Which is Better: The Bench Press or Shoulder Press?

 

When you walk into a gym you will often see people lying down at the bench press, lifting massive amounts of weight and grunting and screaming as they beat their own records. Massive pectoral muscles are the order of the day, and that seems to be what any hyper-testosterone male seems to what to achieve. Meanwhile, few men are seen doing the shoulder press with the bar. Yet one is clearly better in terms of strength development than the other. Which is it, and why is this the case?

The press is defined as any movement which moves weight away from your body. Thus it can include a wide range of exercises in the gym: the press, the military press, the behind the head press, the seated press, the bench press, the dumb bell press, and the push press. All of them have their benefits, but the press by itself is the most useful upper-body exercise.

The press improves your overall functional strength, and what's more, any athletic endeavor that requires upper body strength requires that the kinetic chain begin from the ground and works its way up the body to the racket or what have you. Any time an athlete pushes an opponent, throws something or swings something, that force begins at the ground.

That is why the press is superior to the bench press. When you lie on your back to perform the bench, you are short circuiting the kinetic chain. Instead of deriving force from your feet and the ground, you draw it from directly behind your shoulder blades where it presses into the bench. That is why good bench presses use their legs to help ground them and derive strength from the ground, but still the cumulative effect does not compare to the press.

In contrast, the press involves the whole body from the feet against the ground, the legs and hips to stabilize the body, the core and back to transmit force up the body, and the shoulders, upper chest and arms to lift the weight. When you extend the barbell overhead the length of the body is fully extended, and the amount of torque possible here is great, causing much of the body's strength to go into keeping it stabilized.  That is why anybody who is interested in developing total body strength must be ready to use an exercise like the press, and not use the bench to steal their strength.

 

 

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