How Effective Is the Flat Bench Press for Upper, Middle, and Lower Pec Hypertrophy?
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- Опубліковано 15 жов 2024
- I think it's fair to say the flat barbell bench press is one of the default go-to exercises for achieving chest hypertrophy.
But, just how well does the flat barbell bench press do at developing the overall chest? In this video, we examine the current data.
References:
Ogasawara et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nl...
Davies et al. - ses.library.us...
Ackland et al. - www.ncbi.nlm.n... (
Music:
1) Nymano - Sleepover chll.to/4c41c32d
2) Nymano - Mirage chll.to/cafcd93f
/ nymano
Inclined (15 to 30 degree at most) dumb bell press, delt fly, tricep dips (slight lean forward), and smith machine full ROM flat bench have really blown up my chest correctly. This video confirmed my bias that lot of us are just weaker in the upper chest area and aesthetics/shoulder mobility is key to making the posture/chest look good.
I wish I had done that in my teens and stayed away from the flat BB bench press! More upper, inner with dumbbells and push-ups! A big waste of a couple of years lol. Making up for it now. You?
@@scott9628 we are all gonna make it, bro for sure
This video isn't saying we're weaker in the upper chest. It's saying the upper chest is a smaller muscle.
@@scott9628 Тhe problem with the upper head of the pectoralis major is that it is much smaller and requires additional training, but to focus mainly on it is to neglect the other 70% of the muscle.
The flat bench press equally trains all parts of the chest with the greatest load. With an incline, you're lifting the smallest weights, so it's the least effective for the chest overall. And many find it difficult to lift heavy weights on an incline bench, so the flat bench trains their upper chest more. Therefore it is recommended to have only a slight incline/decline of 15-25°
@@scott9628That makes no sense. Why not focus on the whole chest?
Fortunately, I previously came to these conclusions and had added an incline dumbbell bench press to my workout. Happy to know that I am doing the right exercises.
Awesome! :)
I always do Flat Bench Press in all my push days, but I always combine it with peck deck and incline dumbell press. Combine flat bench with other chest exercises, and your golden!
Ditch the pecdeck
Its a shoulder destroyer
@@promo130 yeah I just did pecdecks and after every time I do them my shoulders feel like shit
@@zxcvwoxn peckdeck is bad for your rotator cuff
Come on guys pec deck fly is one of the necessary movements for chest. If you feel your shoulder then you re doing it wrong just pull your seat up and make sure your shoulders are lower than your chest and there it is perfect form. Also squeeze your chest like you huge someone or try your elbows touch each other
The only chest exercise I do is bench press and my chest is massive. Bench press is the only chest exercise you need. Asides from hypertrophy studies, every EMG study I have seen shows equal activation of all regions of the pec, indicating that bench press trains the entire chest evenly.
How does your lower chest look? Does it look under developed any?
Pushup is best
Whats your regimen when you train chest?
Is your upper chest developed too? And what do you do for your tricep?
I do flat bench press 3 times a week. Each session is 6 sets of 12 (including one warm up set). Entire chest is developed. Every study shows that flat bench press grows the entire chest evenly. No need to waste time doing variations.
man awesome content its 4am here and still wide awake thinking about how to optimize my workout u earned a sub my man
Haha, awesome, thank you for checking out the video. Welcome to the channel my friend!
Then sleep should be your priority mate
You have to remember chest shape and development will depend on your insertion points, some people just won't have a nice upper chest.
Critical and often forgotten. You can still aim to target it. A good example of O/I (Origin-Insertion) importance is calf muscles. Some people have calves that insert on a wider area across the tibia making their calves look much wider and bigger, whereas others have thin looking calves despite training similarities
It would be great to see this information on dips, to see if dips are really as lower chest biased as people say.
I still consider the flat bench press is the basic and king of chest exercises but i mix up the bench presses focusing more on different areas of the upper mid and lower chest .
I think that's a solid thing to do :)
in my book to but studies say the incline barbell is better
It's the same as Squats and Deadlifts. So many more development exercises out there and ways to build bigger muscles, and with not a lot of weight too.
