I'm lifting weights for the purpose of building as much muscle as quickly as possible, trying to raise my metabolism to burn fat. I am not lifting to get 'cut' or shape my body in any special way. So with that in mind, any ideas whether I should be using an incline, level or decline setting on my bench? I want to get the most out of the 2 sessions I do each week, since I'm not able to do them more often than that...

Thanks,
Mike

Hey mike I'm going to direct you to either the mens forum or the ladies (and gents) who lift they will be able to help you abit better than me Keep up the good work
Welcome to 3fc!
Michelle

Hey Mike, another really great resource is discussfitness.com; it's another message board devoted primarily to weight training, and has thousands of members with different fitness and experience levels, as well as motivations for lifting. It's really great, and I have found some really helpful information there -- lots of knowledge and experience to benefit from!

Mike -- my opinion is to hit all angles: incline, decline, and flat. One quick way to do that (if you're short on time) is to do five sets of presses with either a barbell or dumbbells, starting flat and raising the bench one position per set. Thus set 1 = flat, set 2 = incline at setting 1, set 3 = incline at setting 2 etc. through five sets. Then two or three quick sets of the same on decline and you're done with presses. I also like to do pec flyes the same way: five sets flat up to incline.

Hope that helps!