WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BENCH PRESSES?

                                   

The bench press exercise activates a large number of muscle groups in the upper-half of your body. Such groups include your pecs, deltoids, your forearm muscles, hand muscles and your abdominals. Add the bench press to your workout to build your strength for push-ups, improve your power for sports performance and build bone density in your upper body. The American College of Sports Medicine encourages older adults to use multi-joint, free-weight exercises as a method of improving bone mass, muscular strength and muscular endurance.

BUILD STRENGTH FOR PUSH-UPS

Push-ups require upper-body strength. If you cannot do push-ups on your toes, start with the bench press exercise using a 35-lb. bar. Once you complete two sets of 10 to 12 reps, begin using the 45-lb. barbell, the big bar your typically see on a bench press. Add five pounds once you are able to complete two sets of 10 to 12 reps of the heavier weight. Every four weeks, attempt to do push-ups on your toes. Record your progress.

BUILD POWER

Power is a measure of fitness for many recreational and competitive athletes. Power is your ability to exert force, or strength, over a given distance as fast as possible. Use the bench press to first increase your upper-body strength. As your strength grows, focus on performing each repetition as quickly as you can. Do six sets of three to six fast repetitions to increase your power.

IMPROVE BONE DENSITY

The American College of Sports Medicine advises that the rate of bone mineral accumulation peaks at puberty while peak bone density is reached in a person's late 20s. Including the bench press as one of your main upper-body exercises causes your bone cells to deposit bone tissue in the bones involved during a bench press: arm, hand, shoulder and chest bones.

MAXIMIZE WORKOUT SESSIONS

When you are short on time, use the bench press as your upper-body exercise. In addition to working your pecs, you are also working your deltoids, your triceps, your hand flexors and your abdominals. Do the bench press when you have no time to do exercises for your smaller, upper-body muscles.

IMPROVE YOUR RUNNING EFFICIENCY

Running with proper form requires less energy, thereby improving your efficiency while you run, helping you to run faster. Proper upper-body mechanics means you keep your head up, look forward, chest open, shoulder's relaxed and elbows close to 90-degrees. Your chest muscles help effectively swing your arms forward at the shoulders when your elbows are behind you. Strong arm-pumping, or the swinging motion at your shoulders, helps you to run faster and run more effortlessly. The bench press, when you perform multiple sets of 15 to 20 repetitions, conditions your chest muscles to help you run more efficiently.

Benefits of close grip bench press:

                                                                              

Maximize Strength Gains:

 With the exception of rack lockouts, the close grip bench press allows you to safely handle the heaviest loads of any triceps exercise. You're able to safely lift potentially very heavy loads on this exercise, because of the biomechanical advantages inherent in this (and any other) compound horizontal press. That is, your triceps get ssistance from the pectorals and front deltoids; and your torso acts as a large and stable base of support, from which to generate power.

Maximize Muscle Gains:

 Not only does this compound movement stimulate your triceps using surprisingly heavy loads, but it does so through a long range of motion (ROM). And since you get relatively little assistance from other muscle groups, the triceps overwhelmingly do the work. This – in conjunction with a moderate load intensity, a moderate to high rep range (8-15 rep max).

Maximize Combined Muscle + Strength Gains:

 To clarify, this bullet point refers to the goal of achieving the optimal mix of muscle and strength gains. So instead of gaining nearly all muscle at the expense of strength, or vice versa, you aim for an even balance of simultaneous progress in both muscle and strength gains.

The next of the close grip bench press benefits I'll mention is the its propensity to boost your bench strength.

There is one major way, and a couple smaller ways, in which it does this. I'll explain each:

As discussed earlier, the close grip bench press significantly increases triceps strength. Stronger triceps play the most major role in increasing bench press strength. After all, the triceps play a major role in the traditional bench press exercise.

The front deltoids are involved in the close grip bench. And although their involvement is limited, they nonetheless play a minor role in increasing your bench numbers.

The chest muscles are only trained peripherally in the close grip bench press. However, they still play a noteworthy role in producing a bigger bench press.

Benefits of incline bench press:

                                                                 

One of the most commonly uttered phrases in the gym (particularly among men) is, "How much do you bench?" While the bench press remains one of the best measurements of upper body strength, just training the flat bench alone can leave your overall strength and physique a little lacking. Regardless of whether you are trying to get a bigger chest, a stronger chest, or both, doing the incline bench will help you reach your goals faster.

