What’s the Point?

Bench Press Edition

Mark Brown

May 12, 2022

Every decision in the gym needs to fulfill some specific purpose. Most of those decisions will involve sets or reps of some lift. The reason why is because the body has a limit to the energy it can put towards a lifting session. Don’t go hard enough the result will be less progress. Dip too much into the reserves and the result could be less progress because a lifter may not be recovered in time for the next scheduled lifting session. Everything has to have a point. Different goals will produce a different procedure and structure to each session. Today I want to go over something specific. The straight bar bench press is one of the lifters damned near everybody knows about. I’ve grown to learn a few things about it over the last couple years and feel like I can help answer this question. I started my review of the American Cambered Bar by EliteFTS by briefly explaining that a straight bar bench press is optional for lifters focused on muscular development. This is a topic that demands its own post.

I re-learned in 2020 that dumbbell press, cable crossovers, heavy iso-metric chest presses, and machine presses just don’t translate to straight bar bench press success, numbers and steady progress. I thought if I added the weight of dumbbells in my hands that I had a decent estimate of what a 1RM on my bench press would be. So, in 2020 I thought I could bench press around 270. I was wrong. Supplemental knowledge, largely from EliteFTS Youtube page and a few others, showed me why and helped me learn all of the things I need to craft a bench press dominant program. A straight bar bench press is a skill based movement that employs the entire body to do the lift with multiple parts to train. Furthermore, I have learned since I brought it back into the program that I have to keep bench pressing to make progress with it. It is a lift that dominates a program and demands all of one’s physical and mental energy in a session. A main press movement, regardless of what it is, is followed by supplemental ones that are designed to make the bench press either stronger or the technique improved. That is what I have learned over the last 2 years.

That’s where the American Cambered Bar comes in. I will condense what I said in the review. It’s a bar that does muscular development while developing more power exceedingly well. Yet I don’t consider it a bench press. Yes, it is a chest press done on a bench in mostly the same manner. I can’t mentally bring myself to call it a bench press because that term is so singular in my mind. I could be overthinking it, but I think part of the allure of the bench press is that it is a standard bearing marker of strength. It is one of the 3 lifts powerlifters are measured by, after all. In that sense, the bench press is almost by definition an ego lift unless one uses to increase pushing power like an NFL lineman or translate to a Strongman event. So, if a lifter states they are after muscular development I would question why the straight bar bench press is in the program. What’s the point? If it’s there to maintain the skill, then I could definitely understand. I did that for 10 weeks in January, February and March at the gym while using dumbbell press as a main power movement. I didn’t want to make the same mistake I did in 2021 during the same months. The strategy has worked very well. I can see that slow consistent progress I am after since March, regardless of how I bench press.

There are a couple of different factors for that. Some of it is related to forcing myself to rep ranges on the dumbbells for the lightest to 3-4 for the heaviest, which started at 105 and got up to 125 pounds. That promoted both strength and hypertrophy development. Doing that kind of lift first made bench press much harder. Some of the reps looked downright silly when I did them. Doing the skill based lift second allowed it done in a more fatigued state, which is one of the core tenets of powerbuilding. The other thing it did was make me think about my grip and how I got the most out of the lift itself. Bench pressing and other accompanying supplemental lifts, especially floor press, allowed me to practice a wider grip press over the weeks. The has had the effect of focusing more of the weight on the chest muscles and lats than triceps. It also trains my central nervous system for the increasing loads over time. The importance of that I cannot overstate.

A lifter’s energy is effected by sleep, diet, stress and a few other more individualized factors. That energy has to be pointed in the direction of the stated goals otherwise something else will end up happening. It could be good, like the case of the development of my squat over the winter 2022, or bad. The straight bar bench press is a great lift, but it is far from necessary. It can dominate a program if a lifter isn’t careful about how they employ it. Lifters should understand that there are better lifts, bars and machines to accomplish the goal of hypertrophy than a straight bar bench press. It is extremely important to be able to distinguish chest training from bench press training. They are definitely not the same.