What are you benchin?

FAT BOY

mainly shoulder with the ocasional torn pec
.
Although bench press is a dam fine massbuilder there are a lot of alternative exercises that you can use to create the look you want

zx9rjas.

Injuries from bench pressing are usually as a result of bad form and RELATIVE excessive weight, using a weight you know to be too much for you.
Not a bad exercise at all and not a bad exercise to use with heavy weight, ie 6 reps to failure. Just be sure about your form and dont arch your back from the bench to aid the lift.

Always add declines and inclines to hit your pecs in different ways for overall development, and dont always train heavy.

J

RJ Magnus

I preferr to do Dumbell chest presses, i can use a bit more weight on those and i feel much more confident. Maybe i should stick to those for now until ive built up a bit more strength in the stabilizer muscles.

Young Gun

Agreed. I personally Bench maybe 1 in three workouts if that. I was just making the point that ego plays a big part for a lot of people, I certainly wasn't saying this is a more significant factor than risking injury just saying thats part of the justification as to why so many people still flat bench each and every chest workout.

Nick500

I think that ego plays a big part in bodybuilding. The feeling of being 'strong' and 'big' and the wow factor from other people when you lift bigs weights is a huge motivation to get the intensity up in the gym.

its only when that takes over and you are more concerned with lifting too heavy and appearing massive rather than solid training is it a problem

Nick

TheDaddy2003

lol this comment is so incorrect and wrong please change your way of thinking, for your own benefit.

How people can say this is an injury-prone exercise :shock: anyone who thinks this is 1 either a novice to lifting weights or 2 doesnt no how to lift correctly.

3 core exercises are and will always be Bench Press, Deadlift & Squat.

Whether your bodybuilding, powerlifting or wanting to be a strongman you should always perform these at least once a week.

finephysique

Well I am certainly not a novice trainer, I hold powerlifting championships and when I did I bench pressed twice a week every week, yes I was strong but like most other powerlifters I did not have a big chest.
People are so wrapped up in the what can you bench mentality, how many times does somebody ask what can you squat or what can you deadlift.
The way to build a big chest is from all manner of inclines and declines and flat work with dumbells. Ask any good chiropractor what they think of the barbell bench press and they will tell you just how many injuries happen because of it. I train around a lot of top bodybuilders and not one of them does the flat barbell press.
I fully agree with with razg if you give the same attention to the rest of your training as most do to the bench press then improvements will be much greater

FAT BOY

Agreed m8 i benched for years, until a bad shoulder forced me to rethink.
i now do mainly incline which i think, is a good idea pec shape wise as you get older anyway.

wen you stand on your own in a pair of lycras infront of a crowd it dont matter how strong you are

razg

All I see from you is stupid comments related to training and anabolics with no real backup. I've been lifting for getting on to 6 years, and guys like finephysique who are competitive bodybuilders have clearly been training even longer. Bench press is notorious for causing injuries, as it's a completely unnatural movement - it puts a massive amount of strain on both the shoulders and the elbow.

Go do some reading before you shoot your mouth off in future.

splinter

I thought bench press was a natural movement in comparison to say a smith bench press as its not just a vertical movement. And there is slight rotation.

Bench press does cause injury for sure it caused my impingement in my shoulder.