@@promo130 For me the flat bench is so much easier to engage chest. I have shit shoulder mobility so my front dealts just lovvvve to take over incline exercises.
For clavicular head- I do something I call the Reaper Curl- get a band, or a cable with lower weight
1 side at a time. have the cable be center mass, shoulder height, perpendicular to your chest (90 deg)
Then take the cable, and act like you are punching someone in the face- who is standing behind you, right above your shoulder.
With the other hand- feel the clavicular head, you have to play with it- but eventually you will find an angle that really makes it contract- do that 50 times for insane pump and better mind/muscle connection
NOTES** I find that if I think of driving my inner elbow, to the opposite ear (not possible, but try) instead of moving the hands, I find a better contraction
Happy lifting!
Cheers,
Z
Going to try this today, thanks!
@zdtutt. Just do flat bench. Stop over-thinking it. Cables are crap.
As a Barbell bench press advocate, I approve this message
Awesome content, mad respect for your work.
I greatly appreciate that, thank you :)
Nice video! Absolutely agreed. All I was thinking about was that the upper region is already smaller like you ssid. I dont bother doing any inclines, I feel my upper pecs best with flat bench anyway. Awesome explanations👊
Thank you dude, I appreciate your support! :)
If you feel the upper chest best on flat barbell compared to inclines, you're probably doing one of them wrong or you don't have great mind muscle connection
@@greatone6196 Yes my mind muscle connection isnt very good when training chest but I swear I feel it the most active and pumped when doing flat bench, bringing the bar little higher on the chest than you normally see guys doing.
I think it's worth noting that individual differences likely do exist. I think it's not crazy for an individual to truly feel a high level of activation of their upper pecs during the flat bench.
@@HouseofHypertrophy I definitely believe that he feels a solid contraction in his upper chest during flat, but it shouldnt be more than an incline dumbell or a high-to-low flys.
switch from flat bench to weighted pushups and my chest expanded significantly in about 2 weeks.
Interesting! :)
I'd like to see some studies comparing gains from all the different chest exercises. EMG studies don't tell us how effective any exercise is relative to others.
Me too!
Anecdotally dumbbell presses at about 70-75% 1rm for sets of 12-15, while breaking parallel to ensure a deeper stretch of the muscle and a larger range of motion, work well for me. Flat barbell bench has always been my go to for raw strength training while dumbbells seem to be better for hypertrophy. Again, anecdotally.
Awesome stuff, interesting to hear!
What is breaking parallel in bench press
@@staatsanwaltschaftemskirch4709 go deeper than the bar allows im assuming he meant.
Yea this is true. You get greater range of motion if you go all the way down for a deep stretch. I can bench around 300 but can only do around 75lb dumbbells for 12-15 reps. I’m sure the stabilizing muscles also play a bigger role in growth as well
@@staatsanwaltschaftemskirch4709 I think he meant to create more of a stretch in the pecs by bringing the bar right down to the chest (but not just resting it on your chest), or bringing your elbows down lower when using dumbbells. The thing is, the older you get, or the more experience you have lifting, you may ultimately decide that it's not worth going for that extra ROM because it can cause or aggravate shoulder injuries. Stopping with your upper arms at parallel or just past is not considered doing partial reps, even if younger gym-goers may well judge your form because they've been told to come down as low as possible. Do that if you want... then get injured, inevitably end-up cutting your ROM, and imagine me saying: 'I told you so!'
I would argue the decline pushup and low cable fly are sub-optimal choices for chest development as the former is too tricep dominant (moving your hands further back can help though it cuts ROM significantly unless you do a sort of awkward "rocking" pushup that's likely also sub-optimal) and the latter is too front delt dominant (ROM is great though tension on the pec throughout the movement is so low relative to your delts they'll likely never be a limiting factor). Dips work well if you adopt a sort of hollow body/leaned forward style though still find them too shoulder/tricep dominant personally.
Honestly your best bet is to just flat bench and add in incline bench especially since it places the upper pec under max tension at full stretch unlike most other movements. There's a reason all the golden era bodybuilders swear by it for upper chest development 👍
Yeah, I think this can be the case for many!
