Monday, February 25, 2008

Perhaps the best bench assist exercise

especially if you don't have access to a spotter; and even more so if you are a raw bencher.DB benches will build your strength off the bottom, your lockout as well as hypertrophy your pecs, delts,triceps and upper back as well as build serious stability.Probably the hardest part about doing with with any real weight is making room for the size of the bastards!Here is some serious weight by Mike Kroc.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great vid. Great blog.

Mark,

Wanted to ask you what maybe a really stupid question, but what the hell: A lot of pure powerlifters I see have a great pec development, which I get, that is from benchpressing -- what I don't get is that quite a few also have great biceps development --- is that from doing curls on the side for pure hypertrophy and looks? Or is that a side effect of deadlifts? I understand that in a proper deadlift one doesn't actively engage their biceps as in a curl, but the weight is hanging on your arms.

Also, do OHPs help for upper pec development, or are incline benches best for that?


Any light you could shed on that would be great.

Thanks.

Mark Reifkind said...

biceps are bad for powerlifters. they tend to tear easy on deadlifts, create shoulder problems from holding the squat bar and dont help any of the lifts particularly.
I did no direct bicep work in the 15 years I powerlifted. lots of hammer curls but no supinated ones.
the guys that have them either had them when they started( most come from a bodybuilding background) and or continue to train them.
Some powerlifters love to train them; Kaz did tons and had big arms.
Strongmen train them because their events involve biceps so much.
for uuper pecs a variety of incline presses although militarys to the front work upper pecs a lot and PBN does a bit too.
but if you want upper pecs think incline work.

Anonymous said...

Thanks.

So a guy like this:

http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger2/5089/849/1600/61427/chuck%20v.jpg

is either from a bodybuilding background or does extra biceps work?

Brett Jones said...

Rif,
Was this intended for me? ;)

Mark Reifkind said...

varangy,
actually no. chuck has been pretty full on powerlifter for 25 plus years.he has just grown from a smallish 198'er to a full 275er.

Mark Reifkind said...

brett:

actually no, but in retrospect, yes :))!

Anonymous said...

So then I am a bit confused. His biceps look tremendous. Again, is that development possible from DLs?

Maura said...

Maybe that is what I need to take my bench to the next level - DB benches. Fawn and I were talking about them tonight.

Maura

155 x 3 x 5, 160 x 3 x 5, 20 kg swings 5 x 8/8, floor pushups 40, 35

 Thought about going back to 5x5 for a hot second then my left shoulder  reminded me why I stopped doing them before. It doesn't seem to...