Guess how much UFC fighters can bench press?

[Kframe]

It means you're taking the lift away from your chest, and transferring it to your legs. Good for lifting more weight to impress your friends/compete. Shit for developing actual muscle growth.
It's an ego exercise. When people wonder why their chest growth stagnates, I tell them to drop down their weights and get their arse and lower back on the bench. It does wonders for
functional muscles.

How the hell does arching the back make it a leg exercise? The weight is still on the arms and being pushed up by the chest and triceps. How is pushing on the floor going to help? Makes no sense.

 

[chaos_36]

Or so that's been the mantra for the lest decade or so. It's bullshit, though.

Bench press is an excellent measure and builder of all around upper body strength. When you want to move something heavy, or hit something with force, or create space between yourself and something, there's generally going to be some sort of shove involved.

That's why the NFL still cares about bench press, even as all the bros are abandoning it as "worthless."

Two player vs player contact incidents in this gif. Both of them using their bench press muscles:

There are like 6 or so examples in this gif:

You could pretend that's all about the rules sets... but it's the first thing a lot of people go to regardless of rules set:

And that's true even in everyday life:

It's not all about aggression, either. Sometimes it's damned useful:

All sorts of fighting applications as well. You don't figure strong bench press muscles make you more effective at this?

Or this?

You're wrong.

Does that mean it's common to have heavy objects just end up sitting motionless on your chest so you can lift them with perfect bench press form? Nope. But that holds for every one of the exercises that you mentioned.

Yeah it's pretty obvious that it would increase shoving strength as evident in your gifs but the amount of importance guys place on this particular lift is just mind boggling to me. Weighted wide pull-ups, muscle-ups, military press, van dam lifts etc are all far more impressive to me personally. I had a friend who benched 330+ as a natural 14 year old which is pretty fucking strong right? Dude couldn't do a single wide pull up if his life depended on it. So while having a strong bench is good it's not really indicative of total upper body strength so doesn't mean as much as people seem to think it means.

 

[jeremyemilio]

Seems like a whole lotta people here can bench a lot

I've gone to many different gyms in my lifetime and I rarely see people bench 315 unless it's a hardcore PR type environment. 315 is a BIG lift. You don't just wake up one day and bench 315 as an average joe. It takes years and years of benching.

If you were 150 lbs and benching 3 plates that's considered elite lifting.
Being 200lbs and benching 3 plates puts you in advance lifting, a couple of dozen kilos away from Elite status.

I don't know Sherdog.

Advance lifting is a fair way away from Elite status, and a couple dozen kilos is a significant leap. Which is to say that 3 plates for a 200 lb man isn't anywhere near "elite." Most small town gyms across North America would have at least a handful of regulars who can bench 3 plates.

 

[jeremyemilio]

Where are you getting these numbers from? Just making them up?

Here's Jones doing 345lbs.

Looks like 315 to me... and he doesn't get it (that looks like a fairly heavy spot, to me).

 

[chuckleknuckle]

How the hell does arching the back make it a leg exercise? The weight is still on the arms and being pushed up by the chest and triceps. How is pushing on the floor going to help? Makes no sense.

If it didn't help you lift heavier weights, power lifters wouldn't do it. They all do.

When you arch your back, you create a triangular brace like a bridge. You end up squeezing your ass cheeks together to lift you up, pushing with your legs, and also squeezing your traps together under you to add upwards force. It makes a bridge that works in place of your ancillary muscles which are weaker than the bridge is.

Hence the 'wrestlers bridge'.

 

[GreatWhiteBuffalo]

There are pro athletes and bodybuilders who have similar physique and are lucky to put up those number

A guy's musculature is not indicative of weightlifting strength.....


Also Your first 4 comments were negative shit posts and your only other comment was lie in reply to me....I saw you in the ray Borg thread/saw your join date and your A/V pic.....so I asked a mod who tipped me off

You'll probably be banned in A week or less at the rate I expect you to go


Unless you really are the dude interested in agave....then I would change my av if I was you

thats my picture and I’d be glad to prove it. If you think some dude who types in bold on an Internet mma fan forum is going to shame me for the way I look (which I’m damn fucking handsome) then you’re the shit poster. You’ve got a woman with a snake in her ass as your av, kid.

Secondly, no one the size of Romero is “lucky to put up those numbers” regarding benching 315. It’s not a ton of weight, especially for a 215 lb man who is extremely muscular and clearly strong as an oxe. Why are you picking a bone with me? Don’t fucking bother

 

[aus101]

Bench press was actually invented by someone who was at the time the wrestling HW champion of the world (George Hackenschmidt). This was when pro wrestling was actually real (and more like catch as catch can).

Seeing huge wrestlers with big benches like Brock come in and over power everyone makes me think Hackenschmidt actually knew what he was doing when he invented the lift.

 

[maxi diablo]

That's pretty weak for big guys. I'm a batamweight and the most I've done is 315 lbs

 

[TriangleMonkey]

Pushups is probably the best form of chest excersize a fighter should need

You need strength endurance not powerlifts with long breaks

 

[facePuncher7]

Look at the Time Silvia vs Marius Pudzianowski fight.

One of the strongest athletes in history against a flabby fat body, and Pudz got thrown around like a ragdoll.

