BENCH PRESS: Make up your mind

[CytoMel]

I get the "How much can you bench?" all the time.

People who dont train or people who train but are weak are often facinated by how much someone can bench..They dont care about squatting, rows and curls..They never will care either.

Typical bench form is bullshit when they push the bar towards the rack..I used to do this and I never did less than 6 reps until last year when I changed to powerliftig...Pushing the bar back over your face is a horseshit idea and pussies who cant bench much keep this hoax alive.

Nobody outside of powerlifting or football will ask or care how much you squat or deadlift. When someone wants to see a muscle you better have some biceps or you arent anything but a wannabee muscleman.

 

[Hannibal]

Nobody outside of powerlifting or football will ask or care how much you squat or deadlift. When someone wants to see a muscle you better have some biceps or you arent anything but a wannabee muscleman.

Bicep? You mean that thing on the backside of my tricep....is that what that's called?

 

[SofaGeorge]

I'm from the old school where we didn't call ourselves bodybuilders or powerlifters. We were WEIGHTLIFTERS... that wierd animal inbetween that equated lifting heavier and heavier with being in better and better shape. Note I said SHAPE... it wasn't just how we looked we equated strength with health back then... and interestingly the old school bodybuilders equated strength with size.

Also, as a foot note, the barbell bench press was NOT the measure of strength prior to the late '70s and '80s. In the '30s, '40s, and '50s at muscle beach the incline dumbbell bench press was the measure of strength. If you could handle 100s on the incline dumbbell bench press - then you were one of the strong guys. The line was drawn there. Nobody was much interestedin how much more you could do on the exercise. Strong was strong.

 

[b fold the truth]

When will the Super Yoke, Farmers Walk, and Log Clean and Press be the measure of what is strong?



People ask me all the time what I can bench...lol...

B True

 

[CytoMel]

Bicep? You mean that thing on the backside of my tricep....is that what that's called?

LOL

The most underrated muscle in powerlifting!

 

[Hannibal]

LOL

The most underrated muscle in powerlifting!

Yeah...when you convince Bob of that...I'll listen...

 

[b fold the truth]

The other night this little tiny Asian girl kept bugging me to show her my arms...lol. You should have seen the look when I:

1) Told her and her friends that the biceps were NOT a strength muscle and I rarely trained them...

2) When I showed them my arm muscle...lol

B True

 

[coolcolj]

Just becuase powerlifters don't pull doesn't mean the bicep is useless.

I use my biceps quite a bit in chins, rows and Olypmic lifts

There is a lot more to strength/power than low bar hip back squats, bench and deadlift.

No the deadlift is not a pull IMO!


You'll be using your bcieps a hella lot more in real life that's for sure. Triceps are barely used much in my life. Picking and carrying things all require bicep strength among other things. I can't recall a time where I used my triceps so much that they hurt. Life doesn't require you to push a lot of things

 

[bignate73]

my opinion on this is that if you progressively overload the muscle...ie. lift heavy. bench heavy...whatever...then the chest will grow, the lats will grow, the shoulders will grow the triceps will grow.

if you are a bodybuilder...lift heavy or go home. there is no room for cosmetic, nonfunctional athletes. be an athlete, lift weights.....thats what the sport is about.

thats my opinion. just like an asshole....everyone has one. maybe mine stinks....maybe its how it is...

 

[rebelflagkisser]

technique dogma is really pretty annoying... if someone moves heavy weight from their chest to lockout and they move the bar slightly back to their face instead of straight up, it's still impressive to me... baseball analogy: two sluggers hit 50 home runs in a season but have completely different batting stances, one considered proper form the other unconventional-- they both still hit 50 home runs, bottom line.