Flat vs Incline Bench

I have a commercial bench that adjusts quickly and I sometimes switch from flat to incline while working out. But truth be told, most days I don’t use the incline. You can do everything you need to do with a good flat bench. I guess if you are sculpting or something you can isolate some muscles better, but I don’t see it as essential.

I personally would try to have programmed a flat (or dip or decline), an incline, and a fly of some sort. Aesthetically, incline press fills in the upper chest under the collar bone and gives you more of that plate of armor look instead of saggy tits look.

Here you can see my upper pecs filling out the area between my collar bone and lower pecs

(Me working out during quarantine)

Your routine could look something like these:

Flat barbell (4-8 rep range)
Incline dumbbell (8-12 range)
Machine fly (10-15 range)

Or

Incline barbell (4-8)
Machine decline (8-12)
Cable crossover (10-15)

Really depends on number of workouts a week, frequency of chest, and if you’re trying to specialize other muscles though. You might need to do more or less than this. If you’re only doing flat barbell right now you could swap incline barbell for it. I’ve seen several programs that use incline almost exclusively with no flat.

I like having a lower rep compound to maximize strength, a slightly higher compound that you can safely take to failure, and then an arm adduction at high reps to get a pump.

When I'm doing my typical "bro split" workout routines, chest day would go as follows:

Flat Bench Barbell Press
Incline Bench Dumbbell Press
Flat Bench Dumbbell Flies
Incline Bench Dumbbell Flies
Hammer Press Machine
Incline Hammer Press Machine
Decline Bench Barbell Press

The order of these exercises varies from week to week, and ideally I would switch up from barbell to dumbbell presses from week to week, but I cannot do flat bench or decline bench dumbbell press unless someone hands the dumbbells to me because I have a tailbone issue, and cannot roll back on my tailbone holding 170-180 pounds of dumbbells.

The angle of the bench will determine the area of the chest you are targeting. Incline hits the top, flat hits the mid, decline hits the lower. Don't go too much of an angle on incline as it will begin to work your shoulders more than your chest. From what I have read, and from my experience, ~30 degree angle is all the angle you need on incline.

I think they're better as an accessory rather than a primary lift, but that can change depending on goals. For pure aesthetics, you'll probably get more out of incline for the upper chest.

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(Me working out during quarantine)

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Long Beach in the 1980s must be a great way to escape the pandemic.

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It really all depends on the trainee’s goal.

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I’m just an old guy trying to have a better body, but strength is nice too.

For now, I will stick with flat bench. If progress slows down, I might replace it with inclines for a few months then switch back.

The comments about dumbbell work is interesting. I may need to add some pec fly work to my routine.

I’d be down for that. Would help to make things a bit more interesting too.

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I'll do a 3x8 Incline Bench at max weight on Wednesday. It's my secondary chest lift on Wednesday.

Yesterday I finished at 195x8. Hoping to finish at 200-205 next week and 205-210 the next.

Monday's secondary lift is 3x8 incline DB pullovers at max weight and Friday's is 3x8 weighted dips at max weight.

My 3x per week chest routine only has 24 total working sets.

Mon: Flat 5x8, Incline DB Pullover 3x8
Wed: Flat 5x1, Incline BB Bench 3x8
Fri: Fat 5x6, Weighted Dips 3x8

High Intensity at Max Weight, Low Volume

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I hate incline. Usually do 4 sets of 10 at 155 just to check the box.

Yeah. It's why I do shoulders and chest on the same day. I honestly don't see why anyone wouldn't do it on the same day unless you have a really hardcore advanced routine