Comment to New Men’s Fitness Arctile about Increasing Your Bench Press
This is in reply to @man_crush’s twitter post. I tried to post on my Facebook page, but they limited me to 420 characters. Here’s the entire comment I wanted to say.
The tweet originally by Men’s Fitness: Add 35 pounds to your #benchpress in just eight weeks http://bit.ly/nAMYn0
This is basically a strength gaining workout: high weight and low reps. First, ask yousrelf what your fitness goals are. Do you really want to gain strength for a specific sport, activity, etc., or, do you just want to maintain a health body? If you want just a healthy body, ask yourself is it worth the additional risk to lift heavy?
Men’s Fitness teaches an arch in the back. This is technically an ok form, but what it does is puts your back spine at risk (increases the compression force). This position is biomechanically advantageous to lift more weight, but just the angles on your body changes. It doesn’t recruit more muscle fibers. So, the gain you make is just a force change, and yes, you will superficially put up more pounds and can brag about weight gains. Also, it is IMPERATIVE that you keep your hips/glutes/butt in contact with the pad at all times. Lifting the butt off the pad (to get that arched back) will greatly increase the chance for lower back injury. The safest position is not to arch the back. Be careful about where you get your advice, even from health magazines. Make sure the author has a background in exercise physiology, biology, biomechanics, related field, etc. Personal Training Certification or successful body builder does not necessarily mean the person is qualified to give biomechanical advice. Just be careful, and good luck if you do this program! Done safely, strength training can be a fun way to switich up your workouts. Cheers!