iron addict
New member
This is a response to a guy that has been having bench press related injury problems with the high school football players he is coaching that found that while having his players do dumbbell benches reduced the injuries a lot, it wasn’t providing good carry-over to their regular bench presses. Some will ask why anyone would care if the athlete was getting stronger and not getting injured. Want to get a fat football scholarship? You can bet the college coaches will care how much you can bench and squat. Pec and rotator cuff injuries can be career threatening, but if you know how to go about it, the potential can be greatly reduced. Here is the response:
I have a LOT of experience with your exact problem. While it is not across the board, it is USUALLY with younger lifters that NEED to have very close neural pattern adaptation to the specific lift they are doing to have good carry-over. More mature, and often more talented lifters see across the board increases. Their dumbbell benches go up, their benches go up, their incline presses go up, their benches go up......not so with many lifters. If you want these lifters benches to increase the motor unit firing pattern better be damn close to actual bench pressing or it isn't going to happen. We both know machines are out. I have nothing against machines because I understand their limitations. You can get a lot bigger and stronger using machines.....just don't expect a linear or even close carry-over to free weights or athletic events as is your case.
It sounds like you already understand that most bench press injuries occur because bodybuilders try to make a wonderful compound lift a chest isolation lift. Elbows flared WAY out, bar travel WAY too high on the chest. If the bench is done how most powerlifters or purely strength athletes perform them pec and rotator cuff injuries are reduced a LOT. I would not knowingly let a training client of mine do a typical "bodybuilding" bench press for fear of injury. Done correctly they are safe as can be considering the weight that can be used and the relative frailty of the muscle and joint structure moving the iron.
My favorite and simplest solution may be your best bet. Look at the lifters proportions. Guys with barrel chests and short arms are not generally at too much risk as long as they are performing a powerlifting style bench press. Let them have fun
The guys with LONG arms and particularly long forearms and shallow ribcages make the bench press an entirely different lift when compared to the guys with short arms and barrel chests. Having them do a 2-board press can make a night and day difference in pec and shoulder stress. Between some board presses, PUASING their HEAVY dumbbell presses, doing heavy LOW inclines, or LOW declines, and proper warm-ups and stretching, AND doing powerlifting style bench presses, you should have little concern or problems.
A couple other things to take into consideration. High school programs typically have LOTS of players, few coaches, and compressed time schedules for training. Trying to get a team to warm-up and get through a proper lifting program in the time typically allocated is asking for injuries, especially for the stronger lifters that need more warm-ups not less.
The next issue is lack of creativity and the resultant overuse injuries that can result. I RARELY have training client do heavy full range bench presses for more than 3-4 weeks. This keeps bench press injuries down also. They might do:
Bench Press
Close Grip Bench Press
Band Bench Press
Chain Bench Press
Lightened Band bench Press
Board Press
Band Board Press
Floor Press
Rack Lockouts
Incline Press
Decline Press
Dumbbell Bench Press
Hammer Grip Dumbbell Bench Press
Dumbbell Floor Press
Dumbbell band Press (requires power-hooks and bands)
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
Reverse Grip Bench Press
Reverse Grip Smith Machine Press
But they don't full range bench press every week, week in week out.
I train a LOT of people and have most of them doing a lot of heavy low rep work for part of their training and injury rates are VERY low. And the lack of pec/rotator issues are largely a result of doing the things discussed here.
Iron Addict
I have a LOT of experience with your exact problem. While it is not across the board, it is USUALLY with younger lifters that NEED to have very close neural pattern adaptation to the specific lift they are doing to have good carry-over. More mature, and often more talented lifters see across the board increases. Their dumbbell benches go up, their benches go up, their incline presses go up, their benches go up......not so with many lifters. If you want these lifters benches to increase the motor unit firing pattern better be damn close to actual bench pressing or it isn't going to happen. We both know machines are out. I have nothing against machines because I understand their limitations. You can get a lot bigger and stronger using machines.....just don't expect a linear or even close carry-over to free weights or athletic events as is your case.
It sounds like you already understand that most bench press injuries occur because bodybuilders try to make a wonderful compound lift a chest isolation lift. Elbows flared WAY out, bar travel WAY too high on the chest. If the bench is done how most powerlifters or purely strength athletes perform them pec and rotator cuff injuries are reduced a LOT. I would not knowingly let a training client of mine do a typical "bodybuilding" bench press for fear of injury. Done correctly they are safe as can be considering the weight that can be used and the relative frailty of the muscle and joint structure moving the iron.
My favorite and simplest solution may be your best bet. Look at the lifters proportions. Guys with barrel chests and short arms are not generally at too much risk as long as they are performing a powerlifting style bench press. Let them have fun
The guys with LONG arms and particularly long forearms and shallow ribcages make the bench press an entirely different lift when compared to the guys with short arms and barrel chests. Having them do a 2-board press can make a night and day difference in pec and shoulder stress. Between some board presses, PUASING their HEAVY dumbbell presses, doing heavy LOW inclines, or LOW declines, and proper warm-ups and stretching, AND doing powerlifting style bench presses, you should have little concern or problems.
A couple other things to take into consideration. High school programs typically have LOTS of players, few coaches, and compressed time schedules for training. Trying to get a team to warm-up and get through a proper lifting program in the time typically allocated is asking for injuries, especially for the stronger lifters that need more warm-ups not less.
The next issue is lack of creativity and the resultant overuse injuries that can result. I RARELY have training client do heavy full range bench presses for more than 3-4 weeks. This keeps bench press injuries down also. They might do:
Bench Press
Close Grip Bench Press
Band Bench Press
Chain Bench Press
Lightened Band bench Press
Board Press
Band Board Press
Floor Press
Rack Lockouts
Incline Press
Decline Press
Dumbbell Bench Press
Hammer Grip Dumbbell Bench Press
Dumbbell Floor Press
Dumbbell band Press (requires power-hooks and bands)
Incline Dumbbell Bench Press
Reverse Grip Bench Press
Reverse Grip Smith Machine Press
But they don't full range bench press every week, week in week out.
I train a LOT of people and have most of them doing a lot of heavy low rep work for part of their training and injury rates are VERY low. And the lack of pec/rotator issues are largely a result of doing the things discussed here.
Iron Addict
