Bench Press

[chess9]

Free squatting has some of the same advantages of using dumbbells, but the Smith Machine and their ilk are safer alternatives. Just do it!

-Robert

[heycal]

Originally Posted by chess9

Free squatting has some of the same advantages of using dumbbells, but the Smith Machine and their ilk are safer alternatives. Just do it!

-Robert

But what of the machine I pointed out? What do we think of that one?

[tbini87]

i could put up 185 when i was weighing 155 as a senior in high school. haven't done too much power lifting or maxing since...

[Say Chi Sin Lo]

I was told by my PT that when benching (bar or bells), I shouldn't bring my elbows behind my back. The proper form is to lower my arms so that my bent elbows line up with my back, and then explode upward.

Any comments on that?

I see a lot of people bouncing the bar off their chest or, ever so slightly lower the bar and call that a rep.

[SlapShot]

My best bench was a 245 max in college, with a bodyweight of 175. Now, I'm closer to 180 and am doing reps at 145-150. I have a tender shoulder, so I've cut the barbell bench and have gone to dumbell bench with 45-50 lb weights. Anything more, and I'm sore in my right shoulder.

I agree 100% that lifting properly is very safe for most people, and actually can help to prevent injury. It's when you try and lift too heavy or too often than you can injure yourself.

[dcottrill]

Originally Posted by chess9

I don't know what percentile I'm in lifting wise and would like to know. Do you have a cite for that 98th percentile?

Actually, I just pulled the 98th percentile figure out of the air. But, from personal observation at the gym, at the tennis courts, and on the street, I'd be willing to bet that only a very small percentage of men over the age of 60 can bench press their own body weight. There are exceptions, of course, but I suspect that they are few and far between. Anyway, your question prompted me to do some research.

http://www.lifestyleschanges.com/onerep.html


So, if an 89% of body weight one max rep bench press gets a 60+ year old into the 90th percentile, I bet your 106% (180 bench divided by 170 body weight) for reps would get you close to the 98th percentile.

As I said before, pretty impressive.

[Rickson]

I've done pretty close to double my bodyweight. I was in the 180s with a 345 lb. flat bench press. All the other guys in the gym who could press 3 plates and up were all over 200 lbs..

[cncretecwbo]

Originally Posted by FastFreddy

Very smart not letting the bar go past parallel. When you lift you should have a 90 degree bend at your elbow to your forearm and a 90 degree from your elbow to your side of your body at the bottom of the lift.

can you back that up? as long as it feels fine, id say go all the way. your bench wont be as great, but the overall strength an flexibility will be as good or better imo

Originally Posted by chess9

Free squatting has some of the same advantages of using dumbbells, but the Smith Machine and their ilk are safer alternatives. Just do it!

-Robert

whys that?

[Sleepstream]

I avoid the barbell bench press. It aggravates my shoulders more than any other exercise.

Upright rows, dips, anything else that supposedly is bad for the shoulders, all of those are fine. I haven't tried to figure out why, but it's not an important exercise to me, so I'm fine to exclude it from my routine.

[dcottrill]

Originally Posted by Rickson

I've done pretty close to double my bodyweight. I was in the 180s with a 345 lb. flat bench press. All the other guys in the gym who could press 3 plates and up were all over 200 lbs..

If you were benching 2x your body weight, then you were in a pretty elite group. Probably a combination of good genetics and really hard work.

This reminds me...I was at the Arnold Classic a couple of years ago, and while strolling through the trade show, came across a display where you could sign a waiver and take a crack at benching 225 pounds. There was this one guy who must have cranked out 20 or 25 reps. But, he was about 5' 6" tall and had the shortest arms I have ever seen. When he benched, the bar probably didn't move more than six inches. Not to take anything away from the guy, 'cause I couldn't bench 225 once, let alone 25 times. Still, I don't know if I could call the guy an athlete. Later, I saw him walking past the Marines booth. They had a pull-up bar and were giving guys the chance to crank out a few reps. Our bench pressing friend wouldn't go near it. I bet watching him try to do pull-ups would have been ugly.

Anyway, I think the bench press is one (but only one) good measure of an athlete's strength. Personally, I'd rather be a good decathlete than hold the world bench pressing record. But...to each his own.

[Rickson]

It sounds like the guy was doing partial reps. Maybe his partial reps gave him the illusion of having super short arms.

[FastFreddy]

In the old days when you benched you had to touch your chest and wreck your shoulder if you had long arms. If you look at top bench press guys thay have a barrel chest and short arms they never break parallel the bar moves maybe 5-8 inches tops. When you go past parallel your shoulder is in its weakest position now you have to change the direction with the bar and that when most guys hurt their shoulder. I even saw a big guy rip his pec off pretty gross with only 275 going deep not worth the risk. I hear guys say they go for the stretch I wouldn't like to stretch my muscles and tedons with all that weight, stratch before and after you workout.
I been a trainer and strength coach for the past 17 years. I learned that from many years os school and experience and my own lifting.

[chess9]

Originally Posted by dcottrill

Actually, I just pulled the 98th percentile figure out of the air. But, from personal observation at the gym, at the tennis courts, and on the street, I'd be willing to bet that only a very small percentage of men over the age of 60 can bench press their own body weight. There are exceptions, of course, but I suspect that they are few and far between. Anyway, your question prompted me to do some research.

http://www.lifestyleschanges.com/onerep.html


So, if an 89% of body weight one max rep bench press gets a 60+ year old into the 90th percentile, I bet your 106% (180 bench divided by 170 body weight) for reps would get you close to the 98th percentile.

