Incline dumbbell bench vs flat dumbbell bench

Some people claim that BtN OHP is dangerous and so I switched to OHP.
I think it depends, same with dips. I can´t do dips cause they hurt my shoulders but BtN OHP feels fine for me. Anecdotally my father has also been doing them for like 30 years of working out without issues.
 
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Maybe you should try working out. A good workout makes you forgot the oneitis that rejected you.
Yeah but am hour later the pain of the oneitis returns
 
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I think it depends, same with dips. I can´t do dips cause they hurt my shoulders but BtN OHP feels fine for me. Anecdotally my father has also been doing them for like 30 years of working out without issues.
I will continue my workout. From tomorrow it will be:

Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Bicep curl 3x10

I add more weights when I can do at least 12 on the last set.

3-4 times a week depending on the week. Not on consecutive days.

Later I might substitute bicep curl with single arm bent over rows. I will also consider the reverse pyramid and leg raises or some other abs workout (but not sit-ups). Most likely I will go with single arm bent over rows, but not anytime soon. When I get bored of my current routine I will switch bicep curl -> single arm bent over row.

This basic, time-saving routine should be good for me for many, many months, if not years. I'm a beginner.
 
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I will continue my workout. From tomorrow it will be:

Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Bicep curl 3x10

I add more weights when I can do at least 12 on the last set.

3-4 times a week depending on the week. Not on consecutive days.

Later I might substitute bicep curl with single arm bent over rows. I will also consider the reverse pyramid and leg raises or some other abs workout (but not sit-ups). Most likely I will go with single arm bent over rows, but not anytime soon. When I get bored of my current routine I will switch bicep curl -> single arm bent over row.

This basic, time-saving routine should be good for me for many, many months, if not years. I'm a beginner.
IMO a good length for a cycle is around 6 weeks, it can be good to alter some excercises after a 2-3 cycles (even as much as changing grips, E.g. going neutral on a pulldown instead of pronated) or rep ranges, mostly because it varies the routine a bit, doing the same thing for years literally would get unbelievably boring.
 
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IMO a good length for a cycle is around 6 weeks, it can be good to alter some excercises after a 2-3 cycles (even as much as changing grips, E.g. going neutral on a pulldown instead of pronated) or rep ranges, mostly because it varies the routine a bit, doing the same thing for years literally would get unbelievably boring.
Yeah, actually that was something that I was thinking of doing sometime in the future. One idea was that as long as I like to do this and I progress (increasing weights) I will continue doing this.

Basically, my goal is to build an upper body that females find attractive. My current workout routine should be a good starting point towards it. Low body fat % is obviously very important and I will take care of it (currently I'm about 20%).
 
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Incline is better, include workouts that stretch the chest and make sure to squeeze the chest at the end of each rep to develop the inner chest
 
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Yeah, actually that was something that I was thinking of doing sometime in the future. One idea was that as long as I like to do this and I progress (increasing weights) I will continue doing this.

Basically, my goal is to build an upper body that females find attractive. My current workout routine should be a good starting point towards it. Low body fat % is obviously very important and I will take care of it (currently I'm about 20%).
Especially if you are getting results, you could just switch it up to something like BB Incline Bench, DB OHP, Pull-Up, Hammer Curl.
 
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do both
 
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By the way @DonerKebabMerchant and others think of this Abercombie program? I'm not going to switch to it anytime soon, but it could be something that I could consider if at some point (let's say from months from now) I feel that my current routine is boring.

 
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By the way @DonerKebabMerchant and others think of this Abercombie program? I'm not going to switch to it anytime soon, but it could be something that I could consider if at some point (let's say from months from now) I feel that my current routine is boring.

Looks fine, tbh unless you want to be a pro bodybuilder, any program with reasonable excercise selection, rep schemes and progressive overload will yield results you desire over the long run. Optimizing everything maybe yields 20% more results, which is negligable if you just lift for aesthetics or general fitness/wellbeing. Sites like symmetricstrength.com give you a reasonable view on how strong/well balanced your physique is, can recommend it, I think its important to keep an aesthetic looking physique, lots of people neglect some bodyparts and end up looking quasimodo-lite. E.g. big arms are good but look weird if combined w/ small back/chest.
 
