djsnit

I'm doing my own experiment on why I prefer decline over flat. Flat tears my shoulders up. Decline has been criticized for short range but isn't the goal of arched back and flat foot to reduce distance? Please explain why decline is frowned upon as an inadequate exercise?

sergiogodoymd

The decline press is a rather useless exercise because the angle of the back in the decline position shortens the distance the bar can travel, decreasing the amount of work done by decreasing the range of motion. By decreasing the difficulty, the decline press increases the weight that can be used in the exercise, which in turn leads to inflated perceptions of one's ability - it is essentially masturbation, much like that which is possible with a 30-degree leg press or a half-squat.

Cody

I've made fantastic progress with HLM [heavy-light-medium, increasing weights once a week], working my way to a set of 500x5 squats just a couple months ago. My second daughter was born on Cinco de Mayo (my first is 1.5 years old), and after a short hiatus from lifting, I came back to a linear progression with a light day, setting squats down to 405x5 for 3 sets to start. I've stalled super hard, missing reps on the light day of all days, on the 6th training session since being back.

Been fighting sickness and lack of sleep, so I'm certain I'm just not fully recovering between training sessions. With your experience training with a handful of children, what can I do to have a productive training program, since I can't really do anything about the stuff outside the gym?