OldSchool75 and other strength coaches

[boneal52]

Is it popular to test your guys on incline bench press? It would seem much more aplicable to the field than a flat press. I would say it is the most directly useful of all the "pressing lifts." Of course we all know that squats and cleans are where you need to excell though.

[sneakypete]

Inclines are the most applicable pressing lift to playing football, but not to getting bigger and stronger. You can lift more weight on a flat bench with still a wide range of motion (as opposed to declines) which eventually means weight and/or strength gains that would outdo those coming from inclines. However, to answer your question, I know some schools .do test on inclines.

[boneal52]

Interesting point. Thanks for the info. But just to strike a question, you can obviously lift more on a flat press, and it will give you a greater total strength gain, but if they incline is still more applicable why isn't it stressed more I wonder? Just a thought.

[crazebear]

Push presses should be included either with a bar or, if available, the Hammer Ground Based Jammer. They are just as appplicable, if not more so, than the incline. Explosive exercise develops explosive athletes. Performing a grind out max on the bench may develop strength, but not power. The lifts used should translate to the field. Otherwise it is just glorified bodybuilding.

[sneakypete]

Not exactly. You're right that football players need explosive power to carry over to the field, but they also need size and strength to compete and help prevent injuries throughout a season. So the idea of a workout being made up of explosion lifts probably wouldn't be the best. However, a mixture of the two (such as Bigger,Stronger,Faster) is a good football workout in the offseason. That would include power lifts (squats, bench, inclines) as well as explosion lifts (power-cleans, push press, snatches).

[wardawg2038]

I believe those are all good and valid responses. We total on four lifts during max day, Push Press, Power Clean, Parallel Squat with a beeper or top of the thigh call by a coach , and Bench Press. We also max on Incline but mainly for lifting purposes. We use a precentage weight for our Core lifts which include the incline. So to get this we must max on the incline. I feel that the incline along with the close-grip Incline( a variation we use are both more football specific than bench press but I see the need for total body strength in sports so we do both and get toatals from our 4 "power lifts" as we call them.

[OldSchool75]

boneal,

 

first of all congrats an the huge victory in Chatt. I was at the game on the field and could not be more proud to be a Topper.

This is a good question. I went to the NSCA conference this year and some schools do not even max test on the bench press (i.e. Nebraska). It does not mean that one is right and the other is not, just that there are different philosophies on speed and strength training. The current theme is for power and explosion. Bench press is tested more for strength, unless you make it an explosive workout using bands, chains, or with a pause. If this is the case then the weight will be lightened. The incline is more specific considering the angles of the movement. However, again it is not as explosive as you would use it in competition. That is why they came out with the jammer, and med balls are great for this also. We test on the bench press because the kids get all fired up for it, but I do not solely base the workouts on having a better bench. Using explosive power movements like clean pulls, hang cleans, powercleans, split jerk, and a variety of med ball exercises, plate punches, resistance bands, and sand bags will assist in explosive power.

So to answer your question, I think, the incline is more realsitic in the angles of a football player punch, but it noes not provide strength from the entire chest. The bench typically has a higher max due to the entire chest being used, along with the front deltoids and the triceps (if the elbows are in). The bench is more of a motivation builder, than a proper test for football players.

I am only going by what I know, I am sure others will disagree. Good luck boneal, Train hard and be safe.

[boneal52]

Wardawg2038, what school is this at?

[boneal52]

Thanks for the words and input. I've never trained with the bands or chains or anything like that though. It sounds interesting. We're in the early stages of the winter program and haven't done any tests yet, but I'll let ya know how it runs. I am guessing that we'll do Squat, Bench (though coach thinks its a little more glorified also), and Hang Clean. Outside of that the tests will be running and jumps I think. Forty, broad jump, vertical, shuttle, etc. Good luck with the offseason.

[OldSchool75]

boneal, do you guys do any overhead platform work, ex. snatch, split jerk, push press(jerk)? How does the weightroom look? Are you guys gonna get the new facilities anytime soon?

[billygoat2]

Sneaky, I'm having some problems with the explosion thing. You got any good exercises that could help me out?

[boneal52]

There was a grant donated for like 1.7 million I think right after the championship game. Ironic eh? That is gonna go to new facilities. There'll be a new weight room, training room, coaches offices, study hall, computer lab, and all that fanciness. That wont be for a while though, but at least its in the making. The weight room now is somewhat shabby, but it gets the job done. We got plates, bars, racks and platforms and it produced a decent team last year , so we can live with it a little longer. But for our lifts, we do snatches (mostly from a hang position, and most often as part of a routine he calls a "complex") push press, sometimes clean and press. Occasionanly he'll throw some new stuff at us, but usually that's the bulk of it.