Read on to learn about potential issues as well as how to avoid them. Relax your neck against the bench. To effectively target the upper portion of your chest, you need to select an angle somewhere between those two angles. The most important thing to remember when performing the incline dumbbell press is to select an appropriate weight for your strength level, which is probably less than you think. The 60 Best Black Friday Deals to Check Out Now, My Secret to Navigating COVID-19 Mental Health, 8 Reasons to Quit Your Phone This Holiday Season, No, Vitamin C Supplements Will Not Save Us All, The Hypervolt GO Is the Mini Massage Gun You Need. Sit on the bench and lean back. If you find yourself doing this (or if you are tempted to do so), that's a good indication you're lifting more weight than you should be. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io, How to Do the Kettlebell Front Rack the Right Way, How to Use Drop Sets to Build More Muscle, Blow Up Your Biceps With the Preacher Curl. Using a bouncing movement to gain momentum to help propel the weight up again is essentially cheating. If you're aiming to hit the clavicular fibers of your chest (your upper chest), you need to create a wider upper arm angle relative to torso. You'll want to select dumbbells that are lighter than you'd use for a flat dumbbell bench press and when performing a barbell incline press. This happens because they misunderstand the purpose of the press. The dumbbell incline press can be an essential addition to your training routine to help build a bigger, stronger upper chest, but are you sure you're even doing the exercise correctly? This type of single-sided exercise requires your core to engage to prevent your non-working side from rotating toward the side you're working. Laura Williams is a fitness expert and advocate with certifications from the American Council on Exercise and the American College of Sports Medicine. For this movement, you shouldn't settle for anything other than perfect form—especially because it's such a killer exercise for a prime muscle group. In that case, start with machine weights or a barbell incline press to grow accustomed to the movement, then move on to the incline dumbbell press once your ready. You should be able to complete between 8 and 12 repetitions with the weight you select for a typical workout routine. Make the exercise harder by switching out your dumbbells for a set of kettlebells. Check out our entire Form Check series. Instead, keep your elbows pointing to the floor. The barbell exercise targets the same muscle groups in the same way but doesn't require the unilateral control that the dumbbell press requires. You'd just do a chest stretch. The incline press also hits the anterior head of the deltoid muscle of the shoulders, or the front part of your shoulder.. How to do a Incline Bench Press (Dumbbell) with proper exercise form. But if you can't touch your shoulders, it's OK. Once your elbows have dipped below your chest and you've proven you own this position, press back up explosively. The incline press, as a whole, uses smaller muscle groups than the flat bench press, so you'll need to decrease your weight a bit for the incline press. Instead of overlifting, reduce the weight you are lifting until you can complete the exercise without any bouncing. This exercise can seem deceptively simple, making it easy to overlook possible mistakes. Unlike the more traditional flat bench press, the incline press shifts the focus of the movement to the upper portion of the pectoral muscle groups and the front of the shoulder. Reverse the movement and slowly lower the dumbbells back to the top of your chest as you inhale. Depending on your shoulder mobility, you may or may not be able to do this. The incline dumbbell press can be modified in various ways or made more challenging to suit individual needs and fitness goals. As you lower the dumbbells, your elbows should come down at roughly a 45-degree angle to your torso. You don't want to eliminate this natural curve. You can also engage your core more substantially by performing the exercise as a single-arm kettlebell incline press. This exercise is otherwise performed in the same way as the incline dumbbell press, but you're pressing kettlebells with each hand, rather than dumbbells. The trick, though, is selecting the right angle to work the muscles you want to strengthen. Bulletproof Chest: Inclined Dumbbell Press, Bench Press, Floor Press, & Incline Press, Incline Press Challenge Rocks Your Chest and Core. They shouldn't splay out to the sides, pointing toward the side of the room. But arching your back closes that upper arm angle (and cuts the distance of the actual press too), and that defeats the purpose of the press. The incline press can be problematic for those who experience shoulder pain. Turn your elbows slightly forward and you're ready to go.