The Bench Press & Football
Why the bench press isn’t the be all and end all to upper body strength in footy
The most commonly performed exercise at the gym by just about any male (with an honorable mention to the various forms of bicep curls), the bench press is not surprisingly a staple of every footy players strength training program, regardless of what their age and ability is. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with this – the bench press is the number 1 upper body exercise for developing upper body strength in the pushing pattern, in terms of the absolute load that you are able to lift. However, the limitation with the bench press exercise in terms of its relevance to football, is the fact that simply improving your bench press will not automatically transfer over to a stronger push in a game of footy. This may come as a bit of a surprise, so we will cover the key reasons why.