bench press

I guess my gut feeling is this is hog wash. I really don't think a bench press and a push-up are that different. Certainly not enough that one would be encouraged and the other discouraged for swimmers. I'll say this, though. Whenever I've been swimming a lot I have a hard time benching much weight. The time in my life where I wasn't swimming at all is the time I was able to bench press the most weight. Granted I focused on weight training more at that time and that might be the only reason for the difference.

That's interesting. The part of the article that mentions bench press says, "...When developing upper body strength for swimming purposes, you want to concentrate on swimming specific muscles, specific swimming movements and range of motion. THE LAST EXERCISE YOU WANT TO PERFORM IS THE BENCH PRESS. This will decrease your swimming ability. When you are in the water, what stroke has the same range of motion as the bench press? NONE! When you are pushing a large amount of weight (greater than 60% of your body weight) away from your body, you are destroying the rotator cuff muscles. When performing the bench press, too much of the weight is supported and stabilized by the rotator cuff muscles. These are the most important muscles for swimming. Have you ever wondered why so many swimmers have shoulder problems? One, because of poor stroke technique, and two, because of improper resistance training. On the other hand, one of the best exercises for swimming is a push-up. The push-up only uses about 40-50% of your body weight with more of the weight evenly distributed to the rotator cuff muscles, deltoid muscles, and pectoralis muscles. Have you noticed that when you get fatigued from doing push-ups, you feel the fatigue evenly distributed between your chest and arms?..." I hadn't really heard this before. I guess my question would be, what about doing bench presses with less weight but more reps? The article implies that it's the bench press with a lot of weight that is a bad thing. Anna Lea

right. a bench press only isolates the chest and shoulders, while a push up uses core muscles to support yourself. i suppose a bench press with light weights would be ok, but would it be better to just do push ups for the core streangth trainning? what does everyone else think?

So bench press could increase this imbalance, making the situation worse. But do you think push-ups are substantially different?

I don't do dips anymore, I used to be very good at them. I could do 10 reps with 100 extra pounds and 45 or 50 reps in a row if I had no extra weight I'm addicted to dips, nothing seems to burn the triceps like them. Any good substitutions?

In college (many many years ago) I was a big bench presser. I added strength and size easily. But I just started a weights program and so far am not doing any bench at all. For several reasons - 1) my shoulders are a bit fragile now, 2) I just don't see the value to any swimming stroke to have an unusually strong pectoral muscle. Actually, I think it helps us breaststrokers, since our arms are doing mostly sculling and not "pulling". I'm just getting back into the weights but see value in flys, pec deck, etc. I think the idea is to keep the weights pretty low and the reps pretty high. No reason to "bulk up" on the bench...

However, the best muscle building for the triceps will come from doing dips. I'm not convinced this is true. Yes dips are very demanding of the triceps. But dips also require your shoulder joint to bear most of your body weight. Triceps can be worked in isolation very easily - with a standing push down via bar+cable or with dumbbells - one or both triceps at a time. Each of these alternatives avoid stress on the shoulder joint itself. In college (many many years ago) I was a big bench presser. I added strength and size easily. But I just started a weights program and so far am not doing any bench at all. For several reasons - 1) my shoulders are a bit fragile now, 2) I just don't see the value to any swimming stroke to have an unusually strong pectoral muscle.

But do you think push-ups are substantially different? I would say they are not very different at all. Each of us should have an idea of what our shoulders are capable of dealing with. Additionally, we should be wise enough to listen to our bodies when they scream uncle. For me, bench pressing and push ups are not on the menu anymore.

But do you think push-ups are substantially different? No.

Terry Laughlin tore a portion of his rotator cuff doing bench press and was faced with a long recovery that involved surgery as I recall. Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that bench pressing is outright bad for swimmers. I do think that bench pressing with shoulders that are already overworked from swimming is an invitation to a disaster though. Same thing happened to me in college. Having compromised shoulders, I never bench press now. There are plenty of other ways to get strong.