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Looks fine, tbh unless you want to be a pro bodybuilder, any program with reasonable excercise selection, rep schemes and progressive overload will yield results you desire over the long run. Optimizing everything maybe yields 20% more results, which is negligable if you just lift for aesthetics or general fitness/wellbeing. Sites like symmetricstrength.com give you a reasonable view on how strong/well balanced your physique is, can recommend it, I think its important to keep an aesthetic looking physique, lots of people neglect some bodyparts and end up looking quasimodo-lite. E.g. big arms are good but look weird if combined w/ small back/chest.
The Abercombie workout is for guys who want to end up having a body that male models have. And obviously, that's my goal, and I assume many others here might have the same goal. But as a beginner, I don't want to change my routine now. It would be just unnecessarily complicated.

Some people have said that it's a bit weird that Arnold's Golden six has a bicep curl instead of something else. I guess Arnold loved to train biceps.
 
Looks like the steeper the incline, the more shoulders are involved in the incline dumbbell press. 30 or 45 angle? 30 better for just chest, 45 involves more shoulders. I want to build a good-looking upper body.
 
Is incline DB bench better for building a good-looking chest?

Incline DB bench focuses more on the top of your pecs. Flat DB Bench focuses more on the middle, though it also does work the top and bottom of ur pecs but not as much.

if u want a good looking chest you need to work on pecs but also your back, shoulders, and arms. If you don't you will just look like you have man boobs rather than an overall good looking chest.
 
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Incline DB bench focuses more on the top of your pecs. Flat DB Bench focuses more on the middle, though it also does work the top and bottom of ur pecs but not as much.

if u want a good looking chest you need to work on pecs but also your back, shoulders, and arms. If you don't you will just look like you have man boobs rather than an overall good looking chest.
Of course I work my back, shoulders, and arms. I don't just bench at the gym. But the question is incline vs flat bench, and it seems like incline is preferable if the goal is to build an aesthetic chest.
 
Of course I work my back, shoulders, and arms. I don't just bench at the gym. But the question is incline vs flat bench, and it seems like incline is preferable if the goal is to build an aesthetic chest.
Incline just isolates the top part of your chest yeah. I don't think it's something that makes it necessarily a better exercise though.

I tried doing incline and flat dumbbell chest flies. Absolute killer and always felt sore afterwards. Have you tried that?
 
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Incline just isolates the top part of your chest yeah. I don't think it's something that makes it necessarily a better exercise though.

I tried doing incline and flat dumbbell chest flies. Absolute killer and always felt sore afterwards. Have you tried that?
No, I haven't. My routine now is this. Would you add something to it? The goal is to build a striking upper body.

Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Bicep curl 3x10

I add more weights when I can do at least 12 on the last set.

3-4 times a week depending on the week. Not on consecutive days.
 
No, I haven't. My routine now is this. Would you add something to it? The goal is to build a striking upper body.

Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Bicep curl 3x10

I add more weights when I can do at least 12 on the last set.

3-4 times a week depending on the week. Not on consecutive days.

If that's all you're doing then you're not doing enough. You need to incorporate more exercises. Are you working on triceps? What shoulder heads are you isolating? Is the upper lats the only part of your back you're working on?

I assume you're working out at a local gym?

Pectoral Exercises:
-Flat & Incline DB Chest Flies: Work on squeezing the pecs at the top, and extending the pecs when you are going down. Make sure you only work your chest on this one, because if you don't, you can really hurt your shoulder.
-Flat & Incline Dumbbell Single Arm Bench Press: Decent substitute if you don't have a bench press at home.

Tricep exercises. I notice you are working your biceps. However, keep in mind your triceps are 2/3s of your arms, so if you don't work on them your triceps will become weak and your arms will never grow to their full potential. Also, triceps have three heads. These exercises work on all three at the same time.
-Tricep kickbacks with 90 degree inward turn at the end with a dumbbell. The goal is to squeeze the triceps when you extend your arm 180 degrees and keep it squeezed when you turn it 90 degrees inward.
-Dip Exercises. That's pretty straight forward. To add more weight put something that hangs by your neck and shoulders.
-Narrow Push-ups. Works your triceps but also squeezes your chest at the same time. Good exercise.

Shoulder Exercises. Your Shoulder has three heads, so just doing overhead presses is fine but if you want faster growth, I'll tell you what exercise works what so you can isolate them:
-Military Presses: works your deltoids aka the back shoulders.
-Dumbbell Lateral Raises: works the middle head of the shoulder. It's the part that gives your body width.
-Dumbbell Front Raises: focuses on the shoulders on the front. Helps assist with the growth of your overall chest.
-Dumbbell Arnold Presses: focuses on deltoids and also a killer workout. Named after Ahnold Schwarzenegger.

