Why CrossFitters Should Bench Press

Increase Horizontal Pressing Strength

The bench press is unlike all the other horizontal pressing exercises in that it is extremely effective at increasing the strength of the horizontal pressing movement and the muscles which are required to perform this movement pattern. The bench press can be performed at heavy weights for low repetitions, this is ideal for strength training as it is the most effective way to increase the force of a contraction. Other exercises like press ups and ring dips will not have this effect for individuals who are not beginners.

The strength in the horizontal press movement is important and will be hugely beneficial to exercises like press ups, ring dips and ring muscle ups, all essential to Crossfit performance. For female individuals who want to improve Crossfit performance the bench press is an excellent option because they will likely need to build high levels of strength in the upper body in order to perform the complex gymnastics. This is also the case for males, especially males who have not done any strength training prior to starting CrossFit.

Increase Muscle Mass of Upper Body

When we take a look at individuals who are competitive in the sport of Crossfit, they have huge amounts of muscle mass. This is because crossfiters need to have a large amount of muscle in order to perform the tasks that are asked of them. The bench press can be used very effectively to gain muscle mass. This will involve performing high repetitions with lighter weights.

How To Implement The Bench Press Into Your Programme

In order to effectively implement the bench press into your training regime, it can be added in prior to your typical workout (WOD). The ideal scenario would be to add it into your programming when you have a cardiovascular based workout after, this will ensure you are not performing to much pressing in one workout and accumulate to much fatigue. Using the guidelines below, add either the bench press to increase strength or hypertrophy and perform a cycle of between 4-12 weeks.

Strength Guidelines

Sets - 4-6

Repetitions - 1-6

Weekly Sets - 8-12

Hypertrophy Guidelines

Sets - 4-6

Repetitions - 8-15+

Weekly Sets - 10-20

Why CrossFitters Typically Do Not Bench Press

Cultural Reasons

There is a huge divide between Crossfit and body building, from the get go Crossfit has attempted to brand itself as “functional training” and therefor has tried to move away from exercises like the bench press and the DB bench press. This really doesn’t make any sense because they are more than willing to perform press ups and dips by the hundreds, so adding a healthy dose of horizontal pressing into the programming doesn’t seem like the worst idea. This identification of functionality lead to bench press appearing very rarely in competitions and in daily workouts.

Not a High Priority Lift

The bench press is not a competition lift, although it does show up every now and again, it isn’t the burpee which will show up in some way or form every competition. This lack of competition emphasis pretty much eradicated it from the traditional CrossFit programming.

Strength Required in A Variety of Other Lifts

The strength required to perform CrossFit to a relatively high level is very challenging to obtain. This means a great deal of time needs to go into strength development in exercises that show up constantly like the squat, deadlift and olympic weightlifting. This time requirement means that there is much less time and much less energy to perform the bench press.