Incline dumbbell press
Also called incline dumbbell bench press, incline press with dumbbells, incline chest press.
What is an incline dumbbell press?
The incline dumbbell press is a chest press done lying back on a bench set somewhere between about 15 and 45 degrees, with a dumbbell in each hand. Its target is the clavicular head of the pectoralis major, the chest fibres running from the collarbone, which flex the arm from an extended position: tilting the bench up from flat lines those fibres up with the press, and that is the reason for the incline. The rest of the chest, the anterior deltoid and the triceps brachii work with it, the front delt flexing the arm at the shoulder and the triceps extending the elbow. How much of the chest's work moves to the clavicular fibres at a given angle is not something this page puts a number on. Two things people look for a right answer to are preferences: the exact bench angle, and whether the palms face forward or turn toward each other.
How do you perform an incline dumbbell press?
Set up
- Set the bench between about 15 and 45 degrees; around 30 is a reasonable default.
- Sit on the end of the bench with a dumbbell standing on each thigh, close to the hip.
- Kick one knee at a time to drive each dumbbell up as you lie back.
- Plant both feet flat and push them into the floor. Keep your head, upper back and glutes on the bench for the whole set.
- Pull your shoulder blades back and down into the pad, and hold them there for the whole set.
- Start with the dumbbells at the outside of your shoulders, wrists stacked over your elbows.
Execution
- Press up and slightly together, finishing over your upper chest rather than back over your face.
- Keep your elbows at roughly 45 to 60 degrees from your torso — not pinned to your sides, not flared out to a T.
- Lower under control until the dumbbells are level with your shoulders or a little below, without your shoulder blades peeling off the bench.
- Stop short of touching the dumbbells together at the top.
- Straighten your arms without locking hard into the elbow, then start the next rep.
- Breathe in on the way down, out on the way up.
- Press with your palms facing forward. Turning them toward each other is fine too.
- To finish, bring the dumbbells to your chest, tuck your chin, and sit up with them. Do not drop them out to the sides while still lying down.
Common mistakes
Setting the bench too steep
As the backrest approaches upright the movement turns into a seated shoulder press. The front delt takes over, you press less weight, and you have added a shoulder press rather than a second chest movement.
Hauling the dumbbells into the start position with your arms
The setup is the most exposed moment of the whole lift: the shoulder is being loaded near the end of its range with no leverage and no chance to brace. Kicking each dumbbell up with a knee as you lie back means the first thing your shoulder does under load is a rep, not a rescue.
Flaring the elbows straight out to ninety degrees
It is the weakest place to press from, and at the bottom it leaves the arm loaded in extension and external rotation — the position around half of reported pectoralis major tears are sustained in, during weight-bearing exercises such as the bench press. Those tears are rare, so this is a reason to tuck rather than a reason to worry. Tucking to roughly 45 to 60 degrees costs nothing in range and keeps the joint stacked.
Letting the shoulder blades come off the bench at the bottom
When the blades slide forward the ribcage flattens and the shoulder rolls forward with them, so the stretch moves off the chest and onto the front of the shoulder. You also lose the fixed base the press pushes against, which is why the weight suddenly feels heavier on the last reps.
Cutting the reps short at the top
The top is where the load is lightest and the range is cheapest to keep, so it is a strange place to save effort. If you are stopping high because the dumbbells feel unstable up there, that is a weight problem, not a range problem.
Trying to match your flat bench weight
The incline is a different leverage position, so the number is going to be lower and that means nothing about you. Chasing the flat bench figure is how the hips come off the bench and the reps get short.
Pressing the hips off the bench to finish a rep
Arching the hips up flattens your torso relative to the dumbbells, which quietly turns the set into a shallower incline than the one you set the bench to. You have made it a flatter press with extra steps and lost the reason you chose the angle.
Where it fits in a session
Early in a push or upper-body session. It works as the main press of the day, or as the second press after a flat barbell bench while you are still fresh enough to control two independent weights.
A compound movement with each arm loaded separately, which changes how close to failure it is sensible to go. There is no rack to fail into: the only way out of a rep you cannot finish is to control the dumbbells down to your sides and sit up, and that gets harder the heavier you go. Leaving a rep or two in reserve on the heavy sets is a practical decision here rather than a conservative one. Working in the range where you can still set the weights down deliberately at the end of a set is what keeps the movement trainable week to week.
Muscles worked
- pectoralis major (clavicular head)
- pectoralis major (sternocostal head)
- anterior deltoid
- triceps brachii
The pectoralis major is what the press is for: it flexes, adducts and medially rotates the arm at the shoulder, which is the arc the dumbbells travel between the chest and lockout. Its two heads do not pull the same way. The clavicular head, running from the collarbone, flexes the arm from an extended position; the sternocostal head extends the flexed arm. Sitting the bench up from flat lines the clavicular fibres up with the press, which is the anatomical reason the incline exists and the reason that head is listed first. How much of the chest's work actually moves to those fibres at 15, 30 or 45 degrees is a measurement question this page does not settle, and no figure is claimed. The anterior deltoid also flexes the arm at the shoulder and the triceps brachii extends the elbow, so both are unavoidable parts of the movement rather than optional additions. They are listed as secondary because this is a chest press: the front delt takes over only as the bench approaches upright, and the triceps acts at a different joint.
