Incline Bench Tips

An incline bench is typically adjustable to several different degrees of incline on the top half of the bench, with 3-4 levels of adjustments on the seat portion. How you adjust the seat is mostly personal preference for comfort and stability. On the top portion of the bench, however, you adjust different settings depending on the exercise you are going to perform and the angle at which you want to target the muscles.

Chest Press Tips

Using an incline bench for your chest press exercise is a great tool. As illustrated in "Musculoskeletal Anatomy and Human Movement," the pectoral muscles span a large area covering your chest from collarbone to just below the breast. When you perform a chest press on a flat bench, you are primarily targeting the section of the pectoral muscles that are situated in the center of the chest across the nipple line. Once you get on an incline bench, you start to work the section of the pectorals that are situated above that in the upper chest to shoulder region.

If you incline the bench just one or two levels above flat, you will work just above the nipple line. The higher you incline your bench, the higher up on the chest you work. Once you have inclined 4-5 levels, you are working the upper chest across the collarbone and utilizing more of the front shoulder muscles for stabilizing.

You will probably want to adjust the seat portion higher as you incline the upper portion of the bench, as this will provide more stability so that you don't feel as if you are going to slide downward while lifting weights. Within a chest workout, experiment with different levels of incline to thoroughly work the pectoral muscles.

Bicep Curl Variation

Bicep curls are a pretty basic weight training exercise. Most often you will stand or sit upright and perform your bicep curls with dumbbells. To change how the bicep works, an incline bench is a great tool. From its most upright position, incline the upper bench portion back two levels and sit back into the bench.

Let your arms hang straight down under your shoulders as you hold your dumbbells. Notice that your arms are slightly behind your torso in this position. As you bend your elbows to curl the weights up toward your shoulders, you will have resistance immediately in a position where your bicep is not used to working against gravity.

This in turn strengthens your bicep in a new point of its full range of motion, and, therefore, it is a trick that personal trainers will often use to challenge your muscle differently. As in the chest press exercise, you can try inclining the bench at different levels to slightly change the challenge to the bicep muscle.

Prone Incline Position

Prone means lying on your stomach and an incline bench can also be used to perform prone exercises. A popular dumbbell exercise typically performed while lying on the stomach is the rear flye, which primarily works the back of the shoulders and some of the upper back muscles. When you are lying flat on your stomach, you are moving the weights directly against gravity in the most difficult position for this exercise.

By using an incline bench and lying on your stomach, you will be able to make this exercise easier and will be able to use heavier weights. You will also be able to focus more on the upper back muscles in this position with a little less emphasis on the back of the shoulder.

Simply lie on your stomach with your feet on the ground and the bench inclined halfway, or approximately 3-4 notches from the top. With a dumbbell in each hand held underneath the bench, move your arms straight out to the sides and then return back to the starting position. This is a great exercise for strengthening your postural muscles.