Back Exercises: You have upper, middle, and lower back muscles. If you want that V shape when you look in the mirror, it's important to work on your back. The hard part about back exercises is that most neglect them, and never really trained their nervous system to work on them, so try focusing on working your back when doing these:
-Reverse Grip Barbell Rows: Works the inner part of your lats.
-Long Angle Dumbbell Rows: Works on the lower part of your lats
-Deadlifts: works on your lower back plus good leg workout
-Wide Grip Pull-Ups: Works on your upper back but wide grip will take stress out of your biceps, and it's good if you did a bicep workout recently and you want them to grow and recover.

Bicep Exercises. Your bicep also has 3 heads, believe it or not: Short head (inside of your biceps), long head (outside of your biceps and the largest, and also the most worked on), and brachialis (a little muscle inside and between short and long heads. Critical because this is the part that gives your arm a lot of width). These work on all three heads. Try not to swing your elbows:
-Bicep Curls: You're already doing this. Works on long head.
-Incline Bicep Curls: Works on short head.You're doing bicep curls with dumbbells but you are sitting on an incline bench. Trust me, this is much harder to do.
-Incline Reverse Grip Bicep Curls: works on brachialis. Most reverse grip bicep curls work on the brachialis, anyway.

Also you do leg workouts too?

Hope this helps. Work on technique rather than big weight. Good technique will shorten the time it takes to see results, because you're targeting the muscles you're supposed to work on. If you do them wrong you won't see results for a long time, if ever.

Also if you want striking upper body you need to lose fat too. Drink a lot of water I guess. and eat lots of protein, vegetables, and good nutritious carbs like brown rice or something. Don't consume so much salt or saturated or trans fats. Fish fat is good though. Cut down on all processed sugar, and limit natural sugars like honey or syrup.
 
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I haven't DB benched in a long time. Recently took my bench from 2 plates to 290 in about 3ish months from purely flat benching 3-4 times per week. Strength is cool. I might look into bodybuilding style reps to gain better size. I'm not a fucking powerlifter. Aesthetics are everything tbh
 
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If that's all you're doing then you're not doing enough. You need to incorporate more exercises. Are you working on triceps? What shoulder heads are you isolating? Is the upper lats the only part of your back you're working on?

I assume you're working out at a local gym?

Pectoral Exercises:
-Flat & Incline DB Chest Flies: Work on squeezing the pecs at the top, and extending the pecs when you are going down. Make sure you only work your chest on this one, because if you don't, you can really hurt your shoulder.
-Flat & Incline Dumbbell Single Arm Bench Press: Decent substitute if you don't have a bench press at home.

Tricep exercises. I notice you are working your biceps. However, keep in mind your triceps are 2/3s of your arms, so if you don't work on them your triceps will become weak and your arms will never grow to their full potential. Also, triceps have three heads. These exercises work on all three at the same time.
-Tricep kickbacks with 90 degree inward turn at the end with a dumbbell. The goal is to squeeze the triceps when you extend your arm 180 degrees and keep it squeezed when you turn it 90 degrees inward.
-Dip Exercises. That's pretty straight forward. To add more weight put something that hangs by your neck and shoulders.
-Narrow Push-ups. Works your triceps but also squeezes your chest at the same time. Good exercise.

Shoulder Exercises. Your Shoulder has three heads, so just doing overhead presses is fine but if you want faster growth, I'll tell you what exercise works what so you can isolate them:
-Military Presses: works your deltoids aka the back shoulders.
-Dumbbell Lateral Raises: works the middle head of the shoulder. It's the part that gives your body width.
-Dumbbell Front Raises: focuses on the shoulders on the front. Helps assist with the growth of your overall chest.
-Dumbbell Arnold Presses: focuses on deltoids and also a killer workout. Named after Ahnold Schwarzenegger.

Back Exercises: You have upper, middle, and lower back muscles. If you want that V shape when you look in the mirror, it's important to work on your back. The hard part about back exercises is that most neglect them, and never really trained their nervous system to work on them, so try focusing on working your back when doing these:
-Reverse Grip Barbell Rows: Works the inner part of your lats.
-Long Angle Dumbbell Rows: Works on the lower part of your lats
-Deadlifts: works on your lower back plus good leg workout
-Wide Grip Pull-Ups: Works on your upper back but wide grip will take stress out of your biceps, and it's good if you did a bicep workout recently and you want them to grow and recover.

Bicep Exercises. Your bicep also has 3 heads, believe it or not: Short head (inside of your biceps), long head (outside of your biceps and the largest, and also the most worked on), and brachialis (a little muscle inside and between short and long heads. Critical because this is the part that gives your arm a lot of width). These work on all three heads. Try not to swing your elbows:
-Bicep Curls: You're already doing this. Works on long head.
-Incline Bicep Curls: Works on short head.You're doing bicep curls with dumbbells but you are sitting on an incline bench. Trust me, this is much harder to do.
-Incline Reverse Grip Bicep Curls: works on brachialis. Most reverse grip bicep curls work on the brachialis, anyway.

