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Bench Press for Upper Chest – (2 BIG MISTAKES!)

Photo of Athlean-X Gym Athlean-X GymSeptember 25, 2022
11 2 minutes read



Build a ripped, athletic chest in 90 days here…

The incline bench press is one of the go-to exercises for building your upper chest. That said, it is one of the most commonly misperformed chest exercises around. In this video, I show you the two most common bench press mistakes made on this exercise that are holding you back from seeing the gains in your upper chest that you would like to see.

To start, you have to understand the anatomy of the upper chest region. The front deltoid and clavicular portion of the pec major are very close together and can tend to interfere with the action of one another if you allow it. It goes without saying that the front deltoid gets a great deal of work from not just shoulder workouts and exercises but as an assistant on many chest and pushing exercises.

This causes the front delt to become almost too active, especially during exercises that we are trying to stress the upper chest. The incline bench press is a perfect example of this. In order to get the front shoulder to do less of the work and allow the pecs to do more, you have to first get the angle of the incline bench press correct when you do the exercise. This is one of the most common errors I see every time I go to the gym.

The correct angle of the incline bench should be 30 degrees from flat. This may seem like a very small angle but it is the optimal angle for placing the strain on your upper pecs and minimizing the effect on the front delts. Many people will stay much too upright when performing this chest exercise and effectively wind up hitting their shoulders much too much. If you realize that a completely vertical position (90 degrees elevated) would hit your shoulders primarily, and that a completely flat position would hit your mid chest…you understand how much room you have to lower the bench before it hits the upper pecs.

The next thing that this position does is actually place your shoulders back in a position where they can be less dominant in the press and put your pecs at the center of the action. Gravity helps to position the shoulders down and back but you do need to actively contract your shoulder blades as well to ensure that this happens. You will see in the video how much easier it is for the chest to be in a position of power and therefore increase their contribution to the incline bench press. This, over time, will lead to greater chest muscle growth particularly in the upper chest.

For a complete workout program that puts the science back in strength to help you get much more out of every workout you do, head to and get the ATHLEAN-X Training System. See how training like an athlete can not only get you better results but faster results by cutting down on your wasted time and workout mistakes.

For more chest workout videos and exercises you can do for a bigger chest (not just the bench press) be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube at

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Photo of Athlean-X Gym Athlean-X GymSeptember 25, 2022
11 2 minutes read

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48 Comments

  3. I HATE this machine. I don't understand why l struggle so much with this.
    One of the easiest exercices for me is the fly machine and I'm at 100kg now, while at 20kg with the bench Press although was at 35 not long ago. That doesn't make sense!
    I'm at 50kg with the biceps machine and 73 with the triceps machine…

  9. I hope you're really meaning to say "scaps in neutral" rather than down and back cuz the brachial plexus isn't going to take kindly to being yanked on. Finding neutral is the challenge, especially for peeps with those forward shoulders and heads!

  16. Watching this after I felt my shoulder ALMOST dislocate while doing incline bench today. I was going too heavy with dumbbells on each side at an angle where my front delt was doing most of the work. I still feel a slight pain in the area because of it. It was so scary. DEFINITELY following these instructions next time I dare to do incline bench!

  31. You teach. Maybe that is too simply said. For me you begin with the why. Then you show it-a picture is worth you know. It has been a great help to this 69 yo fellow who is trying to minimize past "training" mistakes and regain functioning of muscles that are paramount to Activities of daily living. It has created a situation for me as a retired RN-where the why shows itself much Much more effectively. I am going to tune in until I get a program or whatever there called. thank you.young man.

  33. FINALLY! I just now realized why my right pec isn't getting the same growth as my left side: my anterior delt was doing the work! This happens from time to time and now I FINALLY know how to rectify it. Thanks for this Jeff. This is gonna help a LOT.

  34. I have a lot of trouble getting my pecs to do chest movements instead of my shoulders.

    Try going 37 years with almost no pecs, having a slouching inward bad posture, a bad habit of having my shoulders shrugged up without even realizing it, and not much knowledge of how using my pecs to do work (like push away) should feel, and yeah… not easy.

    It's been about 6 months or so since I started working out, with a trainer once a week too, and I think I'm finally starting to actually use my pecs for the chest movements. Not quite there yet but it's coming.

    Man I was so pissed recently after doing a chest press machine and after a set having my shoulders burning from the work instead of pecs.

  35. Tested 30 and 45 degree incline presses many times and I always got more DOMS in the upper chest after doing the 30 degree press. 45 degree presses always gave more DOMS in the front delts and doing the press just didn't feel good in the shoulder joints. There aren't any 30 degree incline barbell benches over here, only 45 degree ones. That's why I have to do incline presses always with dumbbells. That doesn't matter too much since EMG studies show that dumbbell presses activate more muscle fibers in pectoralis major. For a couple of years I've been doing only decline and incline dumbbell presses for chest and no more shoulder problems and my chest has grown more than ever.

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