LiftSets / Exercises / Incline Dumbbell Press
Incline Dumbbell Press
Works the chest. Helped by the shoulders, triceps.


Bright blue is the target muscle. Darker blue is helping. The app shows this as a moving demo.
Muscles worked
chestshoulderstriceps
How many reps
| Goal | Reps per set |
|---|---|
| Strength | 3-6 |
| Muscle size | 6-10 |
| Endurance | 12-20+ |
Whatever the number, the set should end within a rep or two of the point where you could not do another with good form.
| Kit | dumbbell |
|---|---|
| Level | beginner |
What to think about
- Shoulder blades pinned back and down.
- Lower for 2-3 seconds to chest level.
- Press up and slightly in.
How to do it
- Lie back on an incline bench with a dumbbell in each hand atop your thighs. The palms of your hands will be facing each other.
- Then, using your thighs to help push the dumbbells up, lift the dumbbells one at a time so that you can hold them at shoulder width.
- Once you have the dumbbells raised to shoulder width, rotate your wrists forward so that the palms of your hands are facing away from you. This will be your starting position.
- Be sure to keep full control of the dumbbells at all times. Then breathe out and push the dumbbells up with your chest.
- Lock your arms at the top, hold for a second, and then start slowly lowering the weight. Tip Ideally, lowering the weights should take about twice as long as raising them.
- Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.
- When you are done, place the dumbbells back on your thighs and then on the floor. This is the safest manner to release the dumbbells.
Other exercises for the chest
- Alternating Floor Press
- Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip
- Barbell Incline Bench Press - Medium Grip
- Bent-Arm Dumbbell Pullover
- Butterfly
- Cable Crossover
- Decline Barbell Bench Press
- Decline Dumbbell Bench Press
Track it in LiftSets
Log incline dumbbell press with last time's numbers in front of you, a rest timer on your lock screen and a graph of your progress.
Coming soon to the App Store