Is the Bench Press ENOUGH for Chest Growth? (24 Studies)
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- Опубліковано 27 січ 2021
- Is the barbell bench press enough for maxiziming chest growth? In other words, could you get away with only training the barbell bench press for the rest of your training career, and experience close to or even maximal chest hyeprtrophy?
In this video, through assessing the current research, we aim to answer this as best as possible.
0:25 Anatomy & Function of the Pectoralis Major
6:45 Bench Press and Pectoralis Major Growth Research
16:08 Summary of the Research
17:26 Limitations of Current Research
18:42 Exercises That Compliment the Bench Press
25:47 Conclusion
Music:
1) Nymano - Sleepover chll.to/4c41c32d
2) Nymano - Mirage chll.to/cafcd93f
/ nymano
References:
1) Fung et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19291... (origin locations)
2) Solari and Burns www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NB... (insertion + nerve innervations)
3) Kuechle et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9356931/ (horizontal flexion)
4) Hik and Ackland - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30411... (review paper of internal moment arms)
5) Ackland et al. - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... (differences between heads during shoulder flexion and abduction/adduction)
6) Kelly et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8764876/ (internal rotation)
7) Akagi et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24169...
8) Brandao et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32149...
9) Wernbom et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17326...
10) Yasuda et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20618...
11) Ogasawara et al. - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti... (thickness)
12) Davies et al. - ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handl...
13) Ogasawara et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23053... (cross-sectional area)
14) Wolfe et al. -,pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12627... (sarcomere stretched)
15) Wackerhage et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30335... (mechanical tension)
16) Lauver et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25799...
17) Coratella et al. - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31397...
18) Rodriguez-Radio et al. - www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/19/...
19) Stephan and Armstrong - journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Ab...
20) Saeterbakken et al. - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
21) Electromyography limitations - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
22) Chavez et al. - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
23) Borges et al. - www.researchgate.net/publicat...
24) Marchetti and Uchida - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21975...
25) Campos and Silva - www.researchgate.net/publicat... - Спорт
Timestamps:
0:25 Anatomy & Function of the Pectoralis Major
6:45 Bench Press and Pectoralis Major Growth Research
16:08 Summary of the Research
17:26 Limitations of Current Research
18:42 Exercises That Compliment the Bench Press
25:47 Conclusion
Hope the video was valuable and helpful in some form! :)
Unfortunately, there's hardly any research on dips, so it's not really possible to make a vid like this :(
There's also no research comparing these two exercises for long-term growth, so it's difficult to say.
Your analysis are so in depth and cover EVERYTHING. That's hell of a work mate!
I appreciate the kind words, thank you very much! :)
I hope you get the recognition you deserve!
Amazing content
That's very kind of you, thank you!
Your channel really comes from the realm of awesomeness. Keep up the great work, you got me hooked. I just love this science-based approach to training. If one writes down the essence of the findings you discuss on your channel, one gets an almost complete blueprint for efficient muscle building. Life is just too short for bro-science and BS tips. Much love from Germany
Thank YOU so much my friend for the kind words, they are really nice to hear :)
Moral of the story:
1. The barbell bench press is approximately one of the best exercise for a bigger chest.
2. It's probably a good idea to train the chest multiple different ways for hypertrophy.
3. As always, long term studies are missing from science and similar studies often never replicate the same results.
These videos are AMAZING. Definitely got me excited to lift this week
Thank you for your kind words, they mean a lot! Hope you have some awesome training sessions :)
The best upper chest exercise for me that i have continually used to develop a great clavicular pectoral muscle is flat bench presses to the neck. ( guillotine presses )
I am so impressed with this channel. I downloaded your free bench e-book. Just wow… the amount of information you give is astounding. That e-book is easily worth $25+. Thank you for all you do. New subscriber!
Thank YOU for your kind words my friend, they mean a lot to me!!!
Thank you for sharing this information. New subscriber. This channel is amazing 🎉
No problem, thank YOU and welcome! :)
Awesome video!!
Thank you, great to hear :)
While flaring the elbows may slightly increase the tension being placed on the chest in respect of 'shoulde flexion', it's normally better to have your elbows closer into your sides when bench pressing or dumbell pressing, especially with heavier weights. Flaring your elbows when flat pressing heavy weights can cause shoulder problems and elbow pain in the long run. It's probably not an issue if you're doing light weights for higher reps and trying to really focus on isolating the chest as much as possible, but be careful with heavier weights and flaring your elbows during a flat press.