What lifters actually do
Just under three in five regular RepCount users have logged an incline dumbbell press, and it turns up in roughly one workout in ten. The movement it shares a session with most often is the barbell bench press, in 36.8% of them — so in a large minority of those workouts it sits alongside the flat bench rather than in place of it. The rest of the company is shoulders and triceps: lateral raises in 26.5%, pushdowns in 21.8%, the dumbbell shoulder press in 18.0%. That is a push day, and one that often carries both presses. Which of them comes first is not something these figures record. Typical use is a little over three sets, in a session of about seven exercises.
Most often trained alongside
Share of incline dumbbell press sessions that also include each exercise.
- Bench press36.8%
- Dumbbell lateral raises26.5%
- Pushdowns21.8%
- Dumbbell shoulder press18%
- Triceps extensions15.8%
Figures come from workouts tracked in RepCount.
Variations
- Neutral grip incline dumbbell press — Palms facing each other throughout. Some lifters prefer it at the bottom of the rep.
- Low incline dumbbell press — Bench at roughly 15 to 20 degrees, closer to a flat press than to a shoulder press.
- Single arm incline dumbbell press — One side at a time, which shows up a strength difference between arms and asks more of the trunk.
- Flat dumbbell bench press — The same movement with the bench flat, which is the other end of the angle choice rather than a different exercise.
- Incline barbell bench press — Same angle, one bar. Heavier and more stable, with less range at the bottom and no independent arms.
- Smith machine incline press — Fixed bar path, so no balancing. Bench position relative to the bar has to be set deliberately.
Frequently asked questions
What muscles does the incline dumbbell press work?
The target is the clavicular head of the pectoralis major, the part of the chest running from the collarbone. The pectoralis major flexes, adducts and medially rotates the arm at the shoulder, which is the arc the dumbbells travel, and its two heads pull differently: the clavicular head flexes the arm from an extended position, while the sternocostal head, from the sternum and ribs, extends the flexed arm. Sitting the bench up from flat lines the clavicular fibres up with the press, which is why the incline exists and why that head is listed first. The sternocostal head, the anterior deltoid and the triceps brachii work alongside it: the front delt flexes the arm at the shoulder too, and the triceps extends the elbow. How much of the chest's work actually moves to the clavicular fibres at 15, 30 or 45 degrees is not measured here, and no figure is claimed.
What angle should the bench be for an incline dumbbell press?
Anywhere from about 15 to 45 degrees, and within that range it is a preference rather than a right answer. Around 30 degrees is the common middle and a sensible place to start. What is worth knowing is what happens at the edges: the flatter you go the closer you are to a flat dumbbell press, and the more upright you go the closer you are to a seated shoulder press, which at 90 degrees is exactly what you are doing. Any illustration of this movement has to show one angle, and that is not a recommendation.
Should my palms face forward or face each other?
Either. Palms forward, palms turned toward each other, or somewhere between are all normal ways to do this lift, and nothing makes one of them correct. Some lifters prefer a neutral grip at the bottom of the rep, which is a report rather than a rule. The thing that matters is picking one and staying with it for a while, because changing grip changes what the weight on the dumbbell means.
Is the incline dumbbell press better than the flat bench press?
They are not really competing. In RepCount's logs the movement an incline dumbbell press most often shares a session with is the barbell bench press, in over a third of them and more often than any other exercise, so a lot of lifters are doing both rather than choosing between them. The practical differences are that dumbbells let each arm travel further at the bottom and load independently, while a barbell lets you handle more weight with less balancing, and that the incline angle changes which of the chest's fibres line up with the press.
Why can I press less on an incline than on a flat bench?
Because it is a different position, not because something is wrong. The angle changes your leverage, and dumbbells add the cost of stabilising two weights that can drift apart. Expect a lower number and judge the lift against your own previous incline sets rather than against your flat bench.
How do you get the dumbbells into position safely?
Sit on the end of the bench with a dumbbell standing on each thigh near the hip, then kick one knee at a time to drive the weights up as you lie back, so your legs do the lifting. Coming out of the set is the same in reverse: bring the dumbbells to your chest, tuck your chin and sit up with them. Getting in and out is where the shoulder is most exposed on this lift, because it is loaded near the end of its range before you are braced.
How deep should you lower the dumbbells?
Until they are level with your shoulders or a little below, as far as you can go while your shoulder blades stay pinned to the bench. The moment the blades slide forward and the shoulders roll, the stretch has moved off the chest and onto the front of the shoulder, and that is the point to stop at rather than push past.
Is a given weight on the incline dumbbell press good?
There is no dependable public dataset of incline dumbbell press weights by bodyweight and training age, so a confident number would be a guess dressed up. The useful test is whether you can complete your target reps with your shoulder blades still set and the reps ending where they began, and whether the weight or the reps have moved over the last couple of months.
Do I need the incline dumbbell press if I already bench?
For a lot of lifters it is not a replacement. It appears in roughly one workout in ten, and the exercise it most often shares a session with is the barbell bench press, alongside lateral raises, pushdowns and the dumbbell shoulder press — a push day carrying both presses. Whether you need a second press is a question about your week rather than about the movement.
How many sets should I do?
Lifters who log this in RepCount average a little over three sets of it in a session of about seven exercises. It is a compound movement with each arm carrying its own weight and no rack to fail into, so the sets are best kept in the range where you could still set the dumbbells down deliberately at the end of one.
Sources
- Solari F, Burns B. Anatomy, Thorax, Pectoralis Major Major. StatPearls. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK525991/
- McCausland C, Sawyer E, Eovaldi BJ, Varacallo MA. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Shoulder Muscles. StatPearls. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK534836/
- Tiwana MS, Sinkler MA, Bordoni B. Anatomy, Shoulder and Upper Limb, Triceps Muscle. StatPearls. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK536996/