Incline push-ups are a great way to start a push-up routine if you have trouble doing the basic push-up. The exercise still targets the main chest muscles (the pectoralis major and minor) but puts far less stress on your elbows and significantly reduces the amount of body weight you are lifting.
Incline push-ups activate multiple muscle groups throughout your upper body, including your anterior deltoids, pectoralis major, and triceps. Incline push-ups target your lower chest muscles.
If you elevate your hand placement and peroform incline pushups, you'll emphasize the lower chest fibers. If you place your hands on the floor and perform regular pushups, you'll work the middle and lower fibers of your chest.
Doing 100 push-ups a day can be an impactful element of your overall strength-building and -maintaining routine. And you don't need to be at a gym to do them. “It's a quick and efficient way to strengthen some upper body muscles,” Rad says. “It is a bodyweight move that can be done virtually anywhere.”
The incline bench press will preferably hit the upper chest whereas the flat barbell bench press hits the mid-pecs.
The incline dumbbell fly is an exceptional exercise for those who want to focus on the upper portion of their chest, specifically targeting the clavicular head of the pectoralis major.
To bolster the upper area of your chest, it's advisable to set the bench at an angle between 15 and 30 degrees. In contrast, if you're looking to build up your shoulder muscles significantly, then positions exceeding 45 degrees on the incline will be most effective.
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.
I did incline push-ups every day for a week — here's my verdict. Just go for it. It's an ideal at-home move for those new to push-ups or if you want to take some pressure off your arms and shoulders while you focus on your chest.
The bench press beat flys in terms of average muscle activation for all target muscle groups, including the pecs: see the data below. Flys did stimulate the biceps more. Interestingly, biceps activity was actually likely high enough to stimulate muscle growth with the flys.
The initial orientation of the arms is great when you are incline pressing. As you can see, the angled bench is set to a 30-45 degree incline angle (30 degrees is best) to allow you to hit the upper chest fibers preferentially.
The average Incline Dumbbell Fly weight for a male lifter is 57 lb (1RM). This makes you Intermediate on Strength Level and is a very impressive lift. What is a good Incline Dumbbell Fly? Male beginners should aim to lift 16 lb (1RM) which is still impressive compared to the general population.
The Incline Pushup angles your body upward, but angles your arms downward into that 45 degree angle to allow you to target your lower chest fibers.
Lower the bar by bending your elbows, making sure they're tucked in toward your lats, keeping your forearms perpendicular to the floor. Retract your shoulders to make your back stronger during the descending motion. Touch the bar to your chest, then push the weight back up, keeping your elbows under the bar.
If you can't feel your chest when you're doing an incline press, it could be because you are tucking your elbows too far in on the way down, which over-activates your triceps, and doesn't allow you to get a full range of motion ❌ To fix this, bring the dumbbells outs and let them clear your chest, or when you begin to ...
If you can do fewer than 25 push-ups in a row, shoot for 50 to 75 push-ups. If your max is between 25 and 50 push-ups, shoot for 75 to 150 push-ups. If your max is over 50 (with good form!), shoot for 150 to 250 push-ups.
Push-ups engage multiple muscle groups, increasing calorie burn and aiding in fat loss, including around the belly.
Doing push ups every day is good for building upper body muscles and even strengthening your core, back, and lower extremities. You can start with 10 push ups a day and then work up to doing 50 or 100 push ups everyday. Breaking them up into smaller sets throughout the day can make it easier to start as well.