Originally Posted by Joseph Camel Jr
i mean you seem like you're partly joking....but that is a crazy view imo.
so you seem like you powerlift, so dl squat and olympic lifts are what you focus on. ok cool.
but dl's and powercleans arent gonna give you the upper body strength benching will. not to mention the right physique/proportions.
I am partly joking but of the the 3, bench is at the bottom for sure.
I still bench (mostly with DB's) but it's just tiring to always here "bro, what do you bench. bro, bench this. Bro, bench that. Dude I lovebench!"
I actually do a fair amount of incline bench press with the bar. I bench more incline (in terms of weight) then I bench flat with the bar.
I work tri's on my pressing days so Bench is just, like you said, to strengthen the chest and bring some proportion.
Bench is whatever to me. As long as I'm decent at it with the bar I'm cool with with it.
Although, I'm, sure you've seen the dudes who walk around with their shoulders curled inward. Too much bench, not enough back.
You rarely see people with massive backs and small chests. Or well developed legs and small chests.
However, how many do you see with well developed chests but no back and chicken legs? Lots.
Also, so much of the bench press is a function of the tri's (the entire motion under parallel) that if you have strong pressing you cannot have a weak
bench even if you don't bench that much.
Comapred to the legs and the back (the various muscles within) the pecs are a small muscle.
The thing is, if a person is strong in the dl and squat or clean and snatch (which means he has to be strong in the dla dn sqaut) he will not be weak in thebench. I guarantee you that. It'd be virtually impossible.
Some of the strongest pound for pound benchers are the "pro" olympic weightlifters and most of their benching with a bar is of the incline vareity.
Let me bring in another example.
People love to focus on bi's right? They do upwards of 15 sets a week just working bi's. I see people in the gym going nuts on bi's even thoughit's a relatively small muscle.
Again, the thing is, look at people with well developed backs. Do they have small bi's?
If you have a well developed back then you will have relatively big/strong bi's. They just go together. It's impossible to have a strong back and weakbi's.
On the other hand there are plenty of people with big bi's who are disgustingly weak when it comes to their back.
To be honest throughout this entire thread I am partly trolling but that's because I know how much it irritates the meatheads.
At the normal gym that I go to a few times a week the regs and I always have this argument. It's all in good fun though.
There's always been competition between strentgh training and bodybuilding. BB'ers are just mad that not only are we stronger but we look just as good.
I know I ramble a bit in my posts but I'm just trying to show those who are newer to trainign that if you succumb (being a bit dramatic here
) to thejersey shore meathead chest /bi's routine then you won't advance too far in actually getting stronger.
