What counts as an incline bench press?

[Diesel59]

I overheard a conversation at Gold's today between two members. One guy was going to do a set of incline dumbbell bench press, and set the bench to 30 degree incline. This is what I typically do, and I know it was advocated by the late John Meadows. The other guy responded by saying "that doesn't count as an incline bench press, that's almost flat. An incline bench is this." He then proceeded to put it to 60 degree incline. To me, that is getting close to shoulder press territory.

Where does incline bench territory begin, and where does it end? For reference, here is a look at a standard adjustable bench:

 

[CJ]

Use whatever angle suits you best.

Change it whenever needed to hit the chest from a different angle.

I personally would default to 30°, in your illustration.

 

[Gadawg]

30 is the best angle for chest

 

[PZT]

I label them as flat, slight incline, incline, high incline & shoulder press

 

[Beti ona]

I do flat press, incline 30 degrees and decline 30 degrees.

Then I do military press with 80 degrees.

 

[JeffGoldblumLips]

With the way I arch I have to set it to at least 30 just to flat bench.

 

[PZT]

With the way I arch I have to set it to at least 30 just to flat bench.

No USAPL approved brother

 

[CJ]

With the way I arch I have to set it to at least 30 just to flat bench.

Good point. The way we set up dictates which muscle fibers are doing the most work.

 

[buck]

Anything 1 degree or over is an incline. Just personal choice. The steeper the more shoulder and less chest seems to be involved. I "slight" decline hits the upper chest more according to the EMG studies i have seen. And is pretty my my expereince too. Others mileage will differ.