The Bench Press

It is the time of year that most high school weight rooms open up for football players....it should be open for all athletes but we will save that topic for another day. What is the most popular exercise?......the bench press of course. It was the most popular exercise when I was in high school and its the most popular exercise you see in any commercial gym.


I love the bench, but it is not the end all be all of upper body lifting. Here are a few principles I use when designing strength programs.

1.IF we barbell bench in a program, we only do it once a week. There is no reason to bench twice per week.

2. Every few weeks, we substitute another horizontal press for bench press. This keeps workouts fresh and helps eliminate plateaus. We will use DB's or mix up our grips.

3. Vertical presses such as Military press and Push press must be done as well. You must press in the horizontal plane and the vertical plane.

4. This is most important. For every press, there must be a pull. We do pull ups, horizontal pull ups, seated rows, Lat pull downs and many many others. If you do a ton of pressing and little pulling, YOU WILL experience shoulder pain. Have you ever seen guys walk around with huge chests and their shoulder rotated inwards? That is a guy that didn't do any pulling and a ton of benching. HUGE MISTAKE!

Again, I love the bench. I am all for athletes benching a lot of weight. But some things must be done to ensure the body is the strongest it possibly can be.