Lagging upper chest even after building a strong incline press fountation?

[ATF]

I do my inclines somewhere around 20°-30° Its very slight.

 

[louden_swain]

Please list the specifics of your pressing:

hand grip?
elbow position and angle?
angle of the forearms?
arching?
the degree of the angle?

If you use the proper technique. . .your chest will explode.

I quite all flat pressing in 1996 and have focused on 20 and 40 degree inclines. . .the result has been explosive chest development.

You must practice technique and lighten your loads.

Also are you locking out all the way? If so, stop this. . . .start performing presses with the 3/4 presses. This will keep constant stress on the chest fibers.

Just because you aren't feeling the movement. . doesn't mean you should give up. If anything its your technique that needs some work.

I wish you luck and I am always willing to provide input.

 

[TC2]

"but apparently incline pressing dosent hit your upper pecs (pectoralis minor) any more than flat pressing, in fact it hits that group less, and puts more emphesis on your shoulders."

completely untrue.

yes there is a tendecy to use your shoulders but if you focus you can hit mostly your upper chest.

 

[BrotherMaynard]

Thanks everyone for the good input. I figure I shouldn't drop inclines from the program just out of frustration.

Louden,
The specifics for my incline BB press... grip just outside shoulder width, I flare my elbows out to the side parrallel w/ the bar, forearms perpindicular to floor, slightly arched back, about 30degree bench angle.

My body structure makes bench work tough, I got protracted shoulders that slope forward and they seem to pick up a lot of the load.... I noticed that pinching my shoulder blades back together shifts some weight off the delts... but my chest still gets robbed of a good pump from just pressing movements.

Punch, I like your advice to pre-exhaust the chest, maybe I'll experiment with that for a while. Maybe lots of flies and THEN hit the incline.

 

[Debaser]

Thanks everyone for the good input. I figure I shouldn't drop inclines from the program just out of frustration.

Louden,
The specifics for my incline BB press... grip just outside shoulder width, I flare my elbows out to the side parrallel w/ the bar, forearms perpindicular to floor, slightly arched back, about 30degree bench angle.

My body structure makes bench work tough, I got protracted shoulders that slope forward and they seem to pick up a lot of the load.... I noticed that pinching my shoulder blades back together shifts some weight off the delts... but my chest still gets robbed of a good pump from just pressing movements.

Punch, I like your advice to pre-exhaust the chest, maybe I'll experiment with that for a while. Maybe lots of flies and THEN hit the incline.

Dips, dips, and more dips. The ultimate chest-builder. Try this, and only this next time for your chest:

2 sets of 5 rep weighted dips.
1 set of bodyweight dips till you can't do anymore. Also make sure you're not just dropping down, but taking about 3 seconds on the way down (up can be fast). Also don't go further down than your upper arm being parallel to the floor.

I don't agree with pre-exhausting because you just end up doing less weight on the main exercise. If 270 lb inclines didn't build your chest, why would 180 lb inclines be more effective? Your muscles only know tension, so when they've already adapted to a much higher weight, 180 lbs isn't going to do much.