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No, any compound exercise like that is not overrated.
No, any compound exercise like that is not overrated.
An excellent exercise, but often overated in the hierarchy of of a typical workout. Few people have "time" for squats or deadlifts, but everybody seems to head straight to the bench. While I've seen lots of strong benchers be very weak in squats/deadlifts; I've yet to see a strong squatter/deadlifter who wasn't pretty damn respectable in the bench too.
Dumbells become a bit unwieldy above 100 lbs. Just getting them into place is a pain.
Wider = less triceps, more chest, closer = less chest, more triceps. Somewhere between those two is the perfect range which will allow you to lift the most weight depending on where your strengths lie, it's different for everyone.
lotsa big wordsOriginally Posted by why
Wider grips tend to stress the shoulders more, not the pectorals. Either way, gripping differently to focus on one particular muscle group is kinda dumb unless you understand which muscles work at which points during the lift and your goal is to increase your bench press. Wider grips open the acromion process as well. The same problem with dumbbells is the same problem as benching across the shoulders -- the glenohumeral joint (shoulder for the laymen) is superior to the sternocostal head of the pectorals (aka. the part of it that makes your chest look big), and since the exercise occurs in the coronal plane (pushed upward, basically) with quite a bit of weight, benching with the elbows outward forces the resistance to be situated on top of the humerus in order to remain upright. By bending the elbows inward slightly (ie. benching with the bar coming into contact with the bottom of the ribcage), the center of gravity is instead loaded onto the elbows and transverse flexion is limited. The problem with most people benching is that they don't limit transverse flexion -- this not only opens the acromion process and can cause injury, but it's a weak joint angle because it uses an inferior amount of force generated from the sternocostal pectorals. Any time more muscles are at stronger angle more weight is moved. It occurs rows as well -- the farther out the hands, the more musculature of the upper back is used in proportion to the lats. Guess what happens when the same thing is done in reverse...
Wider grips tend to stress the shoulders more, not the pectorals. Either way, gripping differently to focus on one particular muscle group is kinda dumb unless you understand which muscles work at which points during the lift and your goal is to increase your bench press. Wider grips open the acromion process as well.