July 14, 2020
A Rambling History of the Incline Bench Press | Art of Health with Alexander Juan Cortes
Key Takeaways
- Around 2014, AJAC started to experiment with the incline press and found that he was getting a great pump from it and it didn’t hurt his shoulders
- Bill Starr, the author of The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football, made the bench press the precedent lift
- However, he didn’t consider it to be the most effective upper-body lift because it doesn’t truly mimic athletic movement
- The problem in the 1970-80s was that barely any schools or gyms had incline benches so Bill made a compromise and told people to do the bench press
- The incline bench also works out your shoulders”It actually builds your shoulders and upper-chest very effectively” – AJAC
Introduction
Host: Alexander Juan Cortes (@AJA_Cortes)
Books Mentioned
- Bill Starr, the author of The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football, made the bench press the precedent lift
History of the Bench Press
- The rise of strongmen started around the 1900s and consisted of mostly men from the circus
- The barbell was created around the 1910s by companies such as York Barbell
- However, the bench press still didn’t exist nor did weight-lifting machines like the leg press
- Around the 1930s and 1940s, bodybuilding started to become a thing
- George Hackenschmidt was one of the first people to popular the floor press (laying on the floor and pressing the barbell up)
- Slowly, other bodybuilders started to experiment with different workouts, such as padding a crate and laying on it to bench press
- Around the 1950s, bench pressing became a common lift
- Reg Park was the figure in the bodybuilding work who put a lot of emphasis on benching
- Reg Park later mentored Arnold Schwarzenegger
AJAC & The Incline Press
- AJAC no longer bench presses because it caused him to separate his shoulder twice
- He prefers to do a dumbbell press
- Around 2014, AJAC started to experiment with the incline press and found that he was getting a great pump from it and it didn’t hurt his shoulders
- Bill Starr, the author of The Strongest Shall Survive: Strength Training for Football, made the bench press the precedent lift
- However, he didn’t consider it to be the most effective upper-body lift because it doesn’t truly mimic athletic movement
- The problem in the 1970-80s was that barely any schools or gyms had incline benches so Bill made a compromise and told people to do the bench press
- The incline bench also works out your shoulders
- “It actually builds your shoulders and upper-chest very effectively” – AJAC