Also you do leg workouts too?

Hope this helps. Work on technique rather than big weight. Good technique will shorten the time it takes to see results, because you're targeting the muscles you're supposed to work on. If you do them wrong you won't see results for a long time, if ever.

Also if you want striking upper body you need to lose fat too. Drink a lot of water I guess. and eat lots of protein, vegetables, and good nutritious carbs like brown rice or something. Don't consume so much salt or saturated or trans fats. Fish fat is good though. Cut down on all processed sugar, and limit natural sugars like honey or syrup.
Good post. I appreciate the effort you put in and I'm thankful for it.

Yes, I'm cutting. My body fat percentage is currently 19-21. Let's say 20%. The goal is to cut around 10% and then I can bulk until around 15%.

I'm a beginner and so I can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. I know the basics: I eat enough protein, I give my body time to rest, I do exercises properly, I drink enough water, etc.

My gym has dumbbells, barbells, an incline and flat bench (changing angle), a lat pulldown machine, a squat rack, and a treadmill.

I do incline dumbbell bench on 30 angle by the way.

My routine is a time-saving routine - I realize that it doesn't have everything. It's what I'm currently doing. However, I can add exercises if they lead to meaningful improvements. I used to squat before, but I don't do it now. I don't fear that I get an unbalanced body (big upper body and small legs) anytime soon.

Another user recommended replacing barbell curl with single arm bent over row. What do you think of adding single arm bent over row? So not replacing barbell curl, but instead just adding single arm bent over row.

I will look into the exercises that you listed. I have to check what of those I can do at my gym. I wont add all of them, but I consider adding 1-2 exercises.
 
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fuck all that shit

just get good shoulders and leave it, if you don't get laid looking like you gym you won't actually gymming
View attachment 942484
Imagine how shit the sex must be for this guy? JFL.

You want to illicit the very opposite reaction of what he gets. They need to say "WOW" when they see you remove your shirt.

Every single foid I've slayed since I started gymcelling has said "You got a really nice body" or something to that effect. Every one. If you don't think that counts for something there is no helping you.

Here is a completely unfrauded photo of how I look. No pump, late evening stomach and bad lighting. This is basically as "bad as it gets" for me.

As you can see I'm nothing special and possess sub par genetics and bad muscle inserts, but point is getting to this point was fairly easy. Better to work out and get a decent body that women will still find impressive. Even just a bit of gymcel and muscle will impress normie foids.



Shirtless
 
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Imagine how shit the sex must be for this guy? JFL.

You want to illicit the very opposite reaction of what he gets. They need to say "WOW" when they see you remove your shirt.

Every single foid I've slayed since I started gymcelling has said "You got a really nice body" or something to that effect. Every one. If you don't think that counts for something there is no helping you.

Here is a completely unfrauded photo of how I look. No pump, late evening stomach and bad lighting. This is basically as "bad as it gets" for me.

As you can see I'm nothing special and possess sub par genetics and bad muscle inserts, but point is getting to this point was fairly easy. Better to work out and get a decent body that women will still find impressive. Even just a bit of gymcel and muscle will impress normie foids.



View attachment 945472
who cares, they'll be going ''WOW'' before you take it off and that's how you get into bed the first place. Too late for them to back down when the shirt gets taken off
 
who cares, they'll be going ''WOW'' before you take it off and that's how you get into bed the first place. Too late for them to back down when the shirt gets taken off
Yeah but not to late for bad sex with an unenthusiastic foid.
 
What about this?

Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Flat dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Dumbbell lateral raise 3x10
Bicep curl 3x10
 
Good post. I appreciate the effort you put in and I'm thankful for it.

Yes, I'm cutting. My body fat percentage is currently 19-21. Let's say 20%. The goal is to cut around 10% and then I can bulk until around 15%.

I'm a beginner and so I can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. I know the basics: I eat enough protein, I give my body time to rest, I do exercises properly, I drink enough water, etc.

My gym has dumbbells, barbells, an incline and flat bench (changing angle), a lat pulldown machine, a squat rack, and a treadmill.

I do incline dumbbell bench on 30 angle by the way.

My routine is a time-saving routine - I realize that it doesn't have everything. It's what I'm currently doing. However, I can add exercises if they lead to meaningful improvements. I used to squat before, but I don't do it now. I don't fear that I get an unbalanced body (big upper body and small legs) anytime soon.

