With special thanks to Jordon Franklin at VIDA Fitness, Washington, D.C.
If you’re looking for one simple piece of equipment to elevate your home gym setup—literally and figuratively—look no further than the incline bench.
An incline bench allows you to hit your upper body from different angles, which is key when building functional strength and improving posture. I use mine somehow every time I train for my first professional bodybuilding season at 50 (more on that journey in my book LIFT), and I love it for its versatility and effectiveness. It’s also easy to store against a wall and doesn’t take much room at all.
This week, I teamed up with personal trainer Jordon Franklin at VIDA Fitness to share three of my go-to upper body moves using an incline bench and a pair of dumbbells. Dumbbells are especially useful here because they engage your stabilizer muscles, reduce asymmetries between sides, and give you a fuller range of motion than barbells typically do.
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