 

[Blayt7hh]

bench press is useless in fighting. look at these guys chests


these guys have to make weight every fight. why are they going to waste energy building a huge and useless chest, and make weight cutting even harder?


correct me if i'm wrong but i dont think anyone ever won a fight via bench press or dumbell fly. put down the schwarzenegger dvd, step away from bodybuilding.com. pecs are a vanity muscle.

bonus pic - the greatest HEAVYWEIGHT boxer ever. where are his pecs? surely he needs pecs for all those punches? guess not

Alright I will correct you then. Bench press is a compound exercise that uses a whole list of muscles besides the "chest" muscles. If you look at the very picture of Tito you posted, he actually pretty clearly benches. He has the well developed shoulders and arms of someone who benches. Surely you aren't going to tell me that shoulder muscles don't help you with punches and wrestling. It's one of the big compound exercises for testing true strength along with squats and deadlifts.

Furthermore, you only posted a small selection of fighters. I can sit here and pull up plenty of images of fighters with big chests. So here's my lesson to you about fighting. Different styles work for different people. Tyronne Woodley has a huge chest and he is doing pretty damn well using his strength and explosiveness gained through weight training.

 

[jeremyemilio]

If it didn't help you lift heavier weights, power lifters wouldn't do it. They all do.

When you arch your back, you create a triangular brace like a bridge. You end up squeezing your ass cheeks together to lift you up, pushing with your legs, and also squeezing your traps together under you to add upwards force. It makes a bridge that works in place of your ancillary muscles which are weaker than the bridge is.

Hence the 'wrestlers bridge'.

I don't think that's what's happening. I think when you arch your back, the result is that you're engaging more of your pectoral muscles by bringing the lower pecs into play.

And the wrestlers bridge wouldn't even exist if allowing your shoulders to touch the mat didn't result in a pin.

 

[Thorgrim]

I don’t think bench press is as useless for fighting as people like to claim. For sure a 500lb bench doesn’t make much of a difference compared to 300 when it comes to fighting, but what about a bench of only 65? There’s no way he’d be able to generate any real power with anything. I have a torn “strip” of muscle that goes from my chest and down to my bicep, I can’t do anything right now because my left side is so weak.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

Tony ferguson deadlift beats them all.

 

[rearnakedchoke]

Bench has no correlation to any physical activity you'd ever do in real life. When would one use a bench press type movement? When a car rolls on top of you while you're lying down? Lmao it just seems like one of the least practical exercises that a lot of guys seem to be obsessed about.

Im trying to think of the same thing for squats.

 

[Thepaintbucket]

Advance lifting is a fair way away from Elite status, and a couple dozen kilos is a significant leap. Which is to say that 3 plates for a 200 lb man isn't anywhere near "elite." Most small town gyms across North America would have at least a handful of regulars who can bench 3 plates.

3 plate lift is big, even for a 200 lber. It's kinda odd how so many of you guys here can casually bench 315 out of bed. I don't believe it. Like I said, it's pretty uncommon.

 

[AnotherOldGuy]

Yea it's a very opinionated statement that I formed off my own experiences, I don't think an experiment could be done reliable to prove it.
When I started lifting my bench and millitary press were very close in weight as far as working sets we're concerned.
But as you get stronger the millitary press starts to plateau while the bench keeps growing assuming you are only doing one.
That's why doing both is key they both compliment each other, but since the military press is easier to plateau thats why I consider the bench a primary press over military

I could see the experiment being done, though it'd require people who've never lifted at all, and enough to get a statistically meaningful result. Lot's of variable - arm length, shoulder construction etc. But it'll never be done, because as you pointed out earlier, both are good exercises so serious lifters use both.

My own experience lifting is the opposite of yours, my military started out half my bench (possibly because of years of pushups as a kid), but plateaued faster, so my military eventually got into the usual roughly 70% ratio. I always found the bench relatively relaxing compared to the military, its a comfortable lift for me in that strain is localized, whereas heavy military (for me about the point where I'm doing reps with body weight) is a strain on the whole upper body. Maybe its that which makes me think its a better workout.

Reading your post makes me suspect where people plateau will depend upon their body type (as well as how hard they work the two lifts); which makes for the boring conclusion that bench will be better for some folks, military for others.

 

[Lowtide]

Stipe - 315
DC - 330
Ngannou - 405
Overeem - 330
Lewis - 365
Yoel - 315
Rockhold - 275
Bones - 295
Tank Abbot - 550

I think most of these have got to be low. No way in hell Yoel can’t do more than 315. In college our smallest dude walked around at about 145 and he could bench 275 for 1. He got 295 once but didn’t really touch so we axed it. The bigger guys 205 and up were high 300’s and two were in 400 club. Of course now we’re all fat, bald and Cheeto fingered.

 

[Blayt7hh]

My favorite thing about those thread is all the people that accept the TS claim with no source and then go on to rationalize it.

 

[jeremyemilio]

3 plate lift is big, even for a 200 lber. It's kinda odd how so many of you guys here can casually bench 315 out of bed. I don't believe it. Like I said, it's pretty uncommon.

Nobody said anything about "casually" benching 315. The highest I ever hit was 295, in my mid 20s. But I weighed 180 at the time... and I wasn't a particularly rare case. I knew a number of guys at the time who weighed under 200 and could bench 315 and above. It's really not uncommon. Go to any decent sized party or church service or family reunion or any other type of social gathering and you're probably in the room with someone who can do it.

It may seem that a disproportionate number of people here are saying that they can put up that sort of weight, but I think that's because most are, like me, talking about what they could do at their very strongest.

I'm in my mid 40s now, an out of shape 190 lbs, and can only bench about 225. But I find it difficult to see any sort of useful correlation between this version of myself and a professional athlete who isn't carrying around an extra 40 lbs of body fat.

So I'm reflecting back to a time when I was in better shape and stronger as something that provides a better comparison. I think that's fair. And as such, it does seem that some of these numbers are low.