Is the Bench Press Overrated?

The bench press. We all know it, and most of us love it. It is in every young mans weightlifting program, sometimes done everyday for ego boosting. However, is it really that beneficial? Well, it all comes down to what your body type is and what your goals are, like all other exercises.

So who should be benching? First of all, I must clarify, for this blog I am solely talking about the flat barbell bench press. As far as who should bench, there is no true answer. Like mentioned, it depends on several factors. If you have any type of shoulder injury, I would suggest not bench pressing. If you are looking for chest definition as a bodybuilder, I would suggest not bench pressing. There are several reasons that someone should not bench press, but it is all individual based.

Lets take a look at why we bench press. It a compound exercise requiring activation of the chest, shoulders, triceps, and more. You can add a lot of weight to the bar, and if done right it can help in strength and power development.

However, the bench press if easily the most over used exercise in the fitness field today. You have kids bench pressing every day to impress the girl on the treadmill, win a bet against their buddy, or simply thinking they will get stronger by doing so. What happens if you bench press to much is you become extremely "caved" forward. Your chest muscles are so tight and your back muscles are so stretched, you end up looking like Hunchback of Notre Dame. There should be an even split between horizontal pushing and horizontal pulling. Horizontal pushing includes any form of bench press whether it be dumbbell or barbell, push ups, etc. Horizontal pulling would be any type of seated row.

Another issue that comes into play with people who bench to much, is they cause deficiencies in vertical pushing and pulling. Vertical pushing would include overhead pressing. Vertical pulling would be a chin-up, pull-up, or lat pull down variation. Again, there should be a even split between vertical and horizontal pushing and pulling.

Think of the motion of the bench press. You are laying on your back pushing something off of you. Let's take a look at sports. Other then football and some field events what sport would you do that motion. So, baseball players, basketball players, tennis, etc might not see benefit to traditional barbell bench pressing. Of course they need to do some form of horizontal pushing so this may be a dumbbell press variation, a push-up variation, etc.

The bottom line is, bench pressing is over rated. Yes, it is an excellent compound exercise for developing strength and power. However, if not done properly it can cause a lot of injuries and deficiencies in the body.

If you have a question about your program design and if the bench press should be a part of it, let me know.

One last note, all programs should be individualized and periodized. So you should not be going to the gym every Monday and bench pressing. That may be fine for a couple weeks, but then it needs to change.

Any comments or suggestions let me know.

Best,

Doug Spurling
Spurling Stength & Speed
dspurling@une.edu