Written by Patrick Dale, PT, ex-Marine

As every bodybuilder knows, if you want to develop the best possible physique, you need to train your muscles with a variety of exercises and hit them from different angles. One of the best ways to do this is with a split routine, where each workout is dedicated to one or two muscle groups.

So, for example, you might do vertical and horizontal pulls for your back or knee and hip dominant movements for your legs.

When it comes to chest training, most lifters do decline, flat, and incline movements to work the lower, middle, and upper fibers of their chests. This develops pecs that are wide, deep, and well separated.

One of the most popular upper chest exercises is the incline bench press. However, it’s not always the best choice. For starters, most fixed incline benches are too steep and hit your anterior deltoids more than your pecs. Studies suggest that the ideal angle for working the upper chest is 20-30 degrees, whereas most fixed incline benches are set to 45-60 (1).

The good news is that there are plenty of upper chest exercises that you can do instead that are as effective as, if not better than, incline barbell bench presses.

In this article, we reveal the ten best incline bench press alternatives you can use to sculpt the perfect upper chest.  

The incline bench press is a compound or multi-joint exercise. This means it involves two or more joints and several muscles working together. However, the incline bench press is mainly thought of as a chest exercise.

The primary muscles trained during incline bench presses are:

Pectoralis major, known as the pecs for short, is your most prominent chest muscle. It’s a large, fan-shaped muscle with three main regions or heads:

All three heads work together to control your upper arm and are responsible for flexion, adduction, and medial rotation of your humerus. However, by adjusting the angle of your arm, it is possible to emphasize one head over the others.

Decline bench presses and dips hit the lower pecs, while flat bench presses and chest flies target the middle. Incline bench presses are effective for working the upper chest.

However, it’s important to remember the other heads are always working. It’s just that you can put a little more tension on one at a time by modifying the position of your arms and pressing at a specific angle.

The deltoids are your shoulder muscles. Like the pecs, there are three deltoid heads: anterior (front), medial (side), and posterior (rear). All three heads are involved in incline bench presses, but the anterior head is the most active. The medial and posterior heads mostly work as stabilizers during incline bench presses.

Known as the triceps for short, this muscle is located on the back of your upper arm and is responsible for elbow extension. Incline bench presses are an effective way to work your triceps, albeit indirectly. The triceps are classed as synergists during incline bench presses, which means they are helper muscles rather than the target of the exercise.

While the incline barbell bench press is an excellent exercise, it’s not suitable or practical for everyone. For example, you may find that it bothers your shoulders, or you may not have a barbell or suitable bench to do it. It could just be that you don’t enjoy this particular chest exercise or are bored it.

Whatever the reason is, there are plenty of excellent exercises you can do in its place. These are ten of the best incline bench press alternatives!

Bench pressing with barbells is a leading cause of shoulder pain. Using a barbell outs your hands in a fixed position, which can direct strain onto your shoulders via your elbows. Dumbbells mean you can rotate your hands naturally, eliminating that unwanted joint stress.

In addition, dumbbells allow you to use a larger range of motion and get a deeper stretch in your upper pecs at the bottom of each rep. This could lead to a better hypertrophic response, i.e., more growth.

Pro tip: Try doing this exercise with a neutral or palms-in grip for an even more shoulder-friendly upper chest workout. Increase core activation by using one arm at a time.

Because of a poor mind-muscle connection, some people cannot feel their pecs working during incline bench presses. This variation increases upper and inner pec activation for a more effective workout that will reconnect your mind with your chest. It’s almost impossible not to feel your pecs working during close grip incline dumbbell bench presses!

Pro tip: This exercise works best with hex dumbbells, so use ‘em if you’ve got ‘em. Otherwise, you can achieve a similar effect by pressing two weight plates together between your palms, which is called an incline Svend press.

There is a disadvantage with some freeweight exercises; tension all but vanishes from your muscles when your limbs are in certain positions but increases in others. This is called a strength curve. Cable exercises tend to have a more constant strength curve, so your muscles are under tension for longer. This may be useful for hypertrophy.

Pro tip: No bench? No problem! You can also do standing incline cable chest presses. However, this variation is slightly less pec-centric and works your abs a little more.

The Gironda neck press, also known as the guillotine press, is a little unusual. While it works your upper chest, it does so without an incline bench. This exercise is named after Vince “The Iron Guru” Gironda, Hollywood bodybuilding trainer to the stars during the 1970s and 1980s.

But, be warned, this exercise is harder than it looks, so resist the temptation to go too heavy too soon.

Pro tip: Needless to say, this exercise can cause serious injury if you cannot complete a rep. It’s called the guillotine press for a reason! So, while a missed rep probably won’t take your head off, it could cause serious injury. For that reason, you should ALWAYS do this exercise with a spotter nearby.

Low-to-high cable flies train your upper pecs in a unique way. With no bench to worry about, you can use a wide range of motion, and your shoulders can move freely, making this a very joint-friendly exercise.

However, this is not a good exercise for low reps and heavy weights. Instead, use moderate to light weights and do medium to high reps. Chase the pump!

Pro tip: Turn your palms upward at the end of each rep to really fire up your upper pecs.

