adrenalytic
Member
So I kinda stopped doing decline bench because it seemed more of an ego driven version of the flat bench with no real advantages for growth. I'm starting to rethink my assumptions based on my own chest sculpting goals. I have lost a lot of weight over the last year and subsequently have loose skin. Going from having moobs to actual manly tits has been amazing but I still have flabby skin hanging off them so I wanted to see what I could do to "fill out" the skin. My chest looks great aside from this sagging skin which is a real problem for me psychologically.
It's common knowledge that incline benching targets the clavicular head while flat benching puts more emphasis on the sternocostal head. It stands to reason then that decline is for targeting the abdominal head. My previous assumption was that because the distance of the push was shortened by being in the decline position that it was an inferior exercise to flat benching in this regard since flat benching also targets the abdominal head. I'm beginning to think that the ability to add more weight might balance out the shortened bar path in terms of hypertrophy.
My question to the community is what are your thoughts on spending a meso cycle doing only decline bench to build up that area where the nipple is supposed to rest under your pec? Mine currently sag below the abdominal head like fried eggs pinned to my chest and it's very unsightly (to me at least, others have said I'm too self conscious - well duh, you don't get into this sport without having some form of body dysmorphia right?). Are there other approaches worth considering?
And if you're wondering "why replace flat bench? just do both", my workouts are already super high volume and take roughly 2 hours to complete. I don't have the bandwidth to do more at the moment.
tl;dr
I want to grow my lower pecs to fill out loose skin. Should I pop off on decline benching or are there better approaches?
Many thanks for any insight, bros.
It's common knowledge that incline benching targets the clavicular head while flat benching puts more emphasis on the sternocostal head. It stands to reason then that decline is for targeting the abdominal head. My previous assumption was that because the distance of the push was shortened by being in the decline position that it was an inferior exercise to flat benching in this regard since flat benching also targets the abdominal head. I'm beginning to think that the ability to add more weight might balance out the shortened bar path in terms of hypertrophy.
My question to the community is what are your thoughts on spending a meso cycle doing only decline bench to build up that area where the nipple is supposed to rest under your pec? Mine currently sag below the abdominal head like fried eggs pinned to my chest and it's very unsightly (to me at least, others have said I'm too self conscious - well duh, you don't get into this sport without having some form of body dysmorphia right?). Are there other approaches worth considering?
And if you're wondering "why replace flat bench? just do both", my workouts are already super high volume and take roughly 2 hours to complete. I don't have the bandwidth to do more at the moment.
tl;dr
I want to grow my lower pecs to fill out loose skin. Should I pop off on decline benching or are there better approaches?
Many thanks for any insight, bros.

