I Love Barbell Bench Pressing
But Should You Love It Too?

I really do love to bench.  But I don’t think it’s for everyone.  Here’s why:

It Isn’t the Greatest Press for Hypertrophy

When it comes to hypertrophy, dumbbell presses beat bench all day. The longer range of motion, the balanced development offered, and the fact you can bring the dumbbells over the center of the chest for a greater peak contraction means using dumbbells to bench with is just superior for physique development.

It Isn’t Necessary

This might surprise you, but you can live a full and complete life without bench pressing even once. You don’t have to do it, even if you have the desire to build a more muscular chest and triceps. There are many flye movements superior for chest development and an almost infinite number of triceps exercises that you can use instead and get the same or better results. The gym police won’t come and arrest you I promise.

You Haven’t Got All Day

Most gyms only have one or two dedicated bench presses. Why spend your gym time waiting in a queue or working in with some dude that has never showered? You could have done 3 sets of pec dec, flyes, tricep pushdowns, and started on dumbbell presses on one of the many adjustable benches lying around by the time the bench is free. You have work to do and no time to do it, don’t wait for equipment you don’t need.

You Probably Suck at It and You Won’t Put the Time in Changing That

Most people don’t know the barbell bench press is the most technical power lift, let alone what they are doing wrong whilst they do bad, ineffective reps. You’re probably most people. You’d probably be better off on a plate loaded or machine press that forces you to perform better, useful reps instead of wasting time and energy doing bad reps on the bench.

So…if you don’t want, don’t. You’ll be just fine

All this said if you like me you love to bench if you think it’s awesome if you enjoy pushing the lift the best you can- I’m with you. I’m with you all the way. Let’s bench till we can’t. I’ll see you on international chest day, we’ll crush some ammonia and smash some weight.

Take It Easy, Except When You Shouldn’t

Mike