What Muscles Are Used In A Bench Press
These are the muscles that contribute to pressing the bar in the vertical plane of motion.
What muscles are used in a bench press. The muscle that provides the most oomph to power a bench press is the pectoralis major the large beefy chest muscle that s readily visible on men who have well developed chests the pectoralis major is somewhat less readily visible on women because much of it lies beneath the breasts. Although typically considered a chest exercise the bench press works several muscles in the upper body including the pectoralis major deltoids and triceps. The muscle groups used in bench press exercises. While the bench press can benefit from a solid leg drive the majority of the movement is produced by the muscles in the upper body.
We intuitively understand that there s a lot going. This is due to its effect on overall upper body strength and toning. The bench press is one of the exercises in the official lift list for the level 2 fitness instructor course accredited. The bench press is a fairly popular exercise in most fitness centers.
The muscles used for bench press will change based on the angle of the bench flat decline incline grip on the bar narrow or wide and range of motion trained bottom end or top end. The exact muscles worked depend on the style of bench press you do incline decline or flat. Depending on your goals there are different variations of. But for those that aren t as familiar with all of the benefits of this movement we are going to quickly discuss the muscles used in bench press so that you can see for yourself just how valuable an exercise the bench truly is.
The bench press is a compound exercise working all of the pushing muscles in one go. Because there is some confusion as to what role certain muscles have in the bench press i have listed all of the major muscles in the upper body and listed their relative contribution to the bench press. The bench press is typically performed with a barbell loaded with weighted plates and is performed lying on a weight bench. A landmark study in the 1995 issue of the journal of strength and conditioning research found that when comparing incline decline and flat presses the flat press offers the most activation for the lower part of the pecs known as the sternocostal head.
In general the muscles used for bench press are the pecs shoulders and triceps. The bench press is one of the most popular and widely used upper body strength and hypertrophy building movements. You can use a. The primary muscle targeted with the bench press is the pectoral or chest muscle.
In this guide we will discuss the bench press the muscles worked and some very. Because the bench press primarily targets the upper. Bench presses are an exercise that can be used to tone the muscles of the upper body including the pectorals arms and shoulders.