The bench press has been defamed. Yes, it is overdone in globo-gyms. Yes, “how much do you bench” is a poor way to discover someone’s actual strength. Yes, it involves pressing while laying down, which may not be entirely “functional.” Yes, bench pressing in isolation can cause inflexibility, imbalance, and general meat-headedness. But we can’t deny that it is a superior strength building exercise that should be fundamental to any general strength program.
At CFDV, we’ve educated our clients on how to safely and effectively bench a la Rip, that is, in a manner that will produce the greatest general strength gains for pushing in that plane. Benching with the upper arms at a 45 degree angle, the forearms perpendicular to the floor, and the bar touching at or below the nipple line balances the work between the front shoulders, pecs, and triceps.
We can deemphasize the work of the chest and increase the work of the shoulders and triceps by moving our grip in close to about shoulder width or a little closer. The movement of the bar will still be in a straight line to the lower chest. Athletes should make an effort to keep their elbows in close to their body to avoid overstressing the shoulder joint. This close grip variation will allow us to eccentrically and concentrically load up the triceps more than we can ever do with any other exercise.
Think about your last failed shoulder press attempt. Where did the bar get stuck? Typically the bar gets stuck somewhere around the forehead, where the majority of the loading is being passed to the triceps. Close grip benching will strengthen your triceps so that they can generate the force to power through that shoulder press sticking point. Read this Welbourne article for more info.
Allow me to share a personal anecdote. I have a goal for the year of pressing 200lbs. Right now I am at 185lbs. To get to my goal, I’d set up the following program for shoulder press workouts: week one- 5X5 (across), week two- 5X3 (across), week three- 5X1 (across), week four- 3×5 (new 5RM), week five- 3X3 (new 3RM), week six- 3X1 (new 1RM). The plan was to repeat until I hit my goal. This program pushed my shoulder press from 165 to 185lbs. However; after I pressed 185, I got stuck. I failed at each max attempt. I tried another cycle of shoulder pressing to see if doing more volume would push up those maxes. I got stuck again, no new maxes. I decided to change gears and do three weeks of close grip benching instead of shoulder pressing. When I went back to test maxes, I easily bested my old 5RM (new PR of 165lbs) and 3RM (new PR of 175lbs), and I look forward to testing my 1 RM shortly.
Post thoughts on bench pressing and other exercises that have mutually beneficial relationships.
