Machine Decline Chest Press

How to do it

1. Set the seat so the handles sit level with the lower part of your chest.
2. Sit back with your whole back against the pad and your feet flat.
3. Take the handles with an overhand grip and set your shoulder blades back against the pad.
4. Press the handles forward and slightly downward along the machine's path.
5. Stop just short of locking out and hold briefly.
6. Let the handles come back until your hands are level with the lower chest.

Common mistakes

• Setting the seat high so the handles sit level with the shoulders. That turns a decline press into a flat or incline one, which the machine beside it already does.
• Letting the shoulder blades roll forward at the end of each press. Keeping them set is what keeps the load on the chest rather than the front of the shoulder.
• Resting the stack down between repetitions. The pause lets the chest go slack and turns a set into a series of separate lifts.
• Expecting it to build a separate lower chest. The downward path suits the fibres running from the ribs, and they are part of the same pectoralis major as everything else.

Muscles worked

Primary

• Abdominal HeadPecs

Secondary

• Shoulders
• Triceps