I see one of two possibilities:
a) My chest is strong compared to shoulders / tri, so the weight is comparatively harder for them
b) My chest is weaker compared to shoulders/tri, so they are bearing the load of the lift.

Kept incline at 30 degrees, BB, DB, smith
Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

You didn't mention what was the issue brah.

Shoulder pain? Shoulder and tris giving out? Not enough stimuli in the chest?

Feeling like 90% of the exercise is working my shoulder and tris. Hardly any chest stim

You said you tried DBs? Much more ROM with them.

I'd try to lower the weight and focus on squeezing the chest, going slower on the eccentric phase.

i just started doing incline DB's this year cause my new gym doesn't have an incline bb rack. I think the incline bb was superior. it seems pretty difficult to actually optimally work the chest with incline db on every rep. i don't have a big pump in the chest anymore as I did when I did incline bb's.

from what i've learned so far. is that you have to get the dumbbells down to chest level as if they were a barbell but a little past that it seems to get muscle stimulation on the chest. idk still figuring it out. it definitely doesn't work my chest as good as bb incline so far.

My shoulders and triceps take over when I press, it’s always been that way for me but I was able to change that a bit. I will give a little tip that you could try for a month or two and see how it works for you, it was one of the more successful things I did for putting mass on my chest. I dropped pressing all together for chest, my chest workout would consist of flat DB flys, incline DB flys, peck deck, cable crossovers, pullovers, etc but no pressing. When I did for 2 months following the same principle of progressive overload and mixing rep ranges, I saw some good growth in my chest. I believe what this did was build my ability to focus properly on the mind muscle connection with my chest rather than my shoulders and triceps. Once I returned to pressing movements I felt better pectoral activation. In the past I had usually had either a fly or peck deck in my routine but prioritizing the isolation movements seemed to help.

Do an incline svend press either before a set or after a set. Once you get the stimuli you need just focus on the squeeze

Why don't you do a couple of sets of flies or pushups first to get the blood flowing? Its just an activation/mind to muscle connection issue. You need to find an isolation exercise that allows you to pre-exhaust your chest. Then when you start doing your incline presses use a lighter weight then you'd normally do and just focus on squeezing/contracting your pecs through the movement.





I have a similar issue with pullups. I hit a set of pullups and my biceps/forearms get pumped and lit up. Barely feel it in my back. I rest a bit and do more pullups when my 'arms' dictate I can resume. I switch to a lat pull down with light weight (Like 50lbs) and do 2 or 3 sets with 15-20 rep just focusing on squeezing my lats. And my lats get lit the fukk up and I feel everything in my back.



Short version. Learn to mind to muscle connect. Its real. Your goal isn't incline pressing weight. Its contracting your pecs under tension. Get blood flowing in your chest then drop the weight by like half of what you currently use. Then just focus on moving that weight with incline press by contracting your pecs.

You can try to pre-exhaust your chest with flyes or something before your incline presses to see which of the two options you listed it can be.
But more likely its neither and its just your form. I found that packing the shoulders like most "experts" say to do, doesnt actually work well, at least for me. Because it limits the range of the scapula during the press therefore putting more stress and strain on the shoulders. And the scapula should be free to move. So i just retract my shoulder blades lightly.
Also, keeping your elbows 45 degrees to your body, not flared out too much.
And also, and perhaps most importantly. I find stopping a few inches above the chest and holding that for a 1-2 count and then pressing back up, really makes me focus on my chest contraction. Because coming all the way down to touch the chest puts the shoulders in a strained position to start the move, so that makes them initiate the movement in order to come out of that stressful position. So stopping a few inches above, and coming to a dead stop for 1-2 count really allows you to focus on pushing back up with the pecs and keep the tension on the pecs.
At least this is all whats worked for me.
Good luck !