What does the incline close chest press work?

Your chest, first. The triceps take a bigger cut of the rep than they would with the hands apart, and the front of the shoulder comes in more as the bench gets steeper. Holding the dumbbells together does not change which muscle drives the press.

What angle should the bench be?

Shallow rather than steep. The five-angle study behind that answer is covered on the incline dumbbell press entry, and nothing about the hands being together changes what the tilt does. A bench set so far back that you are sitting up gives you a shoulder press with a squeeze on it.

Is the incline squeeze press better for the upper chest than a normal incline press?

Nobody knows. The tilt and the narrow hand position have each been measured on a barbell bench, separately, and never together, and pressing two dumbbells held in contact has not been studied at all. Anyone quoting you a percentage for it is quoting a number with no study under it.

Why can I press so much less on this than on a normal incline press?

Because holding the dumbbells against each other is its own task and it gives out before the press does. Use a smaller dumbbell than your usual incline press and read nothing into the number. It is what this version costs.

How high on your chest should the dumbbells land?

At the top of it, with your hands staying in the middle. There is no wide or narrow decision left to make here, so the only thing you are setting is where on your torso they come down.

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Dumbbell · intermediate · chest

Dumbbell incline close chest press

Also called Incline squeeze press, Incline hex press, Incline crush grip press, Incline close grip dumbbell press, Incline crush press.

The short answer

This is a squeeze press done on a tilted bench: two dumbbells held hard against each other, pressed from the upper chest to full extension without letting them part. The chest is what presses. Your triceps carry more of the rep than they would with the hands set apart, and the front of your shoulder joins in more the steeper the back rest goes. Two adjustments are stacked here and both get sold for the upper chest, which is worth looking at closely.

How to do it

Step oneSet a bench to a 30-45 degree incline and lie back holding dumbbells pressed together at your chest.
Step twoMaintain constant inward pressure on the dumbbells throughout the movement.
Step threeLower the dumbbells toward your upper chest while keeping them in contact.
Step fourPress back up to the starting position without allowing the dumbbells to separate.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

Your triceps are what end the set, and your chest still feels like it had reps left.

WhyTwo dumbbells held in contact is the narrowest a press can be, and hand positions that close raise how much the elbow has to do. The smaller muscle is carrying a bigger share of the rep, so it reaches its limit first.

FixChoose the dumbbell that lets your chest finish the set rather than the one your arms can just survive. If the triceps was what you wanted loaded, an exercise built around the elbow will let you use far more weight than this.

Your wrists ache and the dumbbells keep trying to twist apart.

WhyThe two dumbbells are locked against each other, so your hands cannot travel apart and anything that shifts shows up as the wrists dropping out of line with the forearms.

FixSet the hands so each forearm runs straight into its dumbbell before you press, and check that line again at the bottom of the rep, which is where it goes first.

The pair rotates as you press, so one dumbbell finishes ahead of the other.

WhyOne hand is pushing harder than the other. Held apart you would never see it. Held together, the stronger side turns the pair rather than getting ahead of it.

FixWatch the ends of the dumbbells against the ceiling and press until they finish level. Slowing the press down is usually enough on its own.

Incline squeeze press or a plain incline press

Two things change at once here, which is why this is harder to reason about than it looks. Your hands are held together instead of set apart, and the bench is tilted instead of flat.

The tilt has been measured across five bench angles, and the incline dumbbell press entry sets out what it does to the chest and to the front of the shoulder. The result worth adding here is the one about your arms: triceps activity came out similar at every angle tested, from flat all the way up to 60 degrees. So the tilt is not what changes what your arms contribute. The hand position is, and the close chest press and close grip bench entries cover that split.

What nobody has measured is the two together, or the squeeze at all. There is no published study on pressing two dumbbells held against each other, at any bench angle. Articles about this exercise quote a figure of roughly 18% more chest activity than a normal dumbbell press, and it traces back to nothing.

That leaves an honest answer instead of a ranking. You get a press where the arms work harder, the weight is small, and your hands never travel apart. Choose it as a different demand rather than as a better version, and use the plain incline press when the point is to move weight.

What it is for

The dumbbell incline close chest press combines an incline angle with the constant inward squeeze of a close chest press, targeting the chest. The incline shifts work toward the upper portion of the pectorals, which is measurably where an incline of around thirty degrees puts it.

Questions people ask

What does the incline close chest press work?: Your chest, first. The triceps take a bigger cut of the rep than they would with the hands apart, and the front of the shoulder comes in more as the bench gets steeper. Holding the dumbbells together does not change which muscle drives the press.
What angle should the bench be?: Shallow rather than steep. The five-angle study behind that answer is covered on the incline dumbbell press entry, and nothing about the hands being together changes what the tilt does. A bench set so far back that you are sitting up gives you a shoulder press with a squeeze on it.
Is the incline squeeze press better for the upper chest than a normal incline press?: Nobody knows. The tilt and the narrow hand position have each been measured on a barbell bench, separately, and never together, and pressing two dumbbells held in contact has not been studied at all. Anyone quoting you a percentage for it is quoting a number with no study under it.
Why can I press so much less on this than on a normal incline press?: Because holding the dumbbells against each other is its own task and it gives out before the press does. Use a smaller dumbbell than your usual incline press and read nothing into the number. It is what this version costs.
How high on your chest should the dumbbells land?: At the top of it, with your hands staying in the middle. There is no wide or narrow decision left to make here, so the only thing you are setting is where on your torso they come down.