For the middle chest, you want the arms to be oriented at a 90 degree angle to the chest, and the Classic Pushup is the perfect bodyweight exercise for this. For the lower chest, the arms should be at about a 45 degree angle to the chest, and the Incline Pushup places them in this position.
Training solely lower chest is difficult, but you can use movements like decline press and the high/low fly to stimulate more lower fibers over upper fibers. Just like you can use incline press, fly low/high, and underhand grip press to stimulate your upper fibers over you lower.
Somewhere between 30-45% is the best angle. Many people just immediately say 30% but realistically everyone is different and different angles will work better for everyone. Just experiment with angles between 30-45% and find one you feel hits the upper chest for you the most.
For max hypertrophy, the flat bench allows for more progressive overload, which is crucial (Schoenfeld, 2010). Decline might feel awkward, but it effectively targets the lower chest with a better stretch than flat or incline.
Essentially, the decline bench press is a variation of the classic flat bench press with one key difference: the bench is set at a downward angle, usually between 15 and 30 degrees. Placing the upper body into a descent shifts the focus more intensely onto the lower pectoral muscles.
Primarily targeting the chest muscles, the dumbbell incline press will activate the pectorals, triceps, and deltoids. The incline of the bench means that it targets the upper chest and deltoids more, specifically hitting the clavicular head of the pec major.
Incline pushup
Pushups are a great multifunctional exercise because they work the entire upper body and back. Performing pushups at an incline will put more focus on the lower chest. Equipment: a flat workout bench, jump box, or step platform.
Decline bench pressing targets the lower chest muscles by increasing the stretch on the pectoralis major muscle and reducing the range of motion. This allows you to lift heavier weights and stimulate muscle growth in the lower chest.
This may not be the most innovative exercise you've ever heard but if you want to hit your lower chest, it's a good one to include. Many think that the incline push-up will hit the upper chest, but in reality, it's actually better for hitting the lower chest.
30 degrees is the best inclined position to help you to achieve the best upper pectoralis activation.
The best exercises to work the lower part of the chest are: Dip Plus. Straight Bar Dip. Jackhammer Pushdown.
There's no magic number of push-ups you should do per day. Try working your way up to 1 to 3 sets of 10 to 20 repetitions to strengthen your upper body. If building bigger chest muscles is your goal, doing more push-ups might seem ideal.
If you're looking for a way to work on your lower chest muscles, the cable fly is one of the best exercises you can do. It's a chest isolation exercise that targets the lower pectoral muscles, which are often neglected by other chest exercises.
Why is decline bench unpopular? The decline press is less popular due to the discomfort it may cause in the shoulder and lower back regions. Some individuals find it challenging to maintain proper form, leading to a decreased preference for this exercise.
That's a myth.
Instead, EVERY chest exercise will hit EVERY part of it. So yes, that means incline exercises still hit your lower chest, and decline exercises still hit your upper chest. Even if you only did one type of pressing exercise for the rest of you're life, you're still going to build your entire chest.
A study conducted at Wayne State College in Nebraska demonstrated that both upperand lower-pec fibers are engaged during decline press (-15 degrees) while only upper-pec fibers are engaged during incline press (+30 degrees).
The short answer to the question is yes, but training your lower chest isn't as straightforward as targeting other muscles, like your biceps.
Firstly, we know that the sweet spot for gains is training each muscle group twice a week. If you're only doing one chest workout a week, that's some serious gains you're missing out on. Secondly, doing an hour of the chest in the gym can get pretty tiring (and boring too, to say the least).
For any isolation exercises, you could do just 1-2 sets per exercise and get the job done well. There's no harm in spending more time in the gym, though. If you have the time and ambition, you could start with 4 to 8 sets per muscle per week, and work your way up to 8 to 12 sets.