Are there any guidelines out there on how to incline bench press?
I have a bench with variable inclination. Of course I know you set it to some degree of inclination, sit, and lift. But are there any finer points I should consider, e.g. ideal degree of inclination, proper touch point on the chest, etc.
For incline I touch higher on my chest and use a straighter bar path. I don’t think there is an optimal incline angle, I think that the steeper it is the more it emphasizes front delts and the less your chest contributes.
If you want more specific guidelines it may help to know what exactly you are hoping to accomplish by training incline BP.
It’s in the beginner prescription as a recommended press for phase 2.
As far as my personal preference I would say to improve flat bench strength.
I think incline is in the beginner prescription largely for the sake of variation. So that is reason to perform it in a nonspecific way.
Normally if you are using incline to drive up your comp BP I’d say, make it more specific. But I don’t think you need to worry much about that.
I think you should use a 30-45 degree angle (that’s 30-45 degrees above horizontal) and arch a little. On your comp bench if you let the bar sink into your chest and thenleg drive it back up, I don’t think you should do that on incline, just use a small arch.