As a former college football player and current Judoka, being able to bench 405lbs for 5+ reps absolutely helps in Judo and would have helped me immensely had I been that strong in college. I think there is a weird backlash against bench on some circles of the fitness community for two reasons - 1) it is considered a "bro" exercise because it is commonly done by bodybuilders, gym rats, frat guys, etc. So is looked down upon in the same way someone that enjoys a higher class sport like horse racing may look down on MMA and 2) people hear about, experience or see catastrophic and/or chronic injuries from the movement and are turned off by it, even though if done right it is very safe.
@Brett733 anime has become so popular man, even back in 2017 when I played ball in college like half the team would be watching Naruto Shippuden and One Piece
I sometimes think we forget that we were all once babies, and the most important exercise we had to learn was to hold our heads up. The moment we did that, it was game over because, from then on, it became about the ability to crawl, which involved coordination. Then came the ability to stand, which required balance. Next, the ability to walk, which again meant balance and coordination. All of these things were done without the aid of cameras and mirrors, yet what we see today are cameras and mirrors. Therefore, it begs the question: why are we seeing this digression when we made so much progress without so much information? Instead of the simplicity of just trial and error and getting stronger and growing every day just like when we were babies.
Some russian coaches believe that you should train your bench press around the same weight of your working sets for the Snatch. The bench press helped solidify the receiving position of both SN/C&J and, surprisingly, helps a ton during squats with the torasic extension. Great video M'Lord Fridge!
This! Getting kicked in the shoulder/upper arm defending a high kick in muay thai hurts a hell of a lot less now i bench 165kg then when I benched 100😂
@@saure22 yeah the word should be translatable, because some people want to get better at whatever it is they do for work, especially labor, but often times they would benefit more from filling in the gaps, gaps from what they aren't getting while on the job. Easy example, Olympic weightlifters will have more quads and upper back than they do hamstrings so they could benefit from some extra hamstring work, just like they would benefit from doing more strict pressing, more than just what a lot of weight lifters already do. Being able to get stronger strict pressing can certainly help with the jerk (therefore the OHP would be translatable where a Nordic hamstring curl would be more like filling in the gaps). Edit, Klokov Pressing is a helluva variation everyone can benefit from
@ I 100% agree, especially on the hamstring for Olympic weightlifting, they could benefit so much from having more hamstrings to calf contact at the bottom of lifts.
So I think a more steelman representation of 'functional' is that you get diminishing returns from hyperspecializing. There's a guy at my gym who benches 400+ but does nothing else. Never seen him squat or deadlift, and definitely never seen him do any kind of cardio because his height and width are about equal. Is he strong? Yeah. Is he healthy? .....ehhhhhh I think 'functional' as a term only took off because so many people got caught up in the idea that strength is all there is to fitness, when a broad base includes endurance, mobility, and even things like body composition, and tendon/joint health.
@ That’s a crazy bench and yeah that guy is definitely injured all the time if that’s all he does. I just think functional is the wrong word and you’ll never see the “only functional bros” lifting super heavy. Squats and deadlifts have the most carryover of anything you can do in the gym, I’ve seen people online claiming deadlifts aren’t functional because the bar is easier to grip than what you’ll need to lift or that it’s too stable, it’s cultish and ridiculous at that extreme.
I wouldn’t say it isn’t functional, it definitely builds power and ability to exert force. I just don’t like how it pins your shoulder blades in one place, it’s not exactly natural and that’s why a lot of AC joint dysfunctions appear in heavy benchers.
It’s useful, but you need more than just bench. If you’ve ever competed in any sort of physical competition with someone who has a huge bench, you instantly realize how strong they are.
I don’t bench because I love overhead pressing too much so all of my pressing volume goes towards OHP or its variations like BTNP or KB presses, or machine shoulder presses. I am pretty sure that if I bench then I would become more powerful but would it immediately drive my OHP up? If the answer is no then I will stick to OHP
Normally it's training the overhead press will increase your bench, because your shoulders will be stronger and your back will be bigger...yet I would say doing pin presses throughout sticking points of the overhead press will do you better than benching would (for the overhead press)
@@LatimusChadimus I do pin presses but my weakness is the first half of the lift, I can lock out once bar crosses that area. Any tip for strengthening that area? I always pause my reps at chest and at top, enough to make an Olympic lifting coach happy.
