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Bench press pad widths

P

PTC

Member
I read an extremely good article tonight on bench press benches.

It seems odd that the same size bench is used for 44kg women and 180kg men.

Anyway, it appears that benching on a narrow pad can cause quite a few problems for lifters. By narrow, I mean 30cm wide for the SHW guys. Most are 25cm wide

It has to do with overhang, any body part not supported by the bench can lead to shoulder/pec issues. It was a 4 page article so I'm not going to go into it completely.

I am having a bench made as I have not found one that I like on the market, I've stated this previously a few times.

The custom bench will be used in my ProRaw competitions. Even the Forza is not quite wide enough. It will be okay in a comp where you perform 3 reps, but its training thats the real issue, the place where you perform thousands of reps.

Obviously guys under 100kg or narrow lifters shouldnt stress too much, but guys like Steve and Nathan, who are quite large and bench massive weights, they may need to address this.

Most relate shoulder/pec issues with big guys because they use heavy weights, but heavy is relevant.

Even before I read this I disliked my BP, its only 25cm wide. I do have a 30cm wide incline bench thats a great flat bench, I may get the guys benching on that for a while.
 
I mentioned this in a review I did on the muscle motion. Standard powerlifting comp benches are 30cm - thats a big change in technique compared to a 25cm.

Hope its not too much of an issue though as I dont mind my 25cm bench.

Btw Markos I think I can hook you up to a 30cm flat bench, also a few comp bench presses have gone on ebay if you keep your eyes peeled.
 
I've got the muscle motion commercial flat, I think it's too narrow and I'm only 71kgs.
 
Its not limited to one brand. As far as I know, nobody makes a bench/bench press any wider than 30cm.

Mine will be closer to 35cm.

Some of the stats on lifters/injuries/pad width/ shoulder width I've read are eye openers. So much common sense
 
macmad said:
I wouldn't read too much into that Donnie Thompson article
Click to expand...


It made a lot of sense to me. My BP is 25cm wide, I dont like it

Whenever we use my 30cm wide bench, everyone comments on how better it feels.

The floor press comments also made sense, dont you think Paul?
 
When I bought a bench from our good friend Adrian at Gymdirect I noticed that it had a bench pad that was narrow at the top end (25cm) and wide at the bottom (30cm). A strange design to me, as if you wanted more support for your fat arse than for your broad shoulders, it certainly looked very aerodynamic in case I ever wanted to launch it through the air.

Adrian and I talked about it and when he dropped it off I unscrewed the pad, turned it around and put it back on 'properly'. Much better. I have a second hand one as well now, 31cm in width, so much better than the 25cm ones.
 
Markos - if you are having one made - what grade of foam is going to be used?
is there specific types for exercise benches?
 
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