Golden era is a pretty silly argument. Those guys all juiced hard
The Overhead Press also stimulates the upper pec region.
Can you do a video only explaining the science behind the growth of the clavicular portion of the chest?
Best fitness channel!
Thank you so much dude, that means a lot to me!
I have done incline bench press for 6 months after doing flat bench and a variety of other chest exercises and I can tell you that even though I strictly did incline for 6 months, my upper pecs got bigger but my lower pecs also got a lot bigger. Any form of bench press is good no matter what form the whole pecs will grow consistently, genetics will determine how your upper or lower pecs look due to insertion points and rib cage shape but I can say that one form of bench press and one form of flyes is all you need for pecs for overall growth
What does mean flat bench press? In functional anatomy huge importance have path of arms (elbows) and keeping scapula back and down or making free scapula. Flared elbows - more of horizontal adduction of shoulder less of shoulder flexion - bigger engauge middle and especialy lower chest. Blocked scapula - no scapula protraction less enguage of pectoralis major (yes it protractong scapula too) and especially minor and serratus, more enguage of anterior shoulder and cocracobrahialis.
But I don’t feel anything in my chest muscles when I’m doing bench press. Am I doing something wrong? I’ve done my first bench press today and I felt like most of the work was done by my arms. I also don’t have any soreness in my chest muscles. Please help!
First of all awesome content 👍🤙
Are there any studies comparing chest fly and chest Press?
Thank you! There are not any long-term studies comparing the two to my knowledge.
You dont need studies for that, just commen sence, the chest press you can load with way heavier weight recruting more muscle fibers,
Chest flies is a finishing exercise
You do that after flat bench and incline
@@promo130Muscles don't know what leverage is
Please do another video like this but for the decline bench press.
Unfortunately, there's not any research exploring the decline bench press like this :(
@houswofhypertrophy does the incline bench change the resistance profile of the exercise comapred to flat bench press cna you explain how so.
Bravo to your channel!
Thank you :)
Love this channel
A lot of people not getting big from the bench are because they are doing it wrong. Grip width affects how your chest gets hit. I see too many people bench pressing with a grip too narrow which puts more emphasis on the tricep and more stress on the shoulders. Taller people should grip wider. Also, a lot of people don't even arch their back or touch their chest. Half reps are not gonna get you a big chest because you are essentially not getting the stretch at the bottom which is where most of your chest power is derived from.
Incline flys for me seem to help with upper pec development....just don't go too heavy to prevent risk of injury
Decline push ups for me. I don't have an inclined bench.
The pink guy looks awesome!!!
Haha, great to hear :)
Just a comment for the algorithm. Brilliant work!
Thank you! :)
I'd love to see how the Bench Press compares with Dips for overall Pec Development.. are there any studies out there covering this as far as you know?
Unfortunately not, but I agree, I really hope future research looks at something like this :)
@@HouseofHypertrophy What about the Decline Bench Press vs the Flat Bench Press for overall development?
No long-term studies either
@@lessismorefitness6789 The decline Bench Press is known “no studies I know but experience and other bodybuilders experience” to stimulate the pecs more than the flat. However, there is more risk involved as your shoulders are put in a more compromising position.There is a reason you can always increase the weight of a decline bench vs your flat. More chest involvement, more strength. You can test this for yourself and feel the difference at least most people can.
@@Witcherworks Is the decline bench press superior to upper chest development compared with the flat bench?
3:00 sorry, i don't get how the lower cross section area is 75% isn't all the CSA area supposed to add up to 100 instead of 150 percent?
So its the measurement region at the muscle. 25% means the measurement was taken at 25% of the length of the muscle, 50% was taken at 50% of the length of the muscle, and 75% taken at 75% of the muscle's length. Let me know if this is still confusing :)
Very great and helpful Informationen
Thank you!
Great video, thanks
No problem, thank YOU for checking it out :)
I vastly prefer dumbell over barbell, most of all in bench. so much less setup, so much safer, if no safetybars, and required far less equipment so can be done more places with ease.
