Squats and deads=Better bench

[New Jack]

I always hear how squats and deads help your bench. Can someone give me an explanation as to why?

 

[Skizac]

Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 reasons.

1) Squats and deads use a very large amount of the muscle mass in one's body, causing a release of growth-inducing hormones, which can heop gains in the whole body.

2) The body doesn't like to be unbalanced. If one muscle group is lacking, the body can prevent stronger muscle groups from developing further in order to protect itself from injury. Therefore, bench press progress can stall if the legs are neglected.

3) More strength in the core muscles (abs, obliques, lower back) can give one a tighter base on the bench. They can also help one transfer more energy from the leg drive.

 

[cal]

there was an article in powermag...
basically said at highest level...deadlifts were probably detrimental to max...bp...

this is the jist from the article by shaeffer...
up to a certain point it probably...does help by building an overall base...but deadlifting 700 as opposed to 600 will probably make little difference in your bench...