The bench press is not dangerous for baseball players. It’s not dangerous for pitchers, either. If your goal is to add strength, power and athletic function, the move is highly valuable and should not be pushed to the side by ballplayers (or anyone) brainwashed by dogmatic, antiquated thinking.
I can remember a major league trainer telling me that I shouldn’t do traditional bench presses because they were “bad for my shoulders,” or would make me “tight through my chest.” These misguided narratives seemed to be especially (and egregiously) spread by pitchers who, to this day, roll their eyes at the sight of a teammate doing any aggressive pushing exercise like the bench or overhead press. Here’s one example of the unreasonable fear mongering out there:
Your hands are free to move during the Bench Press, but your shoulder blades are glued down against the bench by possibly hundreds of pounds of weight.
But your shoulder blade must move when you throw, especially when your arm is overhead. To see what I mean, take your shirt off, stand with your back to a mirror and raise your arm straight overhead. You can clearly see how much your shoulder blade moves.
If you develop your upper body with your shoulder blades locked down, as in the Bench, you will reduce mobility and shoulder range of motion. Not exactly an ideal scenario for an athlete who relies on the ability to get his arms overhead and throw a baseball.
First, your shoulder blades are not “locked down” when we bench, particularly if we are benching explosively. They may not be flying all over the place, but they are not immobile. Unless you’re uber-focused on it, there will be plenty of contorting going on back there. Plenty of machine exercises lock the body into one plane of motion, but using a bar isn’t going to cement your shoulder blades to the bench.
Second, reduction of mobility isn’t a result of what we do as much as what we don’t do. So sure, if all we ever did was bench press, we would create a lack of balance and potentially limit our flexibility. This is true whether we’re discussing bench presses, squats, or any other singular exercise. This isn’t a real world scenario though. Humans, and baseball players in specific, do many other activities. It may be balancing our weight training with yoga, pull-ups or explosive running, or with more sport-specific endeavors like throwing and swinging. The bench press is but a single exercise in our vast group of options, and it’s a particularly powerful one.
for the goals of improved strength, increased muscle size, improved athletic function, and improved general fitness, the bench press is the best exercise for the upper body.
Specifically, the bench press has direct impact on bat speed:
The relationships between bat swing speed and upper-body strength values were examined. Additionally, the t-test was used to reveal the mean differences between 14 home run hitters (group A) and 16 mediocre hitters (group B) for each measurement value. The bat swing speed showed significant and middle correlations with the 1RM BP (r = 0.59), bench power (0.41), and isokinetic chest press (0.48-0.55). Group A had significantly higher values in bench power and isokinetic chest press (high-speed) per kilogram of body weight than did group B.
and throwing velocity:
The results indicate that throwing velocity of elite team-handball players is related to maximal dynamic strength, peak power, and peak bar velocity. Thus, a training regimen designed to improve ball-throwing velocity in elite male team-handball players should include exercises that are aimed at increasing both strength and power in the upper body.
Many baseball strength coaches have removed their benches and their straight bars in favor of bosu balls and dumbbells or balance boards. While unbalanced and isolated training is undoubtedly valuable, it’s not a substitute for the compound lifts. The bench, the squat, the deadlift and the row still reign supreme over isolation exercises when it comes to power production. For athletes, power rules.
Strong mind,
Kap
I’ve learned through my last 5 years of coaching- both in CrossFit and powerlifting settings- that the only people who don’t believe the bench press is a useful movement for power development are the people who can’t bench press much weight to begin with.
Yes, it may not be the most “functional” movement ever because you’re lying on a bench, but it’s the easiest way to develop the muscle groups that generate force in a horizontal push. That being said, I’ve actually argued with CrossFit enthusiasts (I am one, for the record) that handstand walks are more functional.
Sigh.
Kap,
I am a big fan of your blog, but I respectfully disagree with much of this. I know you’re not one to shy away from spirited debate, so here are my thoughts:
I would agree that the bench press is not really dangerous for a baseball player, but to me it’s more a question of is it productive or not. I feel that Tony brings up some valid points in the Stack article you linked to that I would consider to be more informative than “fear-mongering” (Tony is very qualified too, and he is a co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance – I believe Eric Cressey had a great guest post on here some time ago). Here is a post from Eric’s website that I think also brings up some fair points: http://www.ericcressey.com/should-pitchers-bench-press
And I question the validity of that study regarding the relationship between bench press and bat speed. While I definitely agree that having a strong upper body can be beneficial to a hitter, I don’t believe that the actual “pushing” motion of bench press is integral to a good swing. Furthermore, because the swing is such a dynamic full-body movement, I feel like that study leaves out several variables that would be important to consider, namely their lower-body strength (I believe most of a hitter’s power, and therefore bat speed comes from their lower half) and what their actual swing mechanics look like (does their swing allow them to get their bat on-plane early and pick up the most bat speed possible?)
Hey Kap!
I’m a supporter of moderate use of bench-press for baseball players. You’ve got to build flexible muscle, and take it easy on the shoulders. I spend a lot more time on sport-specific motion strength-training than straight bench press.
I grew-up playing baseball, then switched to swimming and water polo during my high school and college years. I got back into playing baseball years ago (Sunday league and annual Dirtbags alumni game!), and have found that combining the workouts has only increased my strength, flexibility, and durability!
I recently turned 47, and can still turn a good fastball around on occasion!