Starting Strength

in getting the bar into position, the use of a heave from the belly, and even the use of an arch in the lower back, causing debate among physical culturists all over the world. Nowadays, the bench-press bench – the upright-support bench, as opposed to the plain flat bench – is standard gym equipment, and only a few innovative thinkers in the powerlifting community bother with doing the exercise the old, harder, and probably better way. After all, the more involved the exercise, the more the exercise involves in terms of muscle, nerve, and control.
    The dumbbell version of the exercise, which actually predates the barbell version due to its less specialized equipment requirements, involves a greater amount of instability, which is inherent in having two separate chunks of metal waving around in the air over your chest. This is especially true if the weights used are sufficiently heavy to challenge your ability to actually finish the set. Most trainees use dumbbell bench presses as a light assistance movement, and never appreciate how hard they are or how useful they can be at heavy weights. They are performed on a simple flat bench, and the lifter has to take the dumbbells out of the rack or off the floor, get into position on the flat bench, do the set, and then get off the bench with them after finishing it. These movements are as large a part of the exercise as is getting to look at your arms in the mirror. Because dumbbells are not tied together between the hands as a barbell is, dumbbell bench presses require more active, conscious control, are harder to do, and are therefore less commonly done. The problem with dumbbell bench presses is that the equipment provides its own limitations in a progressively increasing program. Most dumbbell racks are not graduated in fine-enough increments due to the expense of having twice as many dumbbells as most gyms have the money or space for. Plate-loaded dumbbell handles that would permit such loading are not widely available, of sufficient quality that they are safe at heavy weights, or capable of being handled without a lot of help from two spotters. And with heavy weights, getting on and off the bench becomes such a large part of the task of completing the set that the logistics are a giant pain in the ass.
    So, as good an exercise as the dumbbell bench may be, you will be bench pressing with a barbell, as the weight of history and precedent demands. The bench press, or supine press (one occasionally sees old references to the “prone press” in badly edited sources), is a popular, useful exercise. It is arguably the best way to develop raw upper-body strength, and done correctly, it is a valuable addition to your strength and conditioning program.
    The bench press actively trains the muscles of the anterior shoulder girdle and the triceps, as well as the forearm muscles, the upper back, and the lats. The primary movers are the pectoralis major and the anterior deltoid, which drive the bar up off the chest, and the triceps, which drive the elbow extension to lockout. The bigger posterior muscles – the trapezius, the rhomboideus, and other smaller muscles along the cervical and thoracic spine – act isometrically to adduct the shoulder blades and keep the back stable against the bench. The pectoralis minor helps stabilize the rib cage into the arched position when the scapulae are anchored by the traps and rhomboids. The posterior rotator cuff muscles stabilize and prevent the rotation of the humerus during the movement. The lats, or latissimus dorsi muscles, rotate the rib cage up, arched relative to the lower back, thereby decreasing the distance the bar has to travel and adding to the stability of the position. They also act as a counter to the deltoids, preventing the elbows from adducting, or rising up toward the head, while the humerus is driving up out of the bottom, thus preventing the angle between the upper arm and torso from changing during the lower part of the range of motion. The muscles of the lower back, hips, and legs act as a bridge between the upper body and the ground, anchoring and stabilizing the chest and arms as they do the work of handling the bar. And the neck muscles contract isometrically to stabilize the cervical spine – hopefully not while pressing too hard against the bench with the back of the head. Yes, bench pressing makes your neck grow, too, making new dress shirts inevitable. Since the bench press is a free-weight exercise,