Where incline bench presses are a compound exercise, incline dumbbell flies are an isolation exercise. That doesn’t mean they only work your pecs. Instead, isolation exercises involve movement at a single joint. However, with less triceps involvement, it’s safe to say your upper chest will get a good workout from incline dumbbell flies.

Pro tip: Pump up the intensity by doing incline dumbbell flies immediately followed by incline dumbbell chest presses with the same weights. A couple of these supersets will leave your pecs feeling pumped and primed for growth.

If you want to build functional muscle size and strength, the landmine is hard to beat. Most landmine exercises work your core along with the target muscles, and the strength curve is very natural and mirrors how heavy objects move out in the real world.

The landmine kneeling chest press is a cross between incline dumbbell presses, squeeze presses, and low-to-high cable flies. You’ll also feel it in your abs.

Pro-tip: No landmine? No problem! Get a similar effect by wedging the end of an Olympic barbell into a corner. You can also do this exercise standing, but the weight tends to feel lighter, so you’ll need to add more plates to the bar.

Decline push-ups closely mimic incline bench presses. However, instead of pressing a barbell up at an angle, you alter the angle of your body in relation to the floor. This is a good option for home exercisers and also makes a great finisher after lifting weights.  

Pro tip: Make this exercise more challenging by wearing a weighted vest or wrapping a resistance band around your hands and upper back.

Gyms often have incline chest press machines for training your upper pecs. The advantage of machines over freeweights is that you can push to failure without worrying about dropping a heavy weight on your chest. Also, because your movement is guided by the machine, you don’t have to waste energy balancing the load and can focus 100% on driving your pecs to the limit.

Pro tip: Pump up the intensity of your chest workout by doing some drop sets. Rep out to failure, reduce the load by 10-15 percent, and then rep out again. Lower the weight a couple more times until your muscles are fully exhausted.

Pike push-ups are similar to doing steep incline bench presses. As such, they work your upper pecs but also throw a lot of stress on your anterior deltoids and triceps. However, compared to decline push-ups, this exercise is harder and may be better for building upper body pushing strength.

Pro tip: Increase your range of motion and make this exercise more demanding by using push-up handles or placing your hands on yoga blocks, bumper plates, or bricks.

[Also read: Average Incline Bench Press By Weight, Gender, and Experience Level]

While you could just add a couple of these exercises to your next chest workout and hope for the best, you’ll get better results if you follow a more structured approach. Use these tips to build your upper chest fast!

Train your upper chest twice a week if you want it to grow faster. Hitting it twice a week will produce more hypertrophy than a single weekly workout. Dividing your upper chest training volume across two workouts means you’ll be able to push yourself harder while maximizing muscle protein synthesis.

Most people need to do 10-20 sets per muscle group to build muscle. Beginners will get good results from 10-14 sets, while more advanced lifters need 15-20. While you could do all these sets in a single workout, it’s usually best to spread them across more workouts, as explained above.

As your upper chest is your priority, at least half of your pec workout should hit your upper chest. The remaining sets can be divided between your mid and lower chest.

Your rep range should reflect your training goal. The commonly accepted rep ranges are:

However, while low reps with heavy weights are the best method for building strength, current research suggests that you can build muscle with anywhere from 6 to 30 reps providing you take your sets to failure or close to it (2).

[Read more about light weights and high reps for hypertrophy here.]

There is a balance between resting too little and too long between sets. If your rests are too short, the quality of your workout will decrease, and you won’t be able to lift heavy enough weights or do enough reps to trigger hypertrophy. But, if you rest too long, you’ll recover too much, and your workouts will become long and inefficient.

So, for most people, rest periods of 90 seconds to three minutes are about right. Take longer rests between sets of compound exercises with heavy weights and shorter rests between lighter weights and isolation exercises.

Armed with this information, you should be able to construct the perfect upper chest workout. But, to save you the bother, we’ve got four tried and tested upper pec workouts for you to try right here!

If you want a stronger, more muscular upper chest, you need to prioritize it. That means, for a while at least, spending less time doing flat bench presses and more on incline bench presses and the ten alternatives in this article.

Start every chest workout with a couple of upper pec exercises, and only do a small amount of work for your middle and lower chest.

After a few months of upper chest specialization training, you’ll develop picture-perfect upper pecs you can be proud of.

1– PubMed: Effect of Five Bench Inclinations on the Electromyographic Activity of the Pectoralis Major, Anterior Deltoid, and Triceps Brachii during the Bench Press Exercise https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7579505/

2– PubMed: Effects of different intensities of resistance training with equated volume load on muscle strength and hypertrophy https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29564973/

Patrick Dale is an ex-British Royal Marine, gym owner, and fitness qualifications tutor and assessor. In addition, Patrick is a freelance writer who has authored three fitness and exercise books, dozens of e-books, thousands of articles, and several fitness videos. He’s not just an armchair fitness expert; Patrick practices what he preaches! He has competed at a high level in numerous sports, including rugby, triathlon, rock climbing, trampolining, powerlifting, and, most recently, stand up paddleboarding. When not lecturing, training, researching, or writing, Patrick is busy enjoying the sunny climate of Cyprus, where he has lived for the last 20-years.

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