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Exercise guide

Incline Dumbbell Press

How to do the Incline Dumbbell Press with correct form, the muscles it works, and where it fits a training plan you actually stick to.

CompoundDumbbellBeginnerPush
Primary muscles

Chest

Secondary

Shoulders, Triceps

Equipment

Dumbbell

Step by step

How to do the Incline Dumbbell Press

  1. 1

    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.

  2. 2

    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.

  3. 3

    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.

  4. 4

    Be sure to keep full control of the dumbbells at all times. Then breathe out and push the dumbbells up with your chest.

  5. 5

    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.

  6. 6

    Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.

  7. 7

    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.

In Ascend

Log it, see it on your body.

Every Incline Dumbbell Press set you log feeds Ascend's anatomy heatmap — so your chest volume is visible at a glance — and counts toward your bodyweight-strength tier.

Related

More chest exercises

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