As I said before, pretty impressive.

Thanks for that site! I've bookmarked it. I suspect two MAIN reasons for such substantial dropoffs with age:

1. Functional decline, such as less lifting, and less activity. I see this all the time and can agree with you that most guys over 60 have trouble taking out the garbage! It's just too sad. There is no need to get so fat and out of shape. It ISN'T inevitable that you have to lose so much in your 50's and 60's. You will lose a small amount even if you train hard, but Bill Phillips is still pushing some heavy iron after all these years.

2. Lowered testosterone due to 1 above, poor diet, and age.

Something comparable is running. Before my back injury I was taking my youngest brother out on training runs. I would be jogging along at an easy 10 mpm pace and he would be red faced, huffing and puffing and having a near death experience. He's almost 10 years younger than me and only weighs about 175. I see this sort of thing on the tennis court all the time, which is why so few older guys play singles. At triathlons it's a very similar situation. The average sprint triathlon might get 5 guys over the age of 65 out for the race, whereas the 30-35 age group has 30-50 guys.

Anyway, coming back to benching, the guys who've been doing it for a long time, have stayed healthy and fit, are going to bench a lot more than your average guy. Frankly I don't think I know any other 60 year old tennis players who could bench over 150. At least not at my courts. Heck, I can't get but a couple of them to go to the gym with me. I took one guy and he wouldn't go back. "Too hard." LOL. And I started him on almost nothing. Just too sad. It's like they've had a sex change by that age.

-Robert

[chess9]

Originally Posted by Rickson

I've done pretty close to double my bodyweight. I was in the 180s with a 345 lb. flat bench press. All the other guys in the gym who could press 3 plates and up were all over 200 lbs..

You are an animal. How old are you? How much do you bench now?

I may have benched 280 when I was younger, but frankly I tossed all my old power lifting notebooks, so I don't recall. I never was much of a bencher.


-Robert

[chess9]

Originally Posted by FastFreddy

In the old days when you benched you had to touch your chest and wreck your shoulder if you had long arms. If you look at top bench press guys thay have a barrel chest and short arms they never break parallel the bar moves maybe 5-8 inches tops. When you go past parallel your shoulder is in its weakest position now you have to change the direction with the bar and that when most guys hurt their shoulder. I even saw a big guy rip his pec off pretty gross with only 275 going deep not worth the risk. I hear guys say they go for the stretch I wouldn't like to stretch my muscles and tedons with all that weight, stratch before and after you workout.
I been a trainer and strength coach for the past 17 years. I learned that from many years os school and experience and my own lifting.

Which is why I do dips, and rarely bench more than 170 to 180. Why take the risk at my age? It does nothing for my tennis or my swimming. I don't know why any tennis player should be benching their bodyweight or more very often. Can anyone describe the physiological benefit of doing it?

-Robert

[power_play21]

Originally Posted by chess9

Which is why I do dips, and rarely bench more than 170 to 180. Why take the risk at my age? It does nothing for my tennis or my swimming. I don't know why any tennis player should be benching their bodyweight or more very often. Can anyone describe the physiological benefit of doing it?

-Robert

strengthen quick twich fibers. a lot of weight, few repetitions. also helps to build muscle mass if you're under-muscled for any reason. not needed however, tennis players should benefit more from aerobic training, practicing and playing, and specific exercises to help maintain top performance, such as strenghening rotator cuff muscles, which requires almost no weight.

so yea, physiological benefits are minimal. the chances of getting hurt doing this stuff is high. usually reserved for some football players (need the muscle), bodybuilders (need the appearance) or people taking steroids.

[Rickson]

Robert, I'm not a young man anymore, but I can still bench around 275 and that's without having benched in a long time. I know this because even after a 2 year complete layoff from the weights, I was able to bench 225 on my first attempt. I wasn't doing anything at all on my comeback trail, but these days, I do dips and pullups at a BW of around 191. 315 isn't out of the question if I practiced benching again for a few weeks. The last time I got back to 315 on the bench, it took me 3 and 1/2 weeks.

[chess9]

Originally Posted by power_play21

strengthen quick twich fibers. a lot of weight, few repetitions. also helps to build muscle mass if you're under-muscled for any reason. not needed however, tennis players should benefit more from aerobic training, practicing and playing, and specific exercises to help maintain top performance, such as strenghening rotator cuff muscles, which requires almost no weight.

so yea, physiological benefits are minimal. the chances of getting hurt doing this stuff is high. usually reserved for some football players (need the muscle), bodybuilders (need the appearance) or people taking steroids.

Great points!

-Robert

[chrisdaniel]

Im 26, I weigh about 120 and Im 5 foot 6. I bench about 190 max. But I usually just do 3 sets of ten with about 140.

[dcottrill]

Originally Posted by chrisdaniel

Im 26, I weigh about 120 and Im 5 foot 6. I bench about 190 max. But I usually just do 3 sets of ten with about 140.

Here is an interesting site that claims to predict what your one rep max would be from doing reps with a lighter weight. Using your example, 10 reps at 140 pounds would equal a 187 pound one rep max. So, it would seem to be fairly accurate.

http://www.exrx.net/Calculators/OneRepMax.html