What's harder a chest press or bench press?I don't know why but I can bench way more than I can lift on a chest press machine. the chest press sitting up pushing forward on a machine drops me like 40 lbs. Is that mental or is a chest press from a sitting position more difficult than a bench press, thanks
The chest press machine at my gym involves the user pushing away from his/her chest BUT, also pushing upwards slightly. This is most likely the case with yours as well. This is then considered to be an incline press. Since incline presses isolates your upper chest to do the work, you will always lift more with the bench press because there's a smaller fraction of your chest being used to push weight with the incline press. Note: the more of an incline you put to this press (Adjust the incline by doing the press on an adjustable bench) the more a shoulder workout it becomes. You will eventually reach a completely vertical press and this is ALL shoulder (military press).
