Should be tilted back only 5-10 degrees. But one with no head rest will allow you to do them correctly. With a full head rest you need to basically either just do a steep incline or press behind the neck
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Another good home remedy is to put the bench in the rack to sit on, set the hooks behind you with a 4 foot long board (2" x 12" x 4') across at mid-upper back height (for a back support) and the pins just above the board. You then just press from the pins like you described. I saw this in one of the old Westside videos