I was trying to explain this concept to one of the regulars I see at the gym and the way he was looking at me, he must have thought I was speaking another language. It’s really not that hard to understand. When you perform a multi-joint ground-based movement such as a deadlift, you are developing more than just a few muscles in the legs. The core (not just the abdominals but the entire torso and hips) is working extremely hard to maintain spinal alignment to allow your large hip extensor muscles to perform the deadlift. Being able to maintain that rigid body alignment is critical for many multi-joint movements such as the bench press. During the bench press, you want your torso to be rock solid and you want to drive your legs into the ground to maximize leverage on the bar. It will be much easier to maintain core stability and lower body stiffness if you core and legs are stronger as the result of deadlifting.
Let’s have some common sense – I’m not saying that you only need to be doing deadlifts to improve your bench. It comes down to specificity of training – if you want a strong bench then perform bench press exercises to develop your horizontal pushing strength. If you want to improve your core stability and leg strength (which will help with your bench press), than do deadlifts or squatting movements.
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Your post Deadlifts Will Help My Bench… « Matt Hank was very interesting when I found it over google on Friday by my search for bench press. I have your blog now in my bookmarks and I visit your blog again, soon. Take care.
Determining if you’re currently over-training is fairly simple. If you’re in tune with your body, you can often see the signs of over-training before they get serious. If you are losing interest in workouts, are having trouble sleeping, and feel weak and irritable, you may be in a state of over-training and should take a week or more off