Army bench press

The military bench press is an ordinary bench press. And the army is a bench press on his shoulders, he is a bench press from his chest, he is a bench press of a bar standing. Basic exercise, used not only in bodybuilding, but also in the training of weightlifters and powerlifters. Quite popular, but considered controversial, many athletes believe that it is the cause of spinal injuries, hernias and protrusions. When executed correctly, this is not so. On the contrary, the movement teaches to stabilize the spine under load, and is very useful for everyone who wants to find a balance between the development of physical qualities and the beauty of the body.

Content

  • 1 working muscles
  • 2 Benefits of the Army Bench Press
  • 3 disadvantages of exercise
  • 4 Technique
  • 5 Technical errors
    • 5.1 Incorrect path
    • 5.2 Hash in styles and exercises
    • 5.3 Big ego
    • 5.4 Inclusion of legs, back, and body
    • 5.5 Heel-toe toggles
    • 5.6 Excessive training volume
    • 5.7 Lack of mobility in the joints

Working muscles

The movement is carried out due to the triceps, the front and middle heads of the deltoid muscles and, partly, the back delta. The muscles of the legs, buttocks, and body work as stabilizers. It is a mistake to assume that the army bench is an exercise involving the calf muscles in the work. This is a technical error if the athlete pushes the weight upside down. With proper execution, a schwung will turn out, with incorrect execution, its mediocre imitation.

Some articles directly claim that this movement helps to build chest. In fact, the pectoral muscles contract, working as a stabilizer for the shoulders, and gradually stretch when the athlete puts the barbell behind his head. But the load cannot be considered sufficient for their hypertrophy. Significant confusion arose because many authors confused the military-style bench press and the army one. Bench press in a military style is usually called a bench press without rest, and army bench press.

The stabilizers can not be turned off from standing motion. Therefore, the ideas about the implementation of this movement in Smith are better left without implementation. Smith Trainer is a fixed barbell with a trajectory that is suitable only for the bench press from behind while sitting, but not for the bench press. Some simulators simulate an elliptical trajectory to make bench presses more natural, but not every shoulder can work in that trajectory. Therefore, the option with the Smith machine is better not to use.

Turning off stabilizers from work in basic exercises is a very irrational exercise. Athletes make a base in order to develop all the muscles of the body and activate neuromuscular connections, and not in order to later think how to adapt it so that the base is not a base.

Benefits of Army Bench Press

To begin with, this movement did not come from the preparation of US “fur seals”, as is customary to write everywhere in Runet, but as a traditional element of weightlifting training. The “cats” really do it, because a good army bench press will help to throw a bag on a support and pull out a wounded comrade if something happens. But who “invented” the exercise, one cannot say for sure. The lifting of weight above the head was known to the ancient Greeks, judging by the frescoes, and was always considered a good developing exercise.

The army bench allows you to build not so much the strength of the shoulders and triceps themselves as synergism in the movement of the legs, body, and arms. In addition, it allows you to increase the power indicators of the entire top of the body just due to stabilization. And it also serves as an excellent specially-preparatory movement for a good half of bench press exercises, and partly for power-speed exercises, such as jerks and jerks.

All this led to the high popularity of exercises in modern times. In fact, the masses were "infected" with this movement not in powerlifting, and not in bodybuilding, but in crossfit. When many people came to crossfit boxes in order to become as cool as those guys from the video, they found that not only strength indicators, but also endurance, as well as banal amplitude in the joints, were lacking. The army bench helps to build up all the necessary movements in crossfit, from throwing medballs from the chest, to weightlifting shocks. And it also serves to stabilize the shoulder joint in movements that are performed on the crossbar.

Old-school bodybuilders respected the army bench. Most of them, one way or another, trained with coaches who left Soviet weightlifting. In this form, lifting weights above the head is a basic movement.

The benefits of the exercise are not limited to its applied value for different disciplines. Being basic, it involves most of the muscles of the upper body in the work. This allows the athlete to effectively build muscle mass and activate neuromuscular connections, as a result, recruitment will really happen faster than if you deal only with isolation in exercise machines.

In addition to the shoulders, the movement works out triceps perfectly. It allows you to change the shape of the hands. Therefore, it is often the army press that is given to girls who want to quickly tone their hands, however paradoxical this may sound.

In the right technique, movement serves as an excellent prevention of problems arising from inadequate blood circulation in the cervical-collar zone. A number of sources mention that the army bench is the prevention of trapezium hypertonicity in the security forces, and headaches associated with muscle cramps.

Important: all the advantages of the army bench are revealed only when performing exercises in the correct technique

Disadvantages of exercise

For beginners, the movement has two serious drawbacks:

  1. The possibility of injury due to violations of technology;
  2. Risk of falling

Some athletes simply do not have time to “detach” their hands from the projectile and therefore fall back along with the barbell. This usually happens if the weight taken is too large. For beginner athletes, the movement carries many dangers, especially if a person cannot adequately assess the training volume. We are not talking about injuries and falls. Many athletes really want to build their shoulders faster, so they do an enormous amount of work on them. This causes inflammation in the soft tissues, and pain.