Yup, i myself have gotten shoulder pain almost everytime i flared my elbows while bench pressing. Its also safer to do it with your elbows at a 30 degree angle from your body to avoid chest toring
Great video man
Thank you! :)
My results did differ. I've never noticed great chest development with just flat benching. All different sorts of sets too. Flat, arched back, close grip, wide grip, 5x5s, 3x12s, 1 set of 20+, slow, fast, short rests, long rests. Never seems to grow the chest or give a pump.
Only difference I really see is when I emphasize decline press, dips, and Flys.
Only 2k views after all that work.Sad and underrated
Haha, it's all good! Thank you for the kind words :)
One year later and it's at 36K views! Glad the channel is starting to get some of the views and recognition it deserves.
43k as of 28 Jan 2024 🔥
This is awesome! Thankyou so much
No problem, thank you!
Astonishing
Your content brings a new level to "science based" amazing work my dude 😎
Thank YOU dude :)
I like ur content 🤗🤗❤️
Great to hear, thank you :)
Good on ya m8. Your videos are tops. I'd love to see your take on deadlifts.
I plan to make videos on deadlifts :)
@@HouseofHypertrophy good on ya m8
3:20 I also, judging by fig. 9 from the study by David K. Kuechle, understood that at the very beginning of the movement (where 0 degrees is the frontal plane) the front delta has more mechanical advantage, although they somehow wrote strangely "horizontal
flexion is a motion with the humerus in 90 ° elevation plane, starting from 90 ° (the humerus in the
coronal plane) and moving to 0 ° (the humerus in the sagittal plane)" . If 90 degrees is the initial reference point, then it turns out that 140 degrees is generally a horizontal hiperextension ... it doesn’t look logical to me at least because the shoulder joint, as a rule, does not have such an amplitude of movement.. Because judging by fig 9, I understood exactly as you described in the video.
Awesome video as always! Have you ever thought of conducting your own research? Seems like you would be good at it from how thorough your analysis is!
Awesome to hear, thank you!
I've thought about it before. However, overall, I think I'd enjoy what I'm currently doing the most (reading research and summarizing it). I don't think I'd enjoy the whole process of being a researcher too much.
I'm really interested to the anatomical breakdown, could you do more video about anatomy of other muscle too? It could be a video series for this channel
Great to hear. Yep, I actually plan to make videos similar to this for most of the major muscles (biceps, triceps, quads, hamstrings, etc.)
thanks!
Your work here is excellent. I like what you're doing and how you and your info comes across.
You do however use more of the complicated names for muscles so it can be difficult to follow for us normies. I guess it's on me to get learning these terms. 👌
Thank you for your kind words, and thank you for the feedback. I'll make sure to try and use simpler names, or in the event I use more anatomical terminology, I'll try to include a animation to precisely pinpoint what muscle is being discussed :)
For the algorithm💪🏼❤️
Thank YOU!
Done flat bench for years and haven't done it for years either and pecs just as good or better and I'm much older and no shoulder pain or injuries you never have to do flat or incline to develop pecs decline cable press or decline dumbbell press or seated decline cable machine all u EVER need and your shoulders will thank you
The Question in the Beginning "Could you perform only barbell bench press for rest of your training career and experience close to or even maximal chest growth" ... Yes and no ..
As a Bodybuilder competitor who competes on stage? No; need a few more other chest exercises to fully develop chest.
As a Everyday workout lifter. yes; you can experience close to maximal chest growth. Only if hand placement on the Bar is correct and Lowering the bar down path is also correct. Train 3 or 4 days per week. Watch your chest grow and all other supporting muscles like triceps. delts, back muscles and traps. also strengthens legs from constant leg drives and tighter core.
Curious if there's any information on dips. I always assumed it would be similar to decline bench
Unfortunately there's no solid long term research :(
I am always curious, the people in the study did x-sets of bench, but how many sets of triceps did they do. Did they no triceps isolation exercises?
The number of triceps exercises could have a significant effect on bench performance.
I face difficulties doing them bcz I can't feel my chest ms but I'm doing it on machines, are they enough?
Machines are likely similarly effective to free weight for hypertrohphy, so that's fine. Keep training and see if overtime you notice chest activation.
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🙏
How about the reverse grip studies? Your take on it would be cool.
Unfortunately, I think there are only EMG studies looking at this, and these studies are very limited. Thre's no long-term studies measuring actual muscle growth :(
what about dumbell bench press for chest development in contrast the barbell bench press?
