Bench Press?

March 13, 2008

There are certainly other reasons to use the bench press. We just hosted a

seminar with Charlie Francis and he made a point that goes counter to all the

proponents of sports specificity.

As an example, when tapering a sprinter for the 100 meter, as they got close to

the actual event, the bench press was used in place of more lower body dominant

exercises for the “stimulus” rather than for building strong pushing muscles.

Charlie reasoned that the bench press utilizes 35% of all the motor units in the

body versus say a deadlift, squat or power clean which may use 70 to 90% of all

the motor units in the body. This way the athlete can stimulate the body

without over taxing it so close to the actual event.

One would be wise to investigate this idea when training athletes! It can make

the difference between a PR and a pulled muscle or worse!

Mike Doyle, NSCA-CPT, CSCS

COR Performance

Layton, Utah

www.corperformancetraining.com

March 13, 2008

Mike Doyle wrote:

>There are certainly other reasons to use the bench press. We just hosted a

seminar with Charlie Francis and he made a point that goes counter to all the

proponents of sports specificity.

>

>As an example, when tapering a sprinter for the 100 meter, as they got close to

the actual event, the bench press was used in place of more lower body dominant

exercises for the “stimulus” rather than for building strong pushing muscles.

Charlie reasoned that the bench press utilizes 35% of all the motor units in the

body versus say a deadlift, squat or power clean which may use 70 to 90% of all

the motor units in the body. This way the athlete can stimulate the body

without over taxing it so close to the actual event.

>

>One would be wise to investigate this idea when training athletes! It can make

the difference between a PR and a pulled muscle or worse!

>

****

I don't see that being a good idea at all. There are a lot better ways

to get a lower stimulus than simply choosing a crappy exercise because

it doesn't work as much! What next - triceps kickbacks because they only

use 2%?

During the taper you should be focused on technical aspects of the

event. I don't see why you would bench or deadlift or do any slow

movements at all. If I was using Charlie's reasoning I would be doing a

db snatch or something like that.

OTOH, I've never trained anyone to a 9.79....

:^)

--

Hobman

Saskatoon, CANADA

March 13, 2008

A small study I published a few years ago (N=15 as I recall) of elite discus

throwers (threw 60 meters or more; sample included several world record holders

and Olympic medalists; Fahey,

T.D Predictors of performance in elite discus throwers Biol.Sport 19:103-108,

2002) found that bench press was the best predictor of performance in those

athletesâ€” better than vertical jump, standing long jump, 50 yard dash, snatch,

power clean, deadlift, incline press, or standing throw. Of course, this doesn't

mean that bench press is the best exercise to improve discus performance but it

was the best predictor. The sample included several of the best discus throwers

of all-time.

My old training partner Dave Weil and also Ludvik Danek had poor bench presses

(<135 kg) but were both Olympic medal winners in the event (they weren't in the

study). On the other hand, throwers like Ben Plunknet, Mac Wilkins, Al Oerter,

and Art Burns (Jarred Rome today) had monster bench presses close to 270 kg. I'm

not sure what these results of my study mean (if anything), but it might be a

mistake to ignore bench press strength in some power sports.