My question for Will is… What are your thoughts on the different angles to have the bench adjusted for the different dumb bell presses?
My reason for asking is…
I’ve always tried to be more pure on my lifts for the specific muscles I’m trying to isolate when using dumbbells. I.e. When doing a heavy should press I have the back adjusted to near 90 degrees to try to put the load on the shoulder muscles involved in the press and less on the upper pectorals. When I do incline bench press I usually have the bench adjusted near 25-30 degrees to keep the load on the pectorals and off of the shoulders.
However, when doing shoulder press if I bump the backing back to about 70 degrees I know I’m putting more load on the chest but I am able to do more weight for more reps.
On incline bench press I think 45 degrees will put more load on the upper chest than 30 degrees but with less weight being possible and drawing in the shoulders more, so it’s somewhat the opposite.
Anyway, just curious on any thoughts and findings you have on this subject.
My thoughts are going to be fairly generic. Depending the angle, the chest will be the primary mover and the deltoids secondary, or vise versa, as the angle changes.
During any form of pressing, there’s no true isolation happening really. Any time you work chest, back, and even legs (depending on the exercise) the shoulders are involved, hence why the shoulders are such a common area of pain, injury, over use syndromes, etc
I recommend using variety of angles/movement patterns to help avoid issues mentioned above. See comments also in “Got Shoulder Pain?” thread regarding additional issues to avoiding shoulder problems which should be factored into smart programming for long term training free of shoulder issues.
Any question will be based on critical angle so we will be confident and always clarify any perspectives for negative covering resources so be happy and get clear vision.