Another user recommended replacing barbell curl with single arm bent over row. What do you think of adding single arm bent over row? So not replacing barbell curl, but instead just adding single arm bent over row.

I will look into the exercises that you listed. I have to check what of those I can do at my gym. I wont add all of them, but I consider adding 1-2 exercises.

you can definitely add more exercises if you want. Just make sure you work on technique, that's all.
 
What about this?

Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Flat dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Dumbbell lateral raise 3x10
Bicep curl 3x10

I would divide it over the week. For example:

Monday: Triceps/Chest
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Back/Shoulders
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Biceps/Abdominals
 
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Incline = upper chest
Flat = lower chest
 
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I would divide it over the week. For example:

Monday: Triceps/Chest
Tuesday: Legs
Wednesday: Back/Shoulders
Thursday: Legs
Friday: Biceps/Abdominals
PPL split would be one option, but I don't want to train legs at the moment. Full body workout let's me train 3-4 times a week.

I do overhead press already. Which one would be more beneficial addon if the goal is to build an aesthetic shoulder: dumbbell lateral raise or front raise?
 
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PPL split would be one option, but I don't want to train legs at the moment. Full body workout let's me train 3-4 times a week.

I do overhead press already. Which one would be more beneficial addon if the goal is to build an aesthetic shoulder: dumbbell lateral raise or front raise?
Don't overcomplicate this, do three or four exercises for shoulders, which target all three heads, for proportional delts:

- OHP with DBs (5-8 sets)

- Front raises with DBs (alternate arms) (3-5 sets)

- Lateral raises (8 sets)

- Rear raises (seated) (8 sets)

You should be g2g.
 
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Don't overcomplicate this, do three or four exercises for shoulders, which target all three heads, for proportional delts:

- OHP with DBs (5-8 sets)

- Front raises with DBs (alternate arms) (3-5 sets)

- Lateral raises (8 sets)

- Rear raises (seated) (8 sets)

You should be g2g.
I add all these to my full body workout? I mean yes, I can do it, but is there any reason why not to?
 
I add all these to my full body workout? I mean yes, I can do it, but is there any reason why not to?
Yes, if you lack time and/or energy, it's not essential to do all of it,

since you're already training front delts with incline bench,

you can get away with only doing a few sets of OHPs, lateral raises, and seated rear delts, all included into your Chest/triceps day workout, if you do PPL.
 
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Yes, if you lack time and/or energy, it's not essential to do all of it,

since you're already training front delts with incline bench,

you can get away with only doing a few sets of OHPs, lateral raises, and seated rear delts, all included into your Chest/triceps day workout, if you do PPL.
Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Flat dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Dumbbell lateral raise 3x10
Seated rear raise 3x10
Bicep curl 3x10

Good? Anything else? 3-4 times a week
 
Incline dumbbell bench press 3x10
Flat dumbbell bench press 3x10
Lat pulldown 3x10
Overhead press 4x10
Dumbbell lateral raise 3x10
Seated rear raise 3x10
Bicep curl 3x10

Good? Anything else? 3-4 times a week
That's the whole workout, to be repeated 3-4 times a week?

Or is it only the Push day of a PPL routine, to be repeated 3-4 times a week, combined with the Pull days, and the Legs days, for a total of 6 or 7 workouts a week ?

If so, I would do the biceps curls, and the whole biceps workout, on the Pull days instead.

I would two the above twice, or three times a week; more than that might be too much volume IMO.
 
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That's the whole workout, to be repeated 3-4 times a week?

Or is it only the Push day of a PPL routine, to be repeated 3-4 times a week, combined with the Pull days, and the Legs days, for a total of 6 or 7 workouts a week ?

If so, I would do the biceps curls, and the whole biceps workout, on the Pull days instead.
Yeah. Whole workout. Full body workout style, not a split. 3-4 times a week, not on consecutive days.
 
PPL split would be one option, but I don't want to train legs at the moment. Full body workout let's me train 3-4 times a week.

I do overhead press already. Which one would be more beneficial addon if the goal is to build an aesthetic shoulder: dumbbell lateral raise or front raise?

I mean if you don't want to train legs that's fine.

do both lateral and front raises. Your shoulders are three heads. If you want a killer aesthetic shoulder you need to work on all three. However, if you want width, work on lateral raises. If you want to add some muscle to the frontal part of your body as well as work on chest when you're doing shoulders, then front raises.

But seriously do both plus work on deltoids. Your shoulders will hurt themselves if they don't have deltoid support.
 
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