Bench press

The bench press is a compound exercise in strength training as well as a sport from the field of weight training. In addition to the squat and deadlift, it is a sub-discipline of Powerlifting struggle, and there are national and international championships, including the World Championships in the bench press, organized by the International Powerlifting Federation. In bodybuilding and many other sports bench press is widely used to train the chest muscles.

Exercise performance

On his back, a weight with both hands lowered and pushed back up.

Bench press is performed in detail as follows: They bent over backwards on a flat bench, so that the barbell is in the holder at eye level. Place your feet firmly on the ground, the barbell is grasped with the hands. The erector spinae muscles are tense, making a slight hollow back is created. In addition, the shoulder blades are pulled back, which stabilizes the shoulder joint. Now the weight is lowered to the chest or the upper part of the abdominal muscles, the elbow is not pushed outward, but are easily guided to the inside. The shoulder blades pulled back and remain strained the erector spinae during the entire execution. The bar is not lowered to the breast. Now the bar is pushed upwards, the arms are not straight. At the top of the movement arrived, the bar is immediately recycled back into the return movement.

As an alternative to the flat bench exercise can also be performed on an incline bench. The upright is the bank, the greater is the load at the deltoid and the upper part of the pectoralis major muscle.

The exercise can also be performed on a machine. The mechanical guide can hamper a favorable movement. In addition, while less muscles are used for stabilization. For this decreases the risk of injury at higher weights.

In the variant with dumbbells, the motion sequence is similar to the bench press with barbell.

Involved muscles

• Pectoralis major
• Musculus pectoralis minor
• Deltoid (anterior portion)
• Triceps brachii

Special Notes

Since many muscles are involved in the movement (large muscle sling ), the training effect is very high.

Incorrect execution and too heavy or too frequent training increased the risk of injury of the anterior ligament and capsular structures of the shoulder joint: If the athlete is not in the correct position with drawn back shoulder blades, the head of the humerus forward against the joint capsule and the ligaments is pressed.

Whether bench press training specifically can address only part of the chest muscles focus is disputed. The theory is that with a positive bank slope ( incline bench press ) intense the upper part of the pectoral muscle is trained as in a flat or negative, has never been scientifically substantiated. Recent measurements have shown that the activation of the pectoralis major is dependent on the chosen weight and the angle between the upper arm and torso and thus of the bank slope. With a negative bank slope, resulting in an upper arm - trunk angle is smaller than 90 °, one can cope with the highest weight and therefore to train with the greatest intensity, all three shares. This make powerlifting athletes advantage by them while they are supine on the bench, hyperextend their lower back strong and thus build a bridge to get an upper arm - trunk angle less than 90 °. In this method, the weight is shifted to a plurality of muscles, such as the rotator and the triceps. Many athletes see this design as unhealthy for the spine, but the load on the spine through proper design and good physical condition can be dangerous decreased. A good physical condition and thus to secure execution lead exercises that work the inner back muscles, such as deadlifts.

World Records

The list contains the absolute world records since the introduction of Powerlifting struggle