What Is the Stabilizer Muscle for a Barbell Incline Chest Press?

The barbell bench press is a staple exercise in most chest workouts. The incline bench press is a variation that puts more focus on developing the muscles of the upper chest. While the target muscle is the clavicular head of the pectoralis major, stabilizer muscles are needed for joint stability.

  1. What are Stabilizer Muscles?

    • For any exercise, there are agonist, antagonist, target, synergist and stabilizer muscles in action. The stabilizer muscle contracts without movement to hold posture or keep a joint in place. Dynamic stabilizers will shorten at the target joint and lengthen at the adjacent joint without changing length. This allows the target and synergist muscles to move, and provides the stability needed to keep them moving in the desired direction.

    Stabilizer Muscle for Incline Barbell Bench

    • The incline barbell bench uses one stabilizer muscle -- the short head of the biceps brachii. This muscle runs down the inner part of the upper arm. Its origin point, the immovable end, is the shoulder blade and its insertion point, the movable end, is the radius bone of the lower arm. During the incline press it bends the elbows and keeps the weight moving up and down without drifting forward or backward.

    Performing the Barbell Incline Press

    • To do the barbell incline bench press, lie face up on an incline bench. Lift the barbell off the rack with your hands slightly wider than shoulder width. Slowly lower the weight to your upper chest. Press the bar upward, then lower back to the starting position. Repeat for the target number of repetitions. Make sure your hands aren't too far apart to ensure the proper range of motion throughout the entire exercise.

    Other Muscles Used

    • In addition to the upper pectoralis major and the short head of the biceps brachii, two synergist muscles are used in the barbell incline bench press. The anterior deltoid, located at the front of the shoulder, assists the pectoralis major when lowering the weight to the chest. The triceps brachii located at the rear or the upper arm helps the pectoralis major when moving the weight away from the chest to the start position.