Usefulness of Bench Press

[Guest guest]

I haven't read any of Pavel's books except _The Russian Kettebell

Challenge_, which doesn't concern bench presses. Other than that,

I've read a few of his articles in some magazine, I think _Muscle

Media_, wherein he writes columns about weightlifting, so my exposure

to his writing about the bench press has primarily been about how to

best utilize it and increase one's performance with it rather than his

own opinion on its usefulness. I have, however, read somewhere that

he does not favor working his pecs.

However, a year or two ago when we were discussing the different

impacts different rep ranges would have on strength and muscle mass

gains, Roman posted an article by a martial artist. This author

claimed that the bench press was valuable to martial arts, but thought

that the narrow-gripped bench press (shoulder width) was more

appropriate to martial arts. This makes sense to me because the

chest, but moreso the triceps, would be useful for punching, and the

shoulder-width bench press mimics the action of throwing a punch.

Out of curiosity, at some point I tested my shoulder-width bench press

max, and it turned out to be the same as my wide-gripped (pinkies on

the rings) bench press, despite not training with it! I was told this

was unusual and usually the shoulder-width grip BP is less than the

wide-grip BP. I think this was probably due to my frequent training

with weighted dips. I tried a cycle of narrow-grip BP and found that

my wide-grip BP max declined significantly after this cycle.

Thus, I concluded that it was pointless for me to train with a

narrow-grip BP if my usual training increased my strength on both

forms of BP, but the narrow-grip BP training only increased itself and

made my wide-grip BP suffer.

In any case, it would appear that the bench press does have uses in

certain sports. I think everyone would agree that martial arts count

as a sport, right?

Chris

[Guest guest]

.... However, a year or two ago when we were discussing the different

> impacts different rep ranges would have on strength and muscle mass

> gains, Roman posted an article by a martial artist. This author

> claimed that the bench press was valuable to martial arts, but thought

> that the narrow-gripped bench press (shoulder width) was more

> appropriate to martial arts. This makes sense to me because the

> chest, but moreso the triceps, would be useful for punching, and the

> shoulder-width bench press mimics the action of throwing a punch.

....In any case, it would appear that the bench press does have uses in

> certain sports. I think everyone would agree that martial arts count

> as a sport, right?

I'd be curious to see this article. I don't see much value for bench

press in the martial arts as it only builds strength in one plane of

movement. Further, it bulks the chest, which is undesirable to a

martial artist, who wants his center of gravity in the hara,

three/four finger-widthes below the navel. This is the area

kettlebells activate in the swing.

A martial artist wants to be relaxed in the shoulders but wants the

ability to engage--in a circular range--rapidly and with explosive

force. This is what Pavel is selling and why KB's are so big with

martial artists.

B.

[Guest guest]

On 7/20/05, downwardog7 <illneverbecool@...> wrote:

> ...In any case, it would appear that the bench press does have uses in

> > certain sports. I think everyone would agree that martial arts count

> > as a sport, right?

>

>

> I'd be curious to see this article. I don't see much value for bench

> press in the martial arts as it only builds strength in one plane of

> movement. Further, it bulks the chest, which is undesirable to a

> martial artist, who wants his center of gravity in the hara,

> three/four finger-widthes below the navel. This is the area

> kettlebells activate in the swing.

>

> A martial artist wants to be relaxed in the shoulders but wants the

> ability to engage--in a circular range--rapidly and with explosive

> force. This is what Pavel is selling and why KB's are so big with

> martial artists.

> B.

Which is exactly what Olympic Lifters want and why bench pressing is

discouraged.

[Guest guest]

On 7/20/05, downwardog7 <illneverbecool@...> wrote:

> I'd be curious to see this article. I don't see much value for bench

> press in the martial arts as it only builds strength in one plane of

> movement. Further, it bulks the chest, which is undesirable to a

> martial artist, who wants his center of gravity in the hara,

> three/four finger-widthes below the navel. This is the area

> kettlebells activate in the swing.

Well, knowing nothing about martial arts myself, I have/had no way of

evaluating the value of that article. It was so long ago that I have

no idea how to locate the article. The author advocated the

powerlifting exercises-- squat, deadlift, bench press.

So, it could well have been way off the mark.

Personally, I enjoy bench pressing, so I do it for that reason. I'm

not engaged in competitive sports, so I pay little attention to what

the weight lifting is giving me outside of improving the exercises I

enjoy. I also enjoy kettlebells, so use them too.

By the way, I realized that while my workouts emphasize strength over

hypertrophy, my diet emphasizes hypertrophy in the sense that I eat a

large quantity of food with building muscle in mind. Still, I eat a

good diet to do that, not the conventional bodybuilding diet which is

unhealthy but may nevertheless be good for a high-bulk super-low-fat

(probably unhealthily low in body fat) figure.

Also, just to be clear, when I said I wanted to look " shredded "

before, I meant shredded like Ori H., not the even lower body fat look

of the guys on the cover of Flex, which is disgusting.

Chris

[Guest guest]

> Well, knowing nothing about martial arts myself, I have/had no way of

> evaluating the value of that article. It was so long ago that I have

> no idea how to locate the article. The author advocated the

> powerlifting exercises-- squat, deadlift, bench press.

>

> So, it could well have been way off the mark.

>

> Personally, I enjoy bench pressing, so I do it for that reason. I'm

> not engaged in competitive sports, so I pay little attention to what

> the weight lifting is giving me outside of improving the exercises I

> enjoy. I also enjoy kettlebells, so use them too.

....Also, just to be clear, when I said I wanted to look " shredded "

> before, I meant shredded like Ori H...

I wasn't pooh-poohing the bench press, or throwing down a challenge,

merely curious about what the article said. Sounds like the author

was emphasizing functional moves, like Pavel does in-one-or-other of

his books--which he flogs just as industriously as kettlebell

programs, I neglected to say in my other post. Do what you like! I

mean, we're all having fun, right? Not just striving?

Also, the look that the bench press creates is accepted as a proper

and masculine look in our society. IOW: hawt.

Further, your body is not prone to build meat without some

strategy--am I correct? You could be pretty light unless you

eat/train to encourage tissue growth/hypertrophy? IIRC you lose

weight/mass when you can't focus on building/eating like when you got

the concrete job. Thus, your program is going to look different than

someone else who builds tissue readily or all-too-readily. And they

may envy the amounts/types of food you get to consume though not the

expense of that food.

Just keep enough body fat so that your brain functions at a high level, k?

B.