How to do a Hammerstrength Incline Chest Press
Reviewed by JP Michelsen, CPT, B.A. Kinesiology
About Hammerstrength Incline Chest Press
Hammerstrength (Leverage) Machine (all forms)
Instructions for Proper Form
Hammerstrength Incline Chest Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Incline Bench Press. This compound movement primarily targets your chest, shoulders and triceps. The incline allows you to further emphasize your upper chest and shoulders. The use of a Hammerstrength Machine forces you to use a fixed range of motion which adds stability, and allows you to focus more on exertion.
- Sit upright in a hammerstrength incline chest press machine while squeezing your shoulder blades together and placing your heels firmly on the ground underneath your knees.
- The back pad should be contact with your head, shoulders, and butt at all times.
- Grab ahold of the handles with an overhand grip just outside shoulder-width apart at the top of your chest.
- Keeping your core braced by breathing into your stomach and flexing the abdominal muscles, push through your palms to extend your elbows while keeping them at a 45 degree angle from your torso.
- Once your arms are fully extended, return to the starting position.
Common Form Mistakes
Hammerstrength Equipment
Sit back, and keep your shoulder blades against the pad. Hammerstrength equipment is designed to help you get into the correct position. If you’re sitting forward, and pulling your back off the pad, you may be compromising the effectiveness of the exercise, or modifying it to be a different variation entirely.
Weight & 1 Rep Max Calculator
Average Hammerstrength Incline Chest Press standards by male, female, weight, age and height
Use this calculator to see Fitbod's possible first recommendations for you. This would be your starting line, based on more than 4.5 billion logged sets from 1.1 million users.
- beginner8reps40lbs1 Rep Max50lbs
- intermediate8reps50lbs65lbs
- advanced8reps60lbs75lbs
Enter your stats to calculate your Reps & Weight
Alternative Exercises to Hammerstrength Incline Chest Press
1. Hammerstrength Chest Press
94.3 mSCORESWAPPED 5,625 TIMESHammerstrength Chest Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Bench Press. Similar to Bench Press, this compound exercise primarily targets your chest, shoulders, and triceps. The use of a Hammerstrength machine forces you to use a fixed range of motion. This can help you either learn the movement, or focus your efforts on exertion rather than stability.
- Beginner
- Chest
- Hammerstrength (Leverage) Machine (all forms)
2. Dumbbell Incline Bench Press
99 mSCORESWAPPED 4,513 TIMESDumbbell Incline Bench Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Incline Bench Press. This compound exercise primarily targets the chest, but the incline also places more emphasis on the shoulders. The use of dumbbells makes this exercise more unstable than its barbell counterpart, while also forcing you to address any strength discrepancies between sides.
3. Hammerstrength Decline Chest Press
86.5 mSCORESWAPPED 3,057 TIMESHammerstrength Decline Chest Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Decline Bench Press. This compound movement primarily targets your chest, focusing more on the lower pecs. The use of a Hammerstrength Machine restricts your range of motion and adds stability to the movement, allowing you to focus more on exertion rather than stabilizing the movement. This is a great exercise for getting consistent tension and improving muscle activation.
- Beginner
- Chest
- Hammerstrength (Leverage) Machine (all forms)
4. Machine Fly
98.2 mSCORESWAPPED 3,035 TIMESMachine Fly is a variation on the more standard Dumbbell Fly. This isolation chest exercise primarily targets the chest, but also recruits the shoulders. The use of a machine makes the exercise more stable allowing you to focus on exertion or learn the movement with minimal risk of injury. This is a great exercise for beginners looking to learn the movement, or advanced lifters looking to push this movement to it’s limit.
- Beginner
- Chest
- Fly Machine
5. Barbell Incline Bench Press
98.9 mSCORESWAPPED 2,720 TIMESBarbell Incline Bench Press is a variation on a standard Bench Press. Similar to Bench Press, this compound exercise primarily targets your chest, but this variation places much more emphasis on your shoulders and upper chest.
6. Machine Bench Press
93.5 mSCORESWAPPED 2,532 TIMESMachine Bench Press is a compound exercise the primarily targets the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The use of a machine forces you to use a fixed range of motion which can be a great way to learn the movement, or to focus your effort on exertion rather than stability.
- Beginner
- Chest
- Bench Press Machine
7. Cable Crossover Fly
97.3 mSCORESWAPPED 2,253 TIMESCable Crossover Fly is an isolation exercise that targets the chest. It’s a variation on the more standard Dumbbell Fly, and can easily be adapted to further isolate specific areas of the chest. Using cables to add resistance allows you to keep more consistent tension on your chest, as well as control the angle that the resistance is coming from.
- Beginner
- Chest
- Cable Crossover
8. Dumbbell Fly
98.3 mSCORESWAPPED 2,033 TIMESDumbbell Fly’s are one of the most common isolation chest exercises, and for good. It primarily targets the muscles in the chest, but also recruits the shoulders for stability. The use of dumbbells ensures that you’re targeting each side of the body independently, and prevents compensating for any weaknesses between sides. In addition the isolated nature of this exercise is a great way to fatigue your chest, and focus on building both muscle mass and increasing strength in your chest.
9. Smith Machine Incline Bench Press
96.4 mSCORESWAPPED 1,897 TIMESSmith Machine Bench Press is a variation on the more standard Barbell Incline Bench Press. Like other variations, this compound exercise primarily targets the chest, shoulders and triceps. The added stability from the Smith Machine makes this a great exercise for learning, or for focusing on exertion rather than stabilizing the movement.
- Beginner
- Chest
- Smith Machine
10. Dumbbell Bench Press
99.7 mSCORESWAPPED 1,883 TIMESDumbbell Bench Press is a variation on the standard Bench Press. Like Bench Press, this compound exercise primarily targets the chest, while also training the triceps and shoulders. The use of dumbbells allows for greater instability which can help you become more stable on pushing movements in general, while also isolating each side of the body to prevent you from compensating for any weaknesses between sides.