The benefits of the incline barbell press are numerous and highly useful. Find out why you should include this exercise more often in your training.

Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press

The incline barbell press is a highly effective exercise that targets your whole body. It builds strength and endurance in the chest, shoulders, arms and upper back. It also helps to sculpt your upper chest and shoulders.

1. Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – Trains the Upper Chest Effectively

The incline barbell press, when performed correctly, targets the upper chest. If you are weak here, or want to build more upper chest muscle mass, then it is the right choice for you.

Source: Damir Spanic / Unsplash

The lower chest is often trained more than its counterpart, which can lead to imbalances in strength and development. The incline barbell press allows you to train your upper chest effectively and safely by isolating it from other areas of your body.

2. Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – Hits your Deltoids, Traps, Triceps and Upper Back

The incline barbell press is a great exercise for targeting your shoulders, traps and triceps.

The incline position of the barbell bench press places more stress on your shoulders, upper back and arms compared to the flat version. Therefore, it’s much better for building muscle strength in these areas.

3. Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – A More Natural Position for your Shoulders

The incline barbell press puts your shoulders in a natural position. In this position, your deltoids are strongest and you are less likely to injure yourself.

4. Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – Easy to Go Heavy and Build Strength

The incline barbell press is an excellent way to build strength and muscle. To start, you can use a weight that’s light enough to allow for ten repetitions with good form.

You should focus on pressing the weight up and slowly lowering it down, as you would during most other upper body pressing exercises.

Once your muscles get used to this movement pattern, add more weight until your last rep feels like a struggle but not an impossible feat.

It may seem daunting at first, but with time and practice anybody can learn how to safely incline press with perfect form thanks to its simplicity (it doesn’t require any special equipment or knowledge).

With a spotter and great technique, you can load up the barbell and go heavy. This will help you to build strength.

5. Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – Builds Mental Toughness

The incline barbell press is a great way to build mental toughness. When you are performing this exercise, you will have to push yourself beyond what you think your limits are.

You need to be able to keep your focus and keep pushing through the burn in order to complete the lift.

The feeling of struggling with the weight is what makes this exercise mentally challenging; however, once you get past that initial struggle, it can help build confidence in yourself as well as strengthen your core and upper body muscles!

A Highly Effective Exercise

The incline barbell press is a highly effective exercise that targets your whole body. It’s easy to go heavy and build strength with this exercise, and it helps you develop total-body muscle mass.

The incline barbell press works multiple muscle groups in the upper body, including the deltoids (shoulder blades), trapezius muscles, pectorals (chest) and triceps. The triceps are especially important because they help control movement at the elbow joint. Incline presses also specifically target these muscles in different ways when compared to other exercises like bench presses or military presses.

Upper Body Muscles

Upper body muscles are crucial for everyday activities such as lifting, throwing, and climbing. They also play an important role in athletic performance.

The following is a list of upper body muscles that you should be aware of:

Triceps and Biceps

The triceps and biceps are located in the upper arm. They are responsible for elbow extension, which means that they straighten your arm so that it is parallel to your body.

The triceps also help rotate your forearm outwardly and downwardly when you extend your elbow. The biceps help rotate your forearm inwardly when you flex or bend it at the elbow joint.

Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – Deltoids

The deltoids are three triangular shaped muscles that cover the shoulder. They are involved in shoulder movement, such as raising arms to the side and bringing them forward and back.

The anterior (front) deltoid is visible on your body when you raise your arm to the front of you. It’s also called a front delt because this muscle raises your arm up when it’s in front of you.

Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – Trapezius

The trapezius is a large triangular muscle that covers the neck and upper thorax. It is involved in shoulder movements, such as shrugging and rotating your shoulders when you turn your body.

The trapezius is a deep muscle. That means it’s located at the bottom of your back, behind your spine and ribs. The fibres of this muscle move from head to tailbone to attach there, so it’s important for keeping good posture—especially when you’re sitting at a computer all day!

Benefits of The Incline Barbell Press – Latissimus dorsi

The latissimus dorsi is a large muscle that covers the back and sides of the body. It originates from the spine and lower thoracic vertebrae, and inserts into the humerus.

The latissimus dorsi is involved in extension of the shoulder joint, adduction (the movement of drawing an object towards you) of the arm, and internal rotation. It also aids in flexion backwards at your hips (bending forward).

Pectorals

The pectoralis major is a large muscle located in the upper chest, and it attaches all the way from your sternum, or breastbone, to your humerus (upper arm bone).

The pectoralis minor is much smaller than its counterpart and attaches from ribcage to scapula (shoulder blade), assisting with flexion of the arm and adduction of the arm.

Both these muscles play an important role in daily activities such as climbing stairs or lifting something heavy overhead. They also help you do things like throw a ball or bathe yourself because they assist with flexion of the arms at their respective joints. The pectorals are most active when performing overhead presses or press-ups; however, other exercises like bench and dips work them too.

Serratus Muscles

This muscle attaches from the lower ribs to the upper spine and helps to stabilize your shoulder blade as you move your arms. If a tear occurs in this area during exercise, you may notice pain behind your shoulder in addition to a limited range of motion.

Serratus posterior muscles connect your back muscles with those of your arms and chest.

Conclusion

The importance of the upper body muscles is often overlooked, but they play an important role in helping us move around, lift objects and even survive. With so many different types of muscles in this area, it can be hard to know which ones are most important. We hope that our guide has helped give you a better understanding of all these muscles and what their functions are so that if ever there is an injury or pain, you will know where on your body it likely came from.

I hope that this article has given you some insight into why incline barbell presses are such a great exercise. It is one of the most effective ways to build upper body strength and size, especially for your shoulders and chest.

Learn More

The Perfect Back Workout

The 8 Best Exercises for a Wider Back

The 12 Best Lat Exercises for Strength and Muscle Growth

Most Scientific Way To Train Your Back

How to Train Back Width vs Thickness

How to Properly Barbell Row for a Bigger Back (Muscle and Strength)