| Bench Pressing is still safe |
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| Tuesday, 29 September 2009 19:08 | |||
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I'm not sure if you need to be a southern Californian, or a die hard college football fan to have heard the news about USC tail-back Stafon Johnson's injury. He was seriously injured while performing the bench press. One thing I can be sure of is that you do not have to eliminate this great exercise from your training program, or decide against ever adding it. I say this because one other thing I'm sure about is that some trainers will use this as an opportunity to speak out against this particular exercise, or weight training in general. There are still individuals that spread the rumor that certain exercises, such as squats and bench presses, are bad for you. I completely disagree. Done properly (using correct form and proper progression), the bench press is no more dangerous for the average person than bending over to tie your shoelace. The argument that bench presses are bad for your shoulders is usually due to instances of overuse- not switching the exercises in your program periodically, or improper form, not setting the scapula to emphasize the stronger prime mover muscles of the chest during the exercise.I do not know every detail about Mr. Johnson's accident. I did read that he was being spotted by an assistant strength coach. I do not know what kind of grip he was using or what percentage of his one repetition maximum he had loaded on the bar. I did hear a USC coach state that it was a "freak accident", so do not believe that it was because he was doing an unsafe exercise.
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