AutoKal47
AK DoubleWide 47
- Awards
- 0
Well, it does for guys like me.
First of all, I love bench press, I mean who doesn't?
Is probably the very first exercise we ALL did, I mean who started working out doing
I don't know, DB rows? or overhead triceps extensions?
No, you start with good ol' flat bench press
I love it, but I love my chest and my joints more
My chest workout is super long and super stressing, I could train
chest forever, in my session I do so many exercises, too many to list,
flat bb press, inclined, declined, DB flys, DB flat press, DB decline, DB pronated grip,
supersets, dropsets, cable, etc..
seriously you'd be impressed if I listed them all.
I destroy my chest on its dedicated wo day and I hit it pretty hard in the full body wo day as well.
Since day 1, flat bench press has been THE main exercise,
the one I considered the most important, the one I was maxing out the weight, you know?
And yet - now I'll say it out loud for the first time - for 10 years I've never really FELT it
in my chest like I wanted, flys gave me much more stimulation, DB presses too
and I was "oh it's because I have wide shoulders, so the stretch from the flys works better on me... etc.."
but I still *need* the flat bench press because of the WEIGHT.
Now, lately I've been collecting some of my best workout sessions ever and that's thanks to
a better form, concentration instead of weight and different exercises I (wrongly) considered inferior.
Time has come to question the big bench.
I knew that guys with long arms - like me - had hard time with flat BB bench,
because of the mechanic of the movement doesn't really allow to focus the stress on the pecs,
plus it gets hard on the shoulder joints, etc..
But you learn to adjust your form when you have long a## limbs like me to feel it more on the chest.
Yes to feel it more, but not to feel it as you wanted. Not to feel it like DB presses or flys.
So why doing it??
But still, givin' up on flat bench press? Never.
Better to do and exercise that possibly triggers your pecs less but with a lot more weight, right? Wrong.
Dead wrong, now I know.
After reading this article wrote by Dorian Yates in which he explains why guys with longer
arms don't really benefit form flat bench press, after hearing people like Heath, Cutler and many more
all saying the same thing "I tend to stay away from flat bench because of the injuries and because inclined and
DB presses develop chest better", but most important after I've been forced to hold the weight back a bit
from my bench due to a sore shoulder, and favor DB presses I now can say it: flat bench press sucks for me.
I am not giving up on it, I still think is a great exercise, but the point is: is not going to be my MAIN
chest exercise anymore, is not going to be the one in which I go for the maximum weight, no.
DB flat press, yes.
Inclined BB press, yes.
Flat BB bench, no.
I will go for it as my 3rd exercise maybe, sure it's great for supersets, dropsets etc..
I find i get a much greater stimulation with higher reps and lower weight
when I do flat bench as opposed to low reps with a ton of weight,
Instead I find maxing out the weight on DB press (both incline and flat) and incline BB press
gives me a lot more stimulation, even if the max weight is less than on flat bench.
So, yeah, after 10 years, I'm switching my main chest exercise, change the game in my fav
training day and hopefully witness my chest to grow more!
First of all, I love bench press, I mean who doesn't?
Is probably the very first exercise we ALL did, I mean who started working out doing
I don't know, DB rows? or overhead triceps extensions?
No, you start with good ol' flat bench press
I love it, but I love my chest and my joints more
My chest workout is super long and super stressing, I could train
chest forever, in my session I do so many exercises, too many to list,
flat bb press, inclined, declined, DB flys, DB flat press, DB decline, DB pronated grip,
supersets, dropsets, cable, etc..
seriously you'd be impressed if I listed them all.
I destroy my chest on its dedicated wo day and I hit it pretty hard in the full body wo day as well.
Since day 1, flat bench press has been THE main exercise,
the one I considered the most important, the one I was maxing out the weight, you know?
And yet - now I'll say it out loud for the first time - for 10 years I've never really FELT it
in my chest like I wanted, flys gave me much more stimulation, DB presses too
and I was "oh it's because I have wide shoulders, so the stretch from the flys works better on me... etc.."
but I still *need* the flat bench press because of the WEIGHT.
Now, lately I've been collecting some of my best workout sessions ever and that's thanks to
a better form, concentration instead of weight and different exercises I (wrongly) considered inferior.
Time has come to question the big bench.
I knew that guys with long arms - like me - had hard time with flat BB bench,
because of the mechanic of the movement doesn't really allow to focus the stress on the pecs,
plus it gets hard on the shoulder joints, etc..
But you learn to adjust your form when you have long a## limbs like me to feel it more on the chest.
Yes to feel it more, but not to feel it as you wanted. Not to feel it like DB presses or flys.
So why doing it??
But still, givin' up on flat bench press? Never.
Better to do and exercise that possibly triggers your pecs less but with a lot more weight, right? Wrong.
Dead wrong, now I know.
After reading this article wrote by Dorian Yates in which he explains why guys with longer
arms don't really benefit form flat bench press, after hearing people like Heath, Cutler and many more
all saying the same thing "I tend to stay away from flat bench because of the injuries and because inclined and
DB presses develop chest better", but most important after I've been forced to hold the weight back a bit
from my bench due to a sore shoulder, and favor DB presses I now can say it: flat bench press sucks for me.
I am not giving up on it, I still think is a great exercise, but the point is: is not going to be my MAIN
chest exercise anymore, is not going to be the one in which I go for the maximum weight, no.
DB flat press, yes.
Inclined BB press, yes.
Flat BB bench, no.
I will go for it as my 3rd exercise maybe, sure it's great for supersets, dropsets etc..
I find i get a much greater stimulation with higher reps and lower weight
when I do flat bench as opposed to low reps with a ton of weight,
Instead I find maxing out the weight on DB press (both incline and flat) and incline BB press
gives me a lot more stimulation, even if the max weight is less than on flat bench.
So, yeah, after 10 years, I'm switching my main chest exercise, change the game in my fav
training day and hopefully witness my chest to grow more!