How to do the incline barbell bench press

The incline bench press is what you add when your flat bench is going well but your upper chest isn't keeping up. Tilting the bench shifts more of the work onto the upper part of your chest and the front of your shoulders, and a barbell lets you load it heavier than dumbbells would. If your shoulders don't enjoy barbells, the incline dumbbell press does a similar job. If they're fine, this is the version you can progress in the smallest steps.

How to do an incline bench press

1. Set the bench to 30 to 45 degrees. On many adjustable benches that's one or two notches up from flat, but notches vary, so check it once with a phone's level app and remember the setting.
2. Lie back with your eyes just in front of the bar. Plant your feet flat on the floor (or on the foot plate, on a fixed incline station). If the bench has a seat, set it so your hips sit in the crease and don't slide down.
3. Grip the bar a little narrower than your flat bench grip. For most people that's just outside shoulder width. Wrap your thumbs and keep your wrists stacked over your forearms.
4. Pin your shoulder blades back and down. Squeeze them together and drive them into the bench before you unrack. Keep the arch small: your upper back does the work, your lower back stays close to the pad.
5. Unrack and hold the bar over your shoulders. Take a breath and brace.
6. Lower the bar to your upper chest. It should touch a few inches below your collarbones, roughly where your chest meets your shoulders when you're sitting at this angle. Take one to two seconds down, elbows tucked about 45 to 60 degrees from your body.
7. Press toward the ceiling. From the touch point, drive the bar up until it's back over your shoulders with your arms straight. The path is close to vertical, not angled back toward your face like a flat bench.

You should feel this higher on your chest than a flat bench, up toward your collarbones, with a lot more front shoulder involved. If it feels almost entirely in your shoulders, the bench is probably too steep.

Form cues

"Touch the collarbone shelf." Having a clear target stops the bar landing on your mid chest, which quietly turns this into a flat bench on a tilt.

"Bar over your wrists, wrists over your elbows." Checking the stack at the bottom fixes most bar path problems. If your elbows end up in front of or behind the bar, you're leaking force.

"Push up to the ceiling." Useful if your bar keeps drifting back over your face at the top. At this angle, straight up already ends over your shoulders.

"Shoulders in your back pockets." Try this if your shoulders creep up toward your ears as the set goes on. It keeps them pinned so your chest stays in the lift.

Common mistakes

Setting the bench too steep. Past about 45 degrees, the press starts to look and feel like an overhead press with your back on a pad. Your front delts take over and your upper chest does less. We'd start at 30 degrees for most people and only go steeper if 30 doesn't let you feel your upper chest, since the extra angle mostly adds shoulder work.

Stopping short of the chest. Stopping two or three inches up lets you load more, and on this lift it's the most common way to fake progress. The bottom few inches are where the upper chest is most stretched, so they're the part you're here for. Touch every rep lightly.

Arching the lower back into a flat bench. Some lifters push their hips forward and arch so hard that their chest ends up almost flat, undoing the incline. A little upper-back arch is fine. If you can slide a whole forearm under your lower back, you've gone too far, and the weight is probably too heavy.

Touching too low. If the bar lands on your nipples or lower, your forearms tip, your elbows end up under the bar at the wrong angle and the press feels weak and awkward. Aim higher, even if it feels odd at first.

Flaring the elbows wide. Elbows pointing straight out at 90 degrees put more strain on the front of the shoulder, which is already doing a lot on this lift. Tuck them slightly and let them drift just in front of the bar.

Breathing and bracing

Breathe in and brace before each rep, hold it while you lower the bar, and breathe out as you pass the hardest part of the press. The incline makes it easier to lose tension through your trunk than on a flat bench, because your feet are further below you. Pushing your heels into the floor as you breathe in helps you stay tight.

Sets, reps and how much weight to use

For most people this works best as a second press, after a flat bench or on a separate day. Go for 3 or 4 sets of 6 to 10 reps with a weight you could do 2 or 3 more reps with. If it's your main press for the day, heavier sets of 4 to 6 are fine too. Rest two to three minutes between sets.

Warm up in steps. If your working weight is 135 lb (60 kg):

• Empty bar (45 lb or 20 kg) for 10
• 95 lb (40 kg) for 5
• 115 lb (50 kg) for 2 or 3

Then start your working sets.

To progress, add 5 lb (2.5 kg) when every set hits the top of your rep range with clean reps. Upper-body lifts stall fast, so once that stops working, add a rep a session and move up the weight once you've built some room. Expect to handle roughly 70 to 80% of your flat bench here.

Here's roughly what people lift for normal working sets:

Incline Barbell Bench Press working weights by bodyweight and experience

Bodyweight	beginner	intermediate	advanced
130 lb (59 kg)	35 lb (16 kg)	65 lb (29 kg)	105 lb (48 kg)
160 lb (73 kg)	40 lb (18 kg)	80 lb (36 kg)	130 lb (59 kg)
190 lb (86 kg)	50 lb (23 kg)	95 lb (43 kg)	150 lb (68 kg)
220 lb (100 kg)	55 lb (25 kg)	110 lb (50 kg)	175 lb (79 kg)
250 lb (113 kg)	65 lb (29 kg)	125 lb (57 kg)	200 lb (91 kg)

Treat the table as a rough guide. Bench angle alone moves the number: most lifters press noticeably more at 30 degrees than at 45, so only compare yourself at the same setting.

Safety

Many incline benches, especially fixed ones, have no safety bars. If yours doesn't, get a spotter to stand behind you for anything near your limit, or set up in a power rack with the bench inside and the safeties just below your chest at the bottom position. Skip collars when you're training alone without safeties so you can tip the plates off if you get pinned.

Variations and alternatives

• Incline dumbbell press: each arm moves independently and your shoulders pick their own angle. Our pick if the barbell version bothers your shoulders.
• Low incline press (15 to 20 degrees): a halfway point between flat and incline. Some lifters feel their upper chest better here than at 30 or 45.
• Smith machine incline press: the fixed path means you can push close to failure without a spotter. The bar path is a bit less natural, but for muscle growth it's a perfectly good option.
• Barbell bench press: the flat version, for when you want to push your heaviest pressing numbers.

Incline bench press questions

What angle is best for an incline bench press?

For most people, 30 degrees gives a good balance of upper chest work without the shoulders taking over. Anything from 15 to 45 degrees works; if you can't feel your upper chest at 30, try 20 or 45 and keep the one that does.

Do I need incline pressing if I already flat bench?

You don't need it, and flat pressing works your upper chest too. The incline puts a bit more emphasis there and adds variety for your shoulders. If your upper chest lags or you have room for another chest exercise, it's worth doing.

Why does my shoulder hurt on incline but not flat bench?

Your shoulders do more work on incline, and the usual extra culprits are a bench set too steep or elbows flaring wide. Drop the angle to 30 degrees, tuck your elbows and cut the weight for two weeks. If it still hurts after that, get it checked by a physical therapist.