Farsala said:
I did not mean to derail, as I appreciate threads like these. But of course if you practice bench press, you will get better at bench press... However transitioning from Calisthenics to a decent bench press would be quite easy. I may be biased as a primarily Calisthenics guy, but I think being strong enough to do frontlevers, one arm pull ups, impossible dips, and full planches are as strong if not stronger than being able to cat V on that list. |
Well, don't get me wrong. Those exercises you listed off definitely require a high degree of strength in stabilizing muscles. The planche for example requires you to hold your body in mid air, after doing a pushup, supported by your back, abs, glutes, and hamstrings. But ultimately the arms are only moving the same amount of weight, which is your bodyweight. Yes, your back, abs, glutes, and hamstrings would all have to be pretty strong to perform the balancing act, but strength in those muscles doesn't translate into a strong bench press.
The reason why people prefer heavy barbell work over Calisthenics is because heavy barbell work promotes growth in the fast twitch muscle fibers. Fast twitch muscle fibers grow quicker, from less work. They are also the "strong" muscle fibers, while slow twitch are the "endurance" muscle fibers. You can do 100 pushups and that isn't going to translate into a super strong bench press because you are recruiting, and training the weaker slow twitch fibers by doing that. Think of it as the Cheetah vs the Horse. In the same way that a horse will never be able to run at 60 MPH, the slow twitch fibers will never be able to generate enough pure force to put up better than an intermediate bench. And in the same way that a Cheetah is going to get gassed running for more than a little while, those fast twitch fibers also tend to get gassed easily. But not as easily as most people might think. When working at 1/3rd to 1/4th max capacity the fast twitch fibers can last a pretty long while, because not all of them are being recruited at once. So they kind of take turns like a relay race if you will. This is why people that can put up 100 pushups typically don't have the strength to bench at advanced levels, but people that can bench at advanced levels can still do 100 pushups.
But by all means if you want to give people advice on bodyweight exercises in this thread go for it. Anything is better than nothing.