@JohnDoe-yg5hf well there's two ideas, when you are doing strike presses quit doing the bounce that I know a lot of people do, because since you are smart enough to already be doing pin presses, try removing that little bounce and truly do a strict press, like a pause press, the other one would be, if you have the wrist mobility, hold it in a front rack like you would with a clean and jerk, and try strict pressing from there, you'll get a little more forearm action to straighten out your wrists but that little bit of inertia is healthier on the shoulders than that little bounce people use to start a strict press, and another one for sure if you had the mobility would be behind the neck pressing while trying to keep your shoulders a little more forward as if you were holding it in the front rack. That's a really good way to get the shoulders to fire off like in Anderson squad or a pin press, but from the bottom position. Once I started removing that little bounce to start a strict press, my 2&3 rep maximums increased, and I'm capable of resisting anything I push press or jerk overhead, down to my shoulders, not always needing to absorb it into my knees. You obviously have the side down and triceps control to never fail a lockout if you can pass that sticking point, so any one of those three I listed will help you with the bottom part because the front delt likely gets more 'assistance' than it gets 'initiation' 4th idea: Klokov presses
Its the worst exercise causing a mess in the thoracic area of the body but American coaches look at it as the 'king" for athletic performance..dips, overhead presses and hand stand pushups are the way to go for upper body preparedness ..
The few college strength&conditioning coaches I "know" believe in a (approximately) 90/10 split for training. 90% of training time is dedicated to movements that train general strength and 10% train sport specific movements. The bulk of "sport specific training" comes during practice for the sport. Testing a bench in a sport that doesn't really bench much can simply be a way to tell if a player (going from college to the pros, for example) actually puts time in the gym or not. 1 rep of 225... probably doesn't. 20+ reps... probably takes general strength training more serious. 40+ is a large person who also takes strength training very serious. You can ask the player and you can ask their coaches, but nothing tells you whether they love the gym or not quite like a bench test.
Overdoing can for sure stiffen up your shoulders for striking sports like boxing, muay thai, etc. Can risk injury to already over used shoulders too. IMO the benefits of bench pressing is pretty low for those athletes.
Like you said, ppl mean practical. Functional should refer to the anatomical, physiological function of the muscles, tissues you are training/ chemical products that are created from the stimuli.
Bench press cannot be excluded from any discussion of functional training. Squat, DL, Pullup, OHP, Bench. Anyone doing these, along with anything for mobility/agility, is ready for anything. Bench helps you throw, helps you push, helps you strike, helps you grapple, and stabilises your upper body, nevermind good benching engages every single muscle in the body. The one thing it costs you is some flexibility if youre an olympic lifter in particular, it's hard to maneuvee your shoulders if you have a ton of pec that has to move with.
i think the word functional got used too much by calisthenics bros to explain the superiority of their sport (and i say that as someone that loves calisthenics be it reps, weighted, skills, anth) and for kinda silly "athletic" kinda looking exercises
I would imagine reviewing functional stasrting from the opposite end was fruitful. Non-functional would probably be something like acutely injuring yourself and preventing you from functioning. Or at least something that is completely removed from acting in this world effectively. So the opposite of that would be functional i.e. anything that makes you bigger, stronger, moving better. Thank you for listening to my philosophy exercise. Doing judo only in practice sessions and not competing might lead to the fallacy belief that you don't need bench (or other strength exercises) for judo. Going head to head with equal sized person with roughly equal skill who doesn't want to let you score definitely makes you consider that your unbalancing and positions aren't perfect in the heat of the moment and how great it would be if you could force the opponent that 1 cm over the tipping point of balance, if you had trained at the weight gym for a bit.
Facts. The floor press is functional. Bench gives you the chance to train the movement through a larger range of motion but like I always joked with people the only time it would apply is if your wrestling somebody at the top of the stairs and you can put your feet down two stairs so the floor press would then be more translatable but you still should train both, especially the overhead press because stronger shoulders and a stronger back will always lead to a stronger bench
As a former college football player and current Judoka, being able to bench 405lbs for 5+ reps absolutely helps in Judo and would have helped me immensely had I been that strong in college.
I think there is a weird backlash against bench on some circles of the fitness community for two reasons - 1) it is considered a "bro" exercise because it is commonly done by bodybuilders, gym rats, frat guys, etc. So is looked down upon in the same way someone that enjoys a higher class sport like horse racing may look down on MMA and 2) people hear about, experience or see catastrophic and/or chronic injuries from the movement and are turned off by it, even though if done right it is very safe.
W for being a Judoka.
You actually bench 405 for 5+ reps dude that's really impressive
Saw the anime avatar and thought "no way", then I saw the vids on your channel and was impressed. Nice work dude.
