page_title: Bench press
section_title: Muscles
hierarchical_section_title: Bench press / Muscles
caption_attribution_description: Almog Dayan, IPA's world champion 2007 in "Bench Only" category, performing a bench-press, Israel 2007.
context_page_description: The bench press is an upper-body weight training exercise in which the trainee presses a weight upwards while lying on a weight training bench. The exercise uses the pectoralis major, the anterior deltoids, and the triceps, among other stabilizing muscles. A barbell is generally used to hold the weight, but a pair of dumbbells can also be used.
  The barbell bench press is one of three lifts in the sport of powerlifting alongside the deadlift and squat, and is the only lift in the sport of Paralympic powerlifting. It is also used extensively in weight training, bodybuilding, and other types of training to develop the chest muscles.
context_section_description: A conventional bench press uses the pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, and coracobrachialis muscles to horizontally adduct the shoulder. It also uses predominantly triceps and anconeous to extend the elbows. Wider hand spacing places a greater emphasis on shoulder flexion and narrower hand spacing utilizes more elbow extension. Because of this, wider hand spacing is associated with training the pectorals and narrower hand spacing is associated with training the triceps.
  In addition to the major phasic (dynamic) muscles the bench press also uses tonic (stabilizing) muscles: scapular stabilizers (serratus anterior, middle and inferior trapezius), humeral head stabilizers (rotator cuff muscles), and core (transverse abdominis, obliques, multifidus, erector spinae, quadratus lumborum)
caption: A female athlete performing a bench press at the IPA world championship 2007, in the "Bench Only" category
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