Hey Jim I live in Southern California where many lawn chair quarterback coach parents have their kids specialize and play a sport year round. Many of whom think their kid is going to be the next Nolan Ryan. What are your thoughts on these types of athletes, specificly baseball and volleyball players bench pressing? I’ve seen some coaches axe the lift from their programs and others use it. I was thinking for my brother and his friends who fall into that demographic that a swiss bar would be a good alternative. Also when, "Season " officially starts switching from the press to swiss press. Thank you for your time!
You may be interested in reading this if you haven’t already seen it.
These kids are not made of glass. Luckily I do have control over what my athletes do - and these kids are more than athletes to me. I also don’t cloud my lack of skills with trends.
And specialization is not going to be part of my kids’ life: what other parents do to their children and the BS that spews from coaches mouth is not my concern. I’m guessing you can figure out how I feel about this issue.
But like I said - I’m no busybody and I’m in the business of being a better father to my kids; I am not a father to anyone else’s.
I understand the hesitation to have them bench press - mostly due to a risk of shoulder impingement. The bench press itself isn’t necessarily the issue, but it can compound the effect of throwing/overhead hitting (humeral elevation and internal rotation at the glenohumeral joint). Heavy bench pressing in season could present issues so that is something I would avoid generally. Upper back and rotator cuff training is very, very important for those athletes specifically, so keep that in the mix.
In regards to bench pressing, I would opt to “train to maintain” in season. Make very gradual and small increases in the training max (if one is used). Otherwise, utilize something like a dumbbell bench press with a neutral grip or the Swiss bar, like you mentioned - this will somewhat reduce the risk of developing a shoulder impingement from combined pressing and throwing/overhead hitting.
If you have any further questions I’ll do my best to answer them.
So im guessing it would be better to be safer than sorry and opt for the swiss bar when benching with my brother?( and pressing to ?) With the end goal to make him a more stronger, mobile, and explosive athlete, without sacrificing his health. It just blows my mind that I’m asking this question because I played several sports growing up for years and questions concerning my training like this never were a concern, i just went to the gym and lifted.
I never knew it would be an issue until I took some courses on training and sport medicine. Some people are also just predisposed anatomically to develop impingement, just as some people are built in a way they likely would never develop it.
I agree, Swiss bar in season and maybe some straight bar in the off season for variety.