@Brett733 anime has become so popular man, even back in 2017 when I played ball in college like half the team would be watching Naruto Shippuden and One Piece
I sometimes think we forget that we were all once babies, and the most important exercise we had to learn was to hold our heads up. The moment we did that, it was game over because, from then on, it became about the ability to crawl, which involved coordination. Then came the ability to stand, which required balance. Next, the ability to walk, which again meant balance and coordination. All of these things were done without the aid of cameras and mirrors, yet what we see today are cameras and mirrors. Therefore, it begs the question: why are we seeing this digression when we made so much progress without so much information?
Instead of the simplicity of just trial and error and getting stronger and growing every day just like when we were babies.
Some russian coaches believe that you should train your bench press around the same weight of your working sets for the Snatch. The bench press helped solidify the receiving position of both SN/C&J and, surprisingly, helps a ton during squats with the torasic extension. Great video M'Lord Fridge!
FAKE NEWS..I lived in Eastern Europe ..benches where only for sitting..over head standing presses, dips and hand stand pushups..
Bench also builds mass in much of the upper body which protects the skeleton, good for any collision in sport.
This! Getting kicked in the shoulder/upper arm defending a high kick in muay thai hurts a hell of a lot less now i bench 165kg then when I benched 100😂
@@mac5917 less likely to break your bones though. I was thinking more rugby , judo, American football ect..
I always think “functional” is such a strange term, getting stronger in any lift can’t really be a bad thing.
@@saure22 yeah the word should be translatable, because some people want to get better at whatever it is they do for work, especially labor, but often times they would benefit more from filling in the gaps, gaps from what they aren't getting while on the job.
Easy example, Olympic weightlifters will have more quads and upper back than they do hamstrings so they could benefit from some extra hamstring work, just like they would benefit from doing more strict pressing, more than just what a lot of weight lifters already do. Being able to get stronger strict pressing can certainly help with the jerk (therefore the OHP would be translatable where a Nordic hamstring curl would be more like filling in the gaps).
Edit, Klokov Pressing is a helluva variation everyone can benefit from
@ I 100% agree, especially on the hamstring for Olympic weightlifting, they could benefit so much from having more hamstrings to calf contact at the bottom of lifts.
Functional doesn't mean anything. It's an excuse to not lift heavy
So I think a more steelman representation of 'functional' is that you get diminishing returns from hyperspecializing. There's a guy at my gym who benches 400+ but does nothing else. Never seen him squat or deadlift, and definitely never seen him do any kind of cardio because his height and width are about equal.
Is he strong? Yeah. Is he healthy? .....ehhhhhh
I think 'functional' as a term only took off because so many people got caught up in the idea that strength is all there is to fitness, when a broad base includes endurance, mobility, and even things like body composition, and tendon/joint health.
@ That’s a crazy bench and yeah that guy is definitely injured all the time if that’s all he does. I just think functional is the wrong word and you’ll never see the “only functional bros” lifting super heavy. Squats and deadlifts have the most carryover of anything you can do in the gym, I’ve seen people online claiming deadlifts aren’t functional because the bar is easier to grip than what you’ll need to lift or that it’s too stable, it’s cultish and ridiculous at that extreme.
I wouldn’t say it isn’t functional, it definitely builds power and ability to exert force. I just don’t like how it pins your shoulder blades in one place, it’s not exactly natural and that’s why a lot of AC joint dysfunctions appear in heavy benchers.
I was playing linebacker and manhandle heavy guards and centres. Bench press very functional
It’s useful, but you need more than just bench.
If you’ve ever competed in any sort of physical competition with someone who has a huge bench, you instantly realize how strong they are.
It’s functional for getting horsecock strong at pressing
I don’t bench because I love overhead pressing too much so all of my pressing volume goes towards OHP or its variations like BTNP or KB presses, or machine shoulder presses. I am pretty sure that if I bench then I would become more powerful but would it immediately drive my OHP up? If the answer is no then I will stick to OHP
I would say yes you are still working your triceps and anterior delts so I would think Bench could increase your OHP
@@jeffery.nelson it probably could, due to overloading factor.
Normally it's training the overhead press will increase your bench, because your shoulders will be stronger and your back will be bigger...yet I would say doing pin presses throughout sticking points of the overhead press will do you better than benching would (for the overhead press)
@@LatimusChadimus I do pin presses but my weakness is the first half of the lift, I can lock out once bar crosses that area. Any tip for strengthening that area? I always pause my reps at chest and at top, enough to make an Olympic lifting coach happy.
