A press done by someone with good shoulder and t-spine mobility, sure. But for a person with poor posture and ROM from regular benching (without remedial work), the press is a risk.
the same could be said of the jerk. the olympics dropping it is a bad example because those guys had great mobility. the thing is - bench bros are bench bros. if we're talking "S&C", we're talking about people in the know, not bench bros but people who take training seriously and for a purpose. for the crowd interested in "S&C" the bench, the press and work for a perky b-cup has it's place (not the be all and end all) if i have an athlete who is likely to be involved in contact next season that whips his arm out to the side at 50 miles an hour and 200lbs of grizzly man behind it then im going to make sure he's benching and doing back work because weighted push ups arent going to progress fast enough (within the next few months which is the time frame between seasons) to a point where the athlete is strong enough or used to handling enough load to resist getting his arm whipped out (or to at least reduce the injury associated)
dude we've just had multiple people establish a direct correlation between injury prevention and bench pressing, as well as the fact that it's the single best way to strengthen arm pushing in general. that hardly makes it "only useful for powerlifting". i don't like bench pressing either, so i don't bench press, but you come across like all of your ancestors died in tragic bench press accidents or something i bet you'd like benching if you did it while doing the splits :ban:
I WILL CRUSH THE BARBELLERS, SEE THEM DRIVEN BEFORