What does everyone think of the dead bench. I love it because it is so specific to the pause bench and it is an amazing strength builder. It is also like the deadlift of pressing exercises because you either get it your you don’t. There is no bouncing the bar off you chest and you don’t need a spot so the spotter isn’t going to move the bar. tell me your experiences with this exercise.
I’ve done it before & enjoyed the movement,though I can’t say it actually did anything magic for my regular bench numbers etc.
It’s useful.
I think it is a good variation to throw in after your normal bench pressing. Building more starting power is not going to hurt your bench that’s for sure.
Don’t know why but it destroys my shoulders like no other movement.
I like them, especially when you have to fight to get it going, grind through the sticking point then explode into lockout.
Probably bad for you when they’re that heavy haha
1 Like
Is this a pin press where you unrack and lower onto pins at chest level pause then go?
You start off the pins. Best to do a single rep.
The dead bench is not much more than your pause. For some people including me it is a little less than my pause bench but not by much. It isn’t bad for you if you use good form.
Ran a ROM progression cycle of it chain suspended. Eventually worked it to 350lbs from the chest
Went for another cycle, didn’t make it halfway through. Found it pretty unsustainable, then went back to regular benching.
1 Like
You did it in place of regular benching?
For that training cycle, yeah.
Josh Bryant, who is pretty much the biggest proponent of dead benching and coaches some of the top bench pressers, says specifically not to do them in place of regular benches. Apparently it can mess up your stretch shortening cycle, plus you need to practice the eccentric portion of the bench. Most likely you would have gotten better results if you did some regular benching on top of that.
Maybe, but I was training it to supplement strongman, not powerlifting.
So you are doing it to increase your OHP? You can do dead OHP as well, Josh mentioned that he got good results with that.
Yup. And just ability to overcome in general.
Pretty much all my pressing is dead pressing.
That works good for you or what?
If you are doing log press for reps then only the first rep is really a “dead” press, after that you would want to get the most you can out of the stretch reflex.
Good enough. It mimics the demands of the sport too
Yup.
DEfinitely worth a try.
I’ve only been doing pause bench lately, and just started doing them against since my last meet prep in Jan-March 2017
I have a teammate who does pin presses, which looks fun, and also static holds with way heavier than his bench (benches 335, but does static holds of 405+) which just look hard.
Isn’t all OHPing dead? Well, rep one anyway