Starting Strength

30-degree leg press or a half-squat. The decline press gets recommended for its effects on the “lower pecs,” but dips perform this function much more effectively, while involving more muscle mass, more balance and coordination, and more nervous system activity, as discussed later. Declines are dangerous because if their point of contact on the lower sternum gets missed, the next stop is the throat. Couple this problem with a heavy weight and a lousy spotter, and you might have a really, really bad “chest” workout.

    Figure 7-19. A comparison of the ranges of motion of the bench press and the decline bench press.

    The incline bench press, however, can be a useful variation. If you are doing both bench presses and presses, then everything that the incline bench press accomplishes is redundant; there is no aspect of shoulder and chest work that these two exercises do not more than adequately cover. “Upper pecs” are quite thoroughly involved in the press, and the bench press uses the whole muscle belly, so there is no need to try to isolate this portion of the chest musculature. But many sports involve the use of the arms at an angle somewhere above 90 degrees from the torso, and some people believe that this angle should be specifically targeted for resistance training. The incline bench press does this, albeit at the cost of the body’s being supported at this angle while the work is being done, something that never occurs during the sports in question (see the discussion of this in Chapter 3).

    Figure 7-20. The position of the bar in the incline bench press, directly over a point just below the point where the collarbones meet the sternum. The bar will be very close to the chin on the way down.

    But limitations are what make them “assistance” exercises – if they were perfect, they’d be major exercises and have their own chapters. The incline is useful in some cases, as long as it’s done correctly; but it is easy to cheat, and pointless when cheated. Most commonly, the effects of the angle of incline are negated when the trainee raises his hips up off of the incline bench, thus making his torso more horizontal. If a horizontal bench press is what you want to do, just do the bench press. Indeed, this is a good reason to just bench press and press. When doing inclines, people often allow their greed to overwhelm their sense of honesty, and they try to lift too much weight for the limitations of the inclined position, thereby causing their hips to bridge just to get the last rep back in the rack. The incline is an assistance exercise – don’t use so much weight that it has to be cheated, because this defeats the purpose of doing it. Keep your butt on the bench.
    Most incline benches are made to be adjustable so that the incline can be varied according to individual preference. They are made with support uprights for the bar, like a bench press bench, and the supports are also adjustable to enable the bar to be unracked at a position that matches the angle of the bench. (Fixed-position incline benches are available from some manufacturers, with neither the angle nor the uprights adjustable.) The incline bench also has a seat built into the frame so that trainees can maintain a secure position without their feet becoming too critical to the lift. It would actually be better if the feet were more involved, since this would extend some, although not all, aspects of the kinetic chain down to the floor. You occasionally find very old benches built this way, with a foot plate at ninety degrees to the bench angle at the floor, but they are not the industry standard now.

    Figure 7-21. A useful type of incline support bench.

    When doing the exercise, select a back angle of between 30 and 45 degrees from vertical. Flatter angles are too similar to the bench press, and steeper angles are too similar to the press, with the disadvantage of having the back angle held immobile in a position that is very hard on the shoulders. One reason the press might be a better choice is that the stress of a tough rep can be accommodated by the natural adjustment of the back position, whereas the incline bench nails you into a fixed position that might exceed the capacity of the fatigued shoulders.
    The uprights should support the bar at a height that allows the lifter to take it out, complete the reps, and rack it with a minimum of elbow extension but no danger of missing the racks. This means that the uprights should