@JohnDoe-yg5hf well there's two ideas, when you are doing strike presses quit doing the bounce that I know a lot of people do, because since you are smart enough to already be doing pin presses, try removing that little bounce and truly do a strict press, like a pause press, the other one would be, if you have the wrist mobility, hold it in a front rack like you would with a clean and jerk, and try strict pressing from there, you'll get a little more forearm action to straighten out your wrists but that little bit of inertia is healthier on the shoulders than that little bounce people use to start a strict press, and another one for sure if you had the mobility would be behind the neck pressing while trying to keep your shoulders a little more forward as if you were holding it in the front rack. That's a really good way to get the shoulders to fire off like in Anderson squad or a pin press, but from the bottom position. Once I started removing that little bounce to start a strict press, my 2&3 rep maximums increased, and I'm capable of resisting anything I push press or jerk overhead, down to my shoulders, not always needing to absorb it into my knees. You obviously have the side down and triceps control to never fail a lockout if you can pass that sticking point, so any one of those three I listed will help you with the bottom part because the front delt likely gets more 'assistance' than it gets 'initiation'
4th idea: Klokov presses
Its the worst exercise causing a mess in the thoracic area of the body but American coaches look at it as the 'king" for athletic performance..dips, overhead presses and hand stand pushups are the way to go for upper body preparedness ..
How does it make a mess in the thoracic area
Bench Press is great. Overhead is better. Solution? Do both.
Add inclines and you got everything covered
The few college strength&conditioning coaches I "know" believe in a (approximately) 90/10 split for training. 90% of training time is dedicated to movements that train general strength and 10% train sport specific movements. The bulk of "sport specific training" comes during practice for the sport.
Testing a bench in a sport that doesn't really bench much can simply be a way to tell if a player (going from college to the pros, for example) actually puts time in the gym or not. 1 rep of 225... probably doesn't. 20+ reps... probably takes general strength training more serious. 40+ is a large person who also takes strength training very serious. You can ask the player and you can ask their coaches, but nothing tells you whether they love the gym or not quite like a bench test.
Give the explanation, would a machine chest press provide the same (or at least majority of) the benefits or barbell bench press ?
6:11 gabriel disconnected
Overdoing can for sure stiffen up your shoulders for striking sports like boxing, muay thai, etc.
Can risk injury to already over used shoulders too.
IMO the benefits of bench pressing is pretty low for those athletes.
Like you said, ppl mean practical. Functional should refer to the anatomical, physiological function of the muscles, tissues you are training/ chemical products that are created from the stimuli.
Bench press cannot be excluded from any discussion of functional training. Squat, DL, Pullup, OHP, Bench. Anyone doing these, along with anything for mobility/agility, is ready for anything. Bench helps you throw, helps you push, helps you strike, helps you grapple, and stabilises your upper body, nevermind good benching engages every single muscle in the body. The one thing it costs you is some flexibility if youre an olympic lifter in particular, it's hard to maneuvee your shoulders if you have a ton of pec that has to move with.
Tell me why bench wouldn't be easily replaced by weighted dips...
How much experience do you have with both bench and dips? Very different movements. Dips are amazing but they arent benching.
You can get the same strength benefits from dips and ohp without all the inherent shoulder risks
if u practice proper bench form for like a month, then increase the weights, u wont have that problem
45 incline bb bench and Olympic press
I'm gonny stick with dips and strict press
Thank you, Sika Strength for your invaluable insights! What's your opinion on bulldog grip vis-a-vis Japanese grip on the bench press?
i think the word functional got used too much by calisthenics bros to explain the superiority of their sport (and i say that as someone that loves calisthenics be it reps, weighted, skills, anth)
and for kinda silly "athletic" kinda looking exercises
I would imagine reviewing functional stasrting from the opposite end was fruitful. Non-functional would probably be something like acutely injuring yourself and preventing you from functioning. Or at least something that is completely removed from acting in this world effectively. So the opposite of that would be functional i.e. anything that makes you bigger, stronger, moving better. Thank you for listening to my philosophy exercise.
Doing judo only in practice sessions and not competing might lead to the fallacy belief that you don't need bench (or other strength exercises) for judo. Going head to head with equal sized person with roughly equal skill who doesn't want to let you score definitely makes you consider that your unbalancing and positions aren't perfect in the heat of the moment and how great it would be if you could force the opponent that 1 cm over the tipping point of balance, if you had trained at the weight gym for a bit.
Facts. The floor press is functional. Bench gives you the chance to train the movement through a larger range of motion but like I always joked with people the only time it would apply is if your wrestling somebody at the top of the stairs and you can put your feet down two stairs so the floor press would then be more translatable but you still should train both, especially the overhead press because stronger shoulders and a stronger back will always lead to a stronger bench
Hmm.. Actually no barbell movement is beneficial for athletics.
Wtf braah. Of course its "fUnCtIOnal". Look at the shotputters....
At the end, its all a question of the Goals.
I feel like incline bench is the most important lift