Clavicular Head

The pectoralis major (chest muscle) is actually two separate muscles: the sternal (lower) head, which is activated during flat and decline bench, and the clavicular (upper) head, which works in the incline bench. Because of the way the weight loads on the body during a flat or decline bench, the clavicular head of the pectoralis major gets little to no work. This means the clavicular head is essentially ignored resulting in no changes.

Improve Overall Strength

Muscles improve strength, size and endurance when pushed beyond their perceived limits. This is known as the S.A.I.D principle, or Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand. Meaning the body will adapt to the demands placed upon it. In fitness terms, if you lift a heavy weight repeatedly, the muscle will get bigger, stronger, or both. Since the incline bench demands muscle activation from the upper chest, the entire muscle group will have a bigger, stronger look and feel.

Shoulder Activation

Not only does the incline bench press work a muscle easily ignored by many programs, it also improves overall strength and size of the chest. Additionally, the angle of the incline bench forces greater recruitment of the anterior deltoids than the flat or decline bench does. So, now there is even greater room for growth of strength and size due to the increased muscular demand required to finish the exercise safely and effectively.

Benefits of decline bench press:

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Instead of training your chest from one angle, complete your chest workout and add the decline chest press to your workout routine. Use a barbell and slide weight plates onto the ends, or hold a dumbbell in each hand as your resistance tool. The dumbbells allow you to train each side of your chest equally, while the barbell is easier to control in the decline position.

Muscle Strength

The front and middle portions of your shoulder muscles are used to assist the press during the decline chest exercise. Although the majority of the benefits from a decline press are to the front of your body, the backs of your upper arms -- the triceps -- also contract when you lift the weight. Along with your triceps, the muscles of the back of your shoulders and your upper back -- the rhomboids -- are used as shoulder-stabilizing muscles during the exercise. Lift a heavy weight that allows you to complete between eight and 10 decline presses to improve your muscular strength.

Joints

Your shoulder and elbow joints flex and extend as you perform a decline chest press. Your hands hold onto a weight, which is lowered toward your chest and lifted toward the ceiling. Your elbows flex and your shoulders extend during the lowering phase of the exercise. Your elbows extend and your shoulders flex as you press the weight. Ligaments and tendons maintain stability in your joints as you perform a decline bench press. As your muscular strength improves, so does the strength in your tendons and ligaments, leading to an overall increase in upper-body strength.

Workout Variation

When you always use the same chest exercises, your muscles stop responding with improvements such as strength and tone. Muscle tissue needs variety and stimulation to cause the cellular breakdown. Your cells respond by repairing the damage, which results in muscular growth. A decline bench press provides variation by changing the angle at which you strengthen your chest. The decline bench press uses your entire pectoral muscle, but the decline changes the concentration to the lower portion of your chest.

Muscle Endurance

A decline press is used to improve your muscular endurance. Lift a light amount of weight and perform 15 to 20 decline presses. This weightlifting technique keeps a higher level of oxygen flowing into the muscle cells so you are able to continue the exercise for a longer time period. 

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The bench press exercise activates a large number of muscle groups in the upper-half of your body. Such groups include your pecs, deltoids, your forearm muscles, hand muscles and your abdominals. Add the bench press to your workout to build your strength for push-ups, improve your power for sports performance and build bone density in your upper body. The American College of Sports Medicine encourages older adults to use multi-joint, free-weight exercises as a method of improving bone mass, muscular strength and muscular endurance.

Variations

Varied hand positions benefit different muscle groups. Use a narrow grip to focus the activity more in the arms (mainly the triceps) or a wide grip to work the chest (the pectoral muscles).

Function

Bench presses help you build both strength and muscle mass. Bench press allows you to lift a large amount of weight at one time and to develop all-around upper-body strength in one exercise.

Expert Insight

A decline bench press can be used by more advanced lifters to add extra challenge to the lift. In this lift, the weight bench is set to place the lifter in a head-down position to complete the press.

Warning

Bench presses can be dangerous and even deadly without a spotter to assist if you tire, lose your grip or attempt to lift more than you are capable of handling.