Video, Tips, Alternatives & Workouts

Instructions

Set an adjustable bench to about 30 degrees. Sit on the edge of the bench, holding a dumbbell in each hand, with the dumbbells resting vertically on your thighs.
Lean back and kick your thighs (and the dumbbells) toward your chest, rolling back onto the bench until you’re lying against the backrest with the dumbbells at either side of your upper chest.
Pull your shoulder blades together and toward your butt, plant your feet firmly on the floor, and push the dumbbells straight up until your arms are locked.
Lower the dumbbells by reversing the motion until the handles are level with your chest, then repeat.
When you’re finished with a set, shift the dumbbells onto your thighs and sit up by swinging your legs and dumbbells downward and your torso upward.

Expert Tips

Start with the bench angled at about 30 degrees, but feel free to reduce the angle to as low as 15 degrees if that’s more comfortable. Generally speaking, a more upright angle will emphasize the upper pecs more, and a lower angle will emphasize the middle and lower pecs more, but not all research supports this. Note that I said emphasize: both the flat and angled dumbbell press hit all portions of the chest, the angle just changes which portions get trained the most.
Focus on holding the dumbbells symmetrically—you don’t want one of them higher or lower or farther to the left or right than the other. This wastes energy and makes the exercise less effective.
If you struggle to feel your chest working and it feels like your triceps and shoulders are doing all of the work, read this article and follow the steps for activating your pecs.

Mike’s Take

The incline dumbbell press is one of my favorite exercises for building your chest, shoulders, and triceps, which is why I include it in both of my programs for men and women, Bigger Leaner Stronger and Thinner Leaner Stronger.

Like the incline barbell bench press, it trains all of your “pushing” muscles through a full range of motion. More specifically, it trains your entire pectoralis major (your main chest muscle) while emphasizing the clavicular head (the upper portion of your chest). Your triceps, anterior deltoids (front delts), and lateral deltoids (side delts) assist.

While you can’t press as much weight with the incline dumbbell press as you can with the barbell version, that doesn’t automatically make it worse for building muscle.

For example, a study conducted by scientists at Sogn og Fjordane University College found that people could press about 17% less total weight with dumbbells than with a barbell, but that chest and front delt muscle activation was similar. Another study conducted by scientists at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro found slightly more pec activity with dumbbells than with barbells.

These studies only compared flat dumbbell pressing to flat barbell pressing, but it’s likely the results would apply to the incline versions as well. My take is that both the incline dumbbell press and incline barbell press are probably equally effective for building muscle so long as you use good form and take your sets close to failure.

Many people also find the incline dumbbell press more comfortable than the barbell version. Unlike the barbell bench press, which locks your wrists into a fixed position, the dumbbell bench press lets you rotate your wrists into whatever position is most comfortable for you. This is particularly helpful when trying to “train around” an injury, such as a wrist sprain, shoulder niggle, or elbow tendinitis.

The incline dumbbell press can also help you identify and correct muscle and strength imbalances because one side can’t “take over” or “pick up slack” from the other. That said, most of these imbalances—if they exist in the first place—tend to even out naturally over time, so I wouldn’t worry about this unless you’re certain this is a problem for you.

That said, it’s worth addressing the limitations of the incline dumbbell press, too.

First, while some people claim it’s superior to the incline barbell bench press because it allows you to use a greater range of motion, this isn’t really true. While you might be able to lower your hands a tad more with dumbbells than a barbell, it’s not enough to have any meaningful impact on muscle growth, and this tends to irritate people’s shoulders and elbows.

Second, it can be awkward getting the dumbbells into position at the beginning of each set and setting them down afterwards. And the stronger you get, the more energy you waste doing this.

Finally, the incline dumbbell press requires more balance and coordination than the barbell version, and significantly more than the incline machine chest press. While this means that it effectively trains a number of “stabilizer” muscles throughout your upper body, it also means that some of these smaller muscle groups can become limiting factors during your sets.

In other words, when you reach failure on a set of the incline dumbbell press, you can’t be sure whether your chest actually failed or whether one of these smaller muscles simply gave out first (usually your shoulders).

This is why I like to program the incline dumbbell press along with at least one or two other chest pressing exercises throughout the week, such as the flat barbell bench press and machine chest press. This gives you the benefits while allowing you to make up for the downsides with other exercises.

When it comes to programming, a good default is 3 sets of 4–6 or 6–8 reps with 2–3 minutes of rest, taking each set 1–2 reps shy of failure.

It’s best to program it as part of a chest, push, or upper-body day, either as your main press or as an accessory to the barbell bench press.

Incline Dumbbell Press Alternatives

Incline Barbell Bench Press. Basically the same exercise, but with a barbell. You can use these exercises interchangeably, so choose whichever you prefer.
Smith Machine Incline Bench Press. Almost identical, but it’s more annoying to set up and doesn’t offer any significant advantages over the incline barbell bench press or incline machine chest press.
Incline Machine Chest Press. This is an excellent alternative that is easier to set up and allows you to take each set close or all of the way to true failure. Just make sure the handles and path of the weights are comfortable for you (many of these machines use an awkward handle path and overly aggressive incline).

3 Incline Dumbbell Press Workouts

Here are three sample workouts that show how to program the incline dumbbell press on a chest day, a push day, or an upper-body day.

Chest Workout with the Incline Dumbbell Press

Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Cable Chest Fly: 2 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest

Push Day Workout with the Incline Dumbbell Press

Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest
Triceps Pushdown: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest

Upper-Body Workout with the Incline Dumbbell Press

Incline Dumbbell Press: 3 sets | 4–6 reps | 2–3 min rest
Lat Pulldown: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Chest-Supported Row: 3 sets | 6–8 reps | 2–3 min rest
Dumbbell Lateral Raise: 3 sets | 8–10 reps | 1–2 min rest

To progress these workouts, use double progression: use a weight that allows you to work within the given rep range, take each set 1–2 reps shy of failure, and once you hit the top of the range for your first set, add weight.

Muscles Worked by the Incline Dumbbell Press

The incline dumbbell press trains your entire pectoralis major (your main chest muscle) while emphasizing the clavicular head (the upper portion of your chest). Your triceps and front and side delts assist.