I’m absolutely a fan of the Bench Press and use it often when training everyone from athletes, to physique competitors, to exercise enthusiasts. But, like every other exercise we can perform – the Bench Press has it’s benefits, AND it also has it’s limitations.
Put simply, the Bench Press is great for accomplishing certain goals. But, maybe not so great for accomplishing others.
In the world of strength & conditioning we often become blinded from following traditionalism, or by our own personal biases and/or emotional attachments to certain exercises, which cause us to emphasize the benefits of exercises while ignoring their limitations. This can create an environment where we end up abusing a given exercise or concept instead of understanding how to best use it at the correct time and for the right reasons.
To help you build an objective understanding how to best utilize the Bench Press, I’ve recruited my good friend Coach JC Santana to share with you his research study results on how the Bench Press does and does not benefit your performance!
Although the concepts and techniques discussed in the video below are based on complex science. Rest assured that JC and I have kept things simple to understand, easy to apply and straight to the point!
You see, there is no “for” or “against” anything here because different training goals demand different training concepts to accomplish!
Coming Soon!
I’ve got an upcoming T-nation article, which really expands on the concepts & techniques discussed above. So if you liked today’s post – You’re going to love my next T-nation article!
Great to see you and JC joining forces for this video. I for one am trying to reduce my frequency of benching, having a history of shoulder issues. Neutral grip DB presses seem to be much safer on the joint.
Without a doubt benching provides a certain satisfaction but as a golfer with very little subacromial space in the joint it wears out my shit pretty fast and doesn’t feel great the next day.
You guys are brilliant. Thank you very much for the information. I use it all the time and it makes a huge difference. Thank you again.
I don’t understand one thing – and it seems to be a flaw in the comparison. Why a 1 arm standing cable press instead of a 2 arm. 2 arms would seem to mitigate some of the limitations of the core and allow more weight to be pushed. Isn’t a 2 arm standing cable press a better comparison to the bench press?
Or conversely, a 1 arm standing press compared to a 1 arm dumbbell bench press.
You see, there is no for or against anything here because different training goals demand different training concepts to accomplish!
I could not agree more – everything has it place dependent on what you are specifically training for…
Great article.
[...] The Scientifically Proven TRUTH About the Bench Press! Nick Tumminello. [...]
Tania,
“there is no for or against anything here because different training goals demand different training concepts to accomplish!”
BRILLIANT words. I could not agree more!
Coach N
Barry,
I LOVE the way you think as we NEED to continually question things like this.
I can’t speak for the researchers. But, I’ll quickly share my thoughts.
- We’ve experimented with comparing 5rm loads of the 1A SCP to the 2A SCP. We found ALL of our athletes could lift much more with the 1A SCP. We suspect this is because the 1A version allows them to utilize the transverse plane to create more cross-body stability.
- Rarely do standing sporting situations involve a perfect load balance between the L and R arm when pushing on something in-front of you. So I think that’s why they went with the 1A SCP to make it a more accurate comparison to functional transfer into standing pushing.
Keep in mind that the study was done to compare functional transfer of the bench press into a real standing pushing environment, which is rarely bi-lateral. It was not designed to compare two arm pushing or 1A pushing from different positions.
For any further question, I’d suggest you contact JC Santana since he could give you much more accurate answers than I can.
Coach N
[...] The bench press and core strength….pretty cool [...]