Is Using Bench Press Equipment The Best Way To Develop Your Upper Body?
The all mighty bench press, that piece of equipment that every young man crowds around in the gym, in hopes of attaining a more muscular physique. You have seen it at the gym I am sure, a group of men standing around the bench press waiting their turn on this the granddaddy of all upper-body exercises. Everybody wants to bench.
Everyone wants to be able to lift more weight and be strong and the bench press has become a symbol of strength. We all want to know how much you can bench. How much can that football player bench? How much can that wrestler bench? But is the bench press really the best way to sculpt a more muscular upper body or for that matter make a stronger athlete?
Well lets look at a few key points to lay the ground work to answer that question. First, why are you using the bench press? If it is for bodybuilding or body sculpting then let’s look at what you are trying to achieve with this exercise. Most people want their chest muscles to be more prominent and more defined and their upper torsos to look more muscular, right? Well the bench press will certainly train your pectoralis (or chest muscles) as well as the anterior deltoids (or front of your shoulders) thus making these muscles tighter and stronger.
Ok now let’s look at what we witness with the majority of peoples posture these days. More often than not they already have tight anterior deltoids and chest muscles and weak upper back or postural muscles that cause a slight kyphotic posture which makes the shoulders roll forward.
You can test for yourself if your anterior deltoids and chest muscles are tight. Try grabbing your hands behind your lower back and interlacing your fingers and bringing your palms together. If this is difficult then these muscles are probably what’s called hypertonic or just too tight. You can also just look in a mirror and notice if your shoulders sort of roll forward. If they do then your posture muscles are probably weak and your anterior muscles may be a bit overly tight.
So if this is the case in most people then I would submit to you that doing an exercise that causes more imbalance by making those muscles that are already overly tight even stronger and tighter will not make your upper-body look more aesthetic. In fact it will only exacerbate an already existing problem. In this case you would want to stretch the tight muscles, the chest muscles and strengthen the weak muscles, the upper back muscles to gain a balance again and achieve a more aesthetic look.
This does not mean that you could not do some bench press but you would want to do far less bench press than you do upper back exercises. I would recommend two sets of back for every one set of chest until the balance was restored. You could also try stretching your chest between sets of back exercises to get the chest muscles to turn off while you do the back exercises.
Ok but what about the athlete. Surely he needs to be doing heavy amounts of bench press. He is not your average guy with bad posture. He needs to be able to lift heavy weights and be as strong as he possibly can.
Well let’s look at what you are trying to achieve if you are an athlete or if you are training an athlete. Basically you want to make them better at their chosen sport right? You want to get them stronger or more stable or more powerful in relation to the activity that they are performing in their sport.
With this in mind let’s evaluate a basic training principle when one create a program for an athlete. It is the S.A.I.D. principle. This stands for Specific Adaptation to and Imposed Demand. This is a fancy way of saying if you want to be able to jump higher then you should jump not ride your bike.
The more specific you can be to the demand you are trying to enhance the more effective the program will be. So if you are a running back in football you would want to have a strength program that would enhance the qualities and abilities that a running back needs. What move in sport does the bench press emulate or enhance? Answer nothing.
Some may say but if you are a lineman in football you push the guy back and that is a bench press. Buzz… wrong answer. If you are lineman hoping to be pushing that other 300 pound lineman away with just your arms you better forget it. The majority of what is occurring is in the legs and the core stabilizers of the body. A more effective version of the bench press for a lineman would be a standing cable bench press. This would be more specific to his activity. But lying on your back and lifting a heavy weight has very little crossover to actual athletics.
So use the bench press equipment if you want but just remember some of the tips I just gave you and above all look at what your purpose is for doing the bench press and then make your exercise selection from there. Good Luck!
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