Not much studies looking at this, only EMG data which tend to show they similarly recruit the chest. Overall, I think they probably do a comparable job, it's possible using dumbbells to create a bigger stretch at the bottom could be beneficial, but Im still skeptical if this slight difference makes a notable difference in gains :)
@@HouseofHypertrophy Dumbell Bench press has the stretch and abduction advantage. I.e. 110 db is much harder than 225 bp . There must be some data somewhere . Thanks gor the reply.
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:)
These are all just studies your pec fibers going all in certain directions and only certain exercises put a direct load on them and I mentioned them already
I really just do 3 chest exercises
Dumbell bench press
Inclined dumbell bench press
Machine fly
3 sets
1-2 rir
3 mins rest bet. Sets
2 times a week
New meta analisys shows that all studies contrudict each other .
I think Pushups are a better upperbody compound exercise. The core and back is worked more in a pushup then benching. And it's much easier to create adjustments if you have shoulder issues with pressing. The only knock on Pushups is it's not as easy to increase resistance.
I think both exercises have their strengths and weaknesses. Overall though, for hypertrophy, the two exercises likely have similar ability. (I've made a previous video on it before: bench press vs push ups)
@@HouseofHypertrophy yes, I like the video. I have problems with my delts when I bench too much. So I will switch to dips or pushups when I have pain. Have you researched chest dips vs. Bench ?
Unfortunately there does not appear to exist any long-term research comparing them.
@@HouseofHypertrophy I have long arms and a closer grip puts less focus on my delt. I use a tire and and do elevated Pushups with my hands on the tire. It puts my hands in the perfect position to hit chest.
Push ups are easy to overload you just buy a weighted vest or you put chains/plates into a backpack then put the backpack on a bench and lay down and pull yourself up
On a other note is anybody else sick of seeing UA-cams tampon advertisement adverts?
Uh-oh! Stinky poopy!
PS: Please, sticky this comment with a heart!
It would be reasonable to consider potential of injury In the long term, instead of just "hypertrophy".. you totally ignored that.
Kaks kertaa viikossa 80% painoilla on varmasti liikaa. Järjetön testi. Palautumis ongelmia luvassa.
Hmmm 🤔 elbow flexers... you mean the bro muscles?
Haha, yep! (technically though, elbow flexors include the biceps, brachialis, and brachioradialis)
This is so much better than Jeff Nypard because this uses critical thinking.
L 2:10
For chest growth you want gymnastic rings, far superior to anything else.
Nah you want to do everything minimalism isn’t ideal conjugate ftw
You don’t even get a good range of motion with bench, I’ve only ever done dumbbell presses and cable flys and I have some pretty big pecs
Facts
To me...bench press is very overrated. Most people do way too much chest work.. Most people who bench are concerned with 1RM. It's more of a powerlifting movement. For Some people it works well. However, if you see powerlifters bench they have highly arched backs and are looking to push as much weight as possible. Whatever gets you the best contraction on your chest will likely result in the most hypertrophy.
@@foxdogs1st well that’s how it works if ur a POWERLIFTER ur gonna do what’s most powerful the bench press is not overrated it’s one of the best for chest growth
You can’t get a deep ROM with dumbbells once you have decent strength, if anything it’s gonna be the reverse after a point. You also can’t get your arms out as wide, wide grip activates the chest more. Close grip is more tricep. Dumbbells are good for the “punch muscle” as bald Omni man would say, more volume as another variation, and fixing muscle imbalance with a single arm dumbbell press
Before even watching this video I have always believed no itnis not enough to just bench to have a good chest. For me and my body the bench press has been a overall upper body strength conditioning excersise,,,,, I'm the type i have to isolate my chest for growth. Peck deck has been great for me cable flys have been even better, decline bench press again great excersise for me and my chest, dumbbell incline.
I bench 3 times a week, I use it now to see where I need to improve as we all know the bench press uses the tri's, bi's, front shoulders back muscles leg muscles this excersise uses almost the whole body to lift. So for me I have never used it to grow my chest but have used it for reference of weakness and to hit all muscle groups I can with a 5 set 20-25 reps session. I keep weight low, somewhere between 100lbs to 125lbs for my high reps for strength reference I've been as high as 250lbs but those were the days I used to bench all the time. Long story short, I just don't bench that much these days,,,,, I love to isolate the muscles I'm working in that particular day