Is the Bench Press Overrated?

In discussing the matter of whether or not the bench press is overrated, imagine a football strength coach telling his athletes and other members of the coaching staff that his program did not contain bench presses. Regardless of his reasoning, do you think he would be able to get away with it? Probably not.

In the US the most popular weight training exercise by far is the bench press. Visit just about any high school gym in the country and you’ll find, especially if the gym is unsupervised, every bench occupied (and probably every power rack – for no other reason than it’s a pain to adjust the supports to position the barbell for curls). Squats may be considered the king of exercises, but nobody asks an athlete, “How much do you squat?”......


........Of course, you have to consider that when someone answers the question “How much can you bench?” you have to follow it up with another question: “Was that raw, and if not, what type of supportive gear were you using?” This is important........

.......Let’s just say that although the bench press is an overrated exercise for athletic performance, it certainly has value as a multijoint exercise to develop upper body strength and muscle mass. So go ahead and bench press – you have my blessing – but just be smart about it.

 Charles Poliquin / http://www.charlespoliquin.com/ArticlesMultimedia/Articles/Article/850/Is_the_Bench_Press_Overrated.aspx




JÖRG LINDER AKTIV-TRAINING
Personal Training / Kleingruppentraining
Gesundheitsmanagement / BGM / Gesundheitsförderung / BGF
Vibrationstraining / Funktionelles Training
Gesundheitscoaching / Lauftherapie

JÖRG LINDER AKTIV-TRAINING

Mauerbergstraße 110

76534 Baden-Baden

Tel.: 07223 / 8004699

Mobil: 0177 / 4977232

web: www.aktiv-training.de

weblog: www.aktiv-training.de/blog/

Blog: http://www.aktiv-training.blogspot.com

Kettlebellblog:  http://kettlebellblog.blogspot.com