strength in this forum.

[Toby]

I used to like decline. I haven't done it for a long time but it was part of my workout once. I felt you could get a nice "out of the hole" feeling even when you were nearing your limit. But yeah, I only bench flat now.

[Vash]

Haha, I don't bench.

Really, any kind of chest work kills my shoulders. Even have to limit how much bagwork I do.

That's okay though. I'm still pretty. :eek: :p :cool: