Introduction to Bench Press Print E-mail



Bench press is a pretty good place to start. After all, trying to find a guy who doesn't want to increase his bench is like trying to find a guy who doesn't want a date with Angelina Jolie. Unfortunately, though, since Angelina hasn't been returning your calls, chances are you're going to have to settle for pressing a few more pounds.

The interesting thing about the bench press is that there are so many different ways to do it. Depending on the angle you use (incline, flat, or decline), your grip width (close, medium, or wide), and where you keep your elbows in relation to your torso, you can alter the lift dramatically. The key, however, is finding a variation that's best suited to you biomechanically, rather than allowing popular opinion to dictate the way you execute the lift.

To better understand what we mean, a little anatomy lesson is order. The chest, or pectoralis major, actually has two heads, a sternocostal head, which originates at the costal cartilage on top of the first six ribs and the adjoining portion of the sternum, and a clavicular head, which originates at the middle portion of the clavicle (collarbone). Both heads then fuse together into a common tendon that inserts on the humerus (upper arm bone). We mention this because much is often made about the impact that factors such as bench angle and grip width have on different parts of the pecs. Some say that the incline bench press hits the upper pecs, while decline hits the lower pecs. Interestingly, scientific studies of both the clavicular and sternocostal heads during incline, flat, and decline presses have yielded mixed results. Some studies have found no significant difference in upper pec activation between the different pressing angles, while others show that close grip incline and wide grip flat presses do indeed increase upper and lower pec activation, respectively. In the end, the differences between movements, in terms of chest activation, are small. The difference in pectoral activation you'll get from various forms of benching pales in comparison to the benefit you'll receive from simply focusing on lifting the most weight you can in the most biomechanically efficient manner possible. The point here is that you needn't be overly concerned with "blasting your pecs from a variety of angles." This idea is just something that the muscle mags like to toss around from time to time to keep things interesting.

So how does one alter the bench press to achieve optimal biomechanical efficiency? Well, for instance, having long arms means that the bar has to travel through a greater range of motion. This essentially means that you'll be doing much more work at a given weight than your stubby-armed friends. Naturally, this has led to the recommendation that in order for ectos to get the most out of the bench press, they should shorten the range of motion. While definitely a viable strategy, we feel that this is only part of the equation. After all, there are issues at the shoulder joint that need attention before loading up the bar and "benchin' heavy."


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