 All right, our first question is from Brady Thomas. How do you develop the upper chest? Oh, yeah heavy barbell incline Yeah, just you know, it's you know, it's so funny. Is it we growing up In the 90s and then early 2000s and working out the exercise for a long time The exercise that every guy compared himself to other guys with was the bench press that was the exercise that you And what's your bench, bro? You'd never asked the guy how much they did anything else I was always how much can you bench? I was like you're the way of that you showed your strength So it was very very popular exercise everybody did it Mondays and gyms was like national Bench day and you'd see all the benches taken up and literally, you know in the gyms I would manage they would have Between five to six flat benches because they were always taken and used and you know But bodybuilders they used to do a lot of flat bench But then later on you noticed that a lot of them mainly did incline exercises and they said that it would create a better more Aesthetic-looking chest. I tend to agree with that. I think although the bench press is a phenomenal exercise for developing Overall, you know chest mass. I think in terms of aesthetics most guys are probably better off Mostly doing incline exercise. Yeah, I would catch myself Just living near the bench section like Mondays like that was like my thing I would do incline then I would do flat bench and then I would do decline they were like all in a row and You know going through I definitely found the the value in incline bench And I actually enjoyed that and would feel like you know, it did have an impact on the growth of my chest overall I did not have that same feeling about the decline bench. I pretty much find that exercise worthless I don't know what you guys think. I would I would go dips over over decline Decline didn't do sure. No, I didn't so somebody asked me on my questions actually a similar question of this that saying that you know Is is it true that incline? Bench press it will do more for your chest development than any other exercise and I said I could make that argument You know, I can make the argument the other way, too Like if that's all somebody did right you doing something different would actually be of huge value So if you were a hardcore incline barbell bench presser, and that's what you did mostly and you never did flat or you never did dips You never did flies Then the obvious would be true doing one of those would actually do give you the most development in your chest But I think that why the why that's true or why your point is true Sal is because I think that as If you once you get introduced into the bench press It's like the staple move that you know for young boys for sure like to measure strength like oh What do you bench bro? Oh, you know and when you tell someone what do you bench you go off of the flat bench? You don't go off the decline. You don't go off the incline. It's what do you flat bench is your number Because of that you spend most of your time trying to get good at that and you neglect The incline bench and I just think that you know the upper chest when you develop the upper chest the it looks It makes your chest look so much more impressive. I mean For sure, this was a major focus When I first was getting into competing and you know when you've been lifting for 10 plus years You know, it's hard to you know, okay, how good at your programming or whatever It's hard to see like really massive changes in your physique And that was probably one of the biggest changes I set out and I've talked about on the podcast more than once I set this goal out like I'm gonna I'm gonna incline bench so much that I want to catch My incline bench to my flat bench. So that was like a big goal of mine like how close can I get my numbers? Can I get my in can I incline almost as much as I flat bench? And the result of that ended up being the most impressive chest that I'd ever built over the two decades of lifting and so um, I always encourage lifters to do more Incline chest press especially if you're if you're in this game for the aesthetics you're trying to sculpt and build a physique I think it's one of the best things you can do Yeah, I think the fun the flat bench is great, especially when you're first starting lifting but An incline lift incline lifts your whether it's a barbell or a dumbbell or dumbbells Is really important for the aesthetic look women in particular. I think Because they're because they have breasts working the upper chest probably is going to give them more of aesthetic appeal Um than the flat bench and then here's the thing if you want functional Ability from your presses overhead presses are one of the most functional exercises incline presses are closer to an overhead press than a bench is And then for that kind of functional strength like you would get from a bench press I think dips are a really really good exercise. They're it's going to give you that that's a similar Kind of functional strength that you may need in a sport and then if you think of the pushing Movement in sports, it's often at an incline like if you're in football You don't you very rarely push someone away standing straight up or leaning back It's usually leaning forward. You're using your hips along with the press That mimics more of an incline press if you're throwing a punch in you know, not that pressing necessarily makes you stronger at punching But it does work some of the muscles that are involved Incline probably translates better than a flat as well. The other case. I'll make for it Besides just developing the chest is that it's I I liked it later on And you know when I started to do it more myself I realized that it actually puts you in a more favorable position for mechanics. It's easier for sure Yeah, so the incline because part of getting good at bench pressing You you you need to learn to be real to retract and depress the shoulders down So you can engage more of the chest and you don't roll forward and since most people that's the common thing Right, so you get a client you lay them on a flat bench One of the hardest things to get them to understand is you know To not let their shoulders protract forward and push with their their triceps and their shoulders And teaching them to be able to retract the shoulder blades back while they press to engage the chest That's like one of the hardest things to teach when you're when you're teaching a client Especially somebody who's fairly new to lifting What I found was when I would take that client over to an incline because of the angle The angle naturally lets the the scapula kind of drop back down and like back into your back pockets Right, so it naturally pulls the shoulder blades back and down So it actually was easier to get clients into the proper form and mechanics On an incline. So I then began to teach that first before I would teach a flat bench once I piece that together Yeah, now here's the thing too if you want to see what kind of chest you'll develop From focusing more on flat or more because flat definitely is probably more of an overall mass builder You look at the chest of the 70s. They did favor the bench presses a lot Look at Arnold Schwarzenegger had this really big chest this kind of square look to it You could look at power lifters who Converted to to bodybuilding so they built a strong foundation of bench press Ronnie Coleman was a power lifter before he became mr. Olympia And he still did a lot of bench press and you look at his chest And yeah, he has a little bit more lower than upper But he's got this really big full-looking chest that was hard to compete with Whereas always focusing on the upper chest. Maybe you'll have less mass But you'll you'll have maybe more of a balanced look So they're both very impressive Both exercises are important But if your goal is upper chest Then I would just do all upper chest exercises when you're doing your presses I wouldn't do any flat bench if that's an area that's lagging