They say that the reason is the army bench itself, and it is forbidden to do it. But in fact, the reason is the abundance of different presses, and insufficient time and resources of the body to recover.

A beginner, whose strength is not yet enough to adequately stabilize the lower back in the exercise, can also suffer a back injury. Usually this is a displacement of the vertebra, protrusion or hernia. It is impossible to consider that the reason is only this movement. In practice, there are many more reasons, and one of them is the weakness of the anterior abdominal wall. Until the press is strengthened, it is recommended to wear an athletic belt. But this is not a panacea. The skill to keep your back neutral will still have to be worked out, no matter how you would like to do your whole life safely only at the expense of the belt.

Often there are injuries to the hands due to improper technique. Many do not put the bar in the middle of the palm, and do not provide uniform pressure, but simply try to redistribute the weight in such a way that it is convenient to lift. This is not always optimal for wrists. Hand wraps partially solve the problem of such athletes.

Execution technique

Technically, this is a difficult exercise. Before its implementation, a full joint warm-up is needed, and it is also simply necessary to activate the entire shoulder girdle. At the warm-up, you need to perform several series of circular rotations forward and backward.

The movement is performed as follows:

  1. you need to set the racks to a height that is suitable for the front squat. Vulture should lie down freely on the chest;
  2. the grip is shoulder-width apart, the athlete takes the barbell from two sides, the grip is tight enough, then the rib cage is brought under the bar and the athlete extends his legs, removing the barbell from the racks;
  3. the departure from the racks looks like in a classic squat. After that, the athlete pulls up the press, stabilizes the lower back, rests his feet on the platform, and with one movement along the elliptical trajectory squeezes the bar up;
  4. the correct trajectory of the projectile is upward along the arc behind the head, and not directly in front of you;
  5. lowering also occur smoothly;
  6. touching the chest in each movement is required only if the athlete works without pain and discomfort. Lowering itself is not a necessary element of the exercise.

After the end of the approach, the bar returns to the racks.

Technical errors

Wrong trajectory

Some people manage to depict from this movement a parody of a bench press. They press straight up at the highest point, pushing the bar from the body. It turns out quite a traumatic variation for the shoulders, which with an increase in weight also becomes the cause of falls. Another error of the trajectory is the installation of the barbell sharply behind the head, this option is not acceptable because it contributes to the unnatural overload of the cervical spine. The third error of the trajectory is the “press from the nose”, that is, the exercise at half amplitude.

Hash in styles and exercises

Some athletes confuse this movement with a bench press for the head according to the technique. They do not press their forearms to the body, but do all the work by pushing the weight away from themselves and moving it behind the head. In this case, the elbows are spread apart, and the shoulders at the start are parallel to the floor. Everything would be nice if it were this initial position that would not have caused subacromial syndrome. Using this technique is fraught with pain in the joints.

Big ego

Huge weights raised look cool. But then treating inflammation of the ligaments and muscle tears is not at all as great. Working weights should only increase when the movement technique allows them to increase. Everything else is still superfluous.

Inclusion of legs, back, and body

Some athletes, instead of a bench press, perform a half-push, shvung, whatever, just to push the weight with their feet. If you can’t squeeze the bar smoothly and with your hands, you just need to reduce the weight of the burden. It is not necessary to work with the help of the body and legs.

Rolling from heel to toe

Many people find it difficult to maintain weight so as not to lose balance during training. Such people should try to carefully maintain balance, transferring weight to the middle of the arch of the foot. If it doesn’t work out, and it only turns out to roll, it’s worth going to the bench press and working along the way to develop the muscles of the legs and bark.

Excessive Training Volume

This is common to all beginners. It seems to them that the program is for hacks, and they train the least in the gym. So a person begins to perform all the approaches that, in principle, can perform. The volume increases at times, but the intensity ceases to grow. The athlete experiences pain in the ligaments and joints, he does not become stronger, and his training just becomes another attempt to overcome himself. Over time, cumulative injuries appear, and a person refuses to do business.

Lack of mobility in the joints

It is sometimes written that movement cannot be performed only with arthrosis and osteochondrosis, but the problem is that a perfectly healthy person may be unable to make such an amplitude movement due to “office posture, ” that is, weakness of the back muscles during overload of the trapezium and pectoral. Over time, when the back is strengthened, it will be possible to more effectively lift weight over your head. Until this point, they recommend working with dumbbells.

Army bench press is a hard basic exercise. But the norm for an amateur is considered to be lifting about half of his weight in this movement, it is not necessary to force events. If a person cannot lift more weight without pain, you need to approach progress gradually, and be sure to actively engage in the prevention of injuries.

Exercise should be included in your workouts on a regular basis, but it is better not to train your shoulders more than 2 times a week if you are a beginner, and try not to overload them, even if you are an experienced athlete. It makes sense to do either a heavy bench press or a heavy bench press, rather than constantly making heavy both. Try to work efficiently, and you will be able to train effectively always.

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