Dumbbells certainly can be great!!!
@@HouseofHypertrophy indeed. two main issues can be if the weight becomes so heavy it is hard to get in position and the shape is annoying, and it is a bit harder to have strict technique as oppose to barbell.
I'm currently doing 26 solid working sets for chest per week split between 2 days. Comprising of flat barbell, flat dumbbell, and Pec flyes. What I took from this video is that isolating upper chest dosent seem to do much for growing that part compared to doing these exercises Flat. Do you think I should still do 15degree incline work despite the information conveyed in this video? Flat benching both feels better and allows for more total load and I feel that incline benching could even be detrimental to the other parts of the chest (tho we can't be sure) while not significantly increasing upper chest growth. Plz help!
Depends on your goals! If you feel your upper chest isn't as developed as you like, throw in some incline work :)
wayyy too much volume cut that in half
@@ChrisSmith-pe4tf not too much for me, everyone is different and my recovery is perfect
@@Riamoka ARe you using quality reps tho? I was using 22 sets a weeb between 2 days, my form was utterly trash the last reps, also my rotators were hurting A LOT when I increased load; hence why I'm just going for 4x8 flat and 3x10 incline with higher %1RM. Recovery was nice and easy but I made no progress
@@Riamoka Do you but these guys are right. If you are natural then it straight up is too much volume and it tells me you arnt pushing yourself hard enough.. As much as we dont want to admit it, quality is wayyy more important than quantity in bodybuilding(for nattys).
In my first year I was doing like 20 some sets and couldnt imagine doing less. Didn't progress for like 4 months so I dropped down to 12 sets (2 exercises, 3 sets each, 2x a week, each set 0-2 rir, look up the dynamic double progression method) and I got way bigger. As a natty you gotta give your body a chance to recover. Hammering TWENTY SIX sets a week probably does more harm than good. If youre lifting hard then that is a terrifying amount of volume.
Then again if it truly is working for you then keep at it, maybe you are a rare anomaly but somethin to think about.
Sir which books can we refer or how to get all these reserch related info please tell for a common man like us who wants to learn
There are textbooks out there that detail a lot of areas of the current resistance training research, like this one: www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0837DWFPF/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1
However, given research is always being newly released, no single book will contain everything. Generally, I find out about new researchers papers either via randomly finding it when researching online (using stuff like google scholar, the journal of strength and conditioning, and others), or via various resistance training authors sharing papers on social media platforms (like twitter and instagram).
I hope this helps. Let me know if you have further questions :)
There are only 2 heads of the pectoralis major. Lower and upper.
So basically you don't need to do decline press, good that's one less exercise to do.
Btw what's best for bench press freeweight or smith machine? I can do 20kgs of bench press on smith machine but with freeweights even 2.5kg is a big challenge.
Both are probably similar for muscle growth: ua-cam.com/video/JouADY-m9Ko/v-deo.html
@@HouseofHypertrophy I watched that video and I'm shocked to see Bench Press on machine turning out to be better than freeweights. As I said I can't lift that much on freeweights as much as I can on machine. I need more information.
Can you do only incline for all chest exercises for overall growth?
It certainly would build muscle, but I'm not sure if it would truly optimize growth of the middle and lower regions. It may be best to train with a variety of angles (inc. flat and incline). More research is needed though in this area :)
I've read research papers that've concluded that doing different types of exercises over a span of a mesocycle had better results in strength and hypotrophy than sticking to the same exercise. This is due to stimulating different parts of muscle fibres. So personally I wouldn't stick to one type of exercise but do different ones for a certain period and only switching it up during a different cycle.
With an incline, you're lifting the smallest weights, so it's the least effective for the chest overall. Many find it difficult to lift heavy weights on an incline bench, so the flat bench trains their upper chest more. Therefore it is recommended to have only a slight incline/decline of 15-25%
Good video. It does more damage then good but I love it
Nice video
Thank you :)
Weighted dips trumps all other chest exercises for me !
I only do flat bench press and flat reverse grip bench press….
People focus on bench just to have a good answer to "how much ya bench?"
Go by soreness if the chest is sore after bench press , you know it's hitting the chest
👍
Thank you :)
3 minutes to explain the difference between absolut and relative
So the answer is bench on a slight incline. Ok.
You saved me time and money. Idk how you saved me money but... Yeah
Personally don't believe you can truly separate areas that blend together as they work together too closely.
The evidence is increasingly showing regional hypertrophy occurs. Different parts of the same muscle do not always grow uniformly (journals.lww.com/nsca-scj/Abstract/2020/10000/Regional_Hypertrophy,_the_Inhomogeneous_Muscle.11.aspx), so I think it seperating areas can be justified in many cases.
@@HouseofHypertrophy quadriceps femoris, triceps brachii, and biceps brachii muscles. There is a little more clear separation in these regions. Areas which are more similar in muscle fiber types I would suspect are harder to separate or aren't so clearly defined. The Quads are made up of different muscle fiber types. I'm only using my own experience as example when do lateral raises it's a micro angle difference between hitting the Anterior vs. Medial part of the Delt. If trying to hit the clavicle head overheads probably be better then bench. So I guess I'm not totally disagreeing it's just I don't try to direct train one head of a muscle.
@@HouseofHypertrophy are you going to do a Turkesterone hype video 📹 👀 😃
Yep, lol
@@HouseofHypertrophy there aren't any studies. Yet it's blowing up like crazy
Good morning
pull ups video!!!
What about them specifically?
@@HouseofHypertrophy id be interested in any science involving pull ups. Specifically behind hypertrophy vs strength and different grips producing different effects to muscle strength/mass
Unfortunately there's actually no long-term studies comparing different pull-ups styles (to my knowledge). If any do come out in the future, I most definitely plan to cover it.
Alllrighty!!!!!
You just need 5 compound exercises to have a killer body.
Squats
Deadlift
Bench press
Over head shoulder press
Bent rows
Thank me later and forever
why is it the same kinds of videos about bench press
I only do flat bench
There are only upper and lower pec groups.
Flat bench Bress is a shit exercise, everybody get injured doing it too much. On top of that you get a way better stretch with dumbell
Most people get injured if they do more of any other chest exercise with much less weight. The flat bench press equally trains all parts of the chest with the greatest load. Many find it difficult to lift heavy weights on an incline bench, so the flat bench trains their upper chest more. Therefore it is recommended to have only a slight incline/decline of 15-25%
And many people cannot overcome heavy weight with dumbbells and get a stronger impact from the barbell
Attention span ran out .too many big words .
Nice info,though Plz try to reduce unnecessary literature!
Flat bench will never beat cable flys
🤙🤙🤙
:)
I think a lot of people stray away from the incline because the are not properly loading there shoulders. I didn’t for years until I saw a video on it. Was able to lift a little bit heavier, feel a better pump and it didn’t make my shoulders sore at all.
This proves that I only need the Bench Press, Bicep Curls, and a ton of ab workout to look buff. I can even skip squats!!
Add dumbell shoulder press.
Upper pec is genetic dependent, like biceps and calves.
algo
I appreicate that dude, as always!
It really doesn't do much it's by far the most over hyped lift
I haven't a clue what he is talking about 😬
My apologies! In this video, I try to explain that the current research shows the flat bench press grows the upper, middle, and lower chest regions very well. In fact, percentage gains in each of the three regions (upper, lower, and middle) tend to be similar after bench press training.
However, the upper chest is smaller than the middle and lower chest to begin with, so even though it experiences similar percentage gains, its measurement increases (like thickness or cross-sectional area) is still smaller. So, if an individual still feels like their upper chest is underdeveloped with flat bench press only training, adding some isolated training for the upper chest (like incline bench pressing, can be helpful). Hopefully this makes sense, let me know if it does not!
@@HouseofHypertrophy thank you
Algorithm boost.
I appreciate you!
This comment contains nine words consisting of at least three symbols.
All wrong , basic kinesiolgy The purpose of the chest is to bring the "upper" arms toward the mid line of the body , so like the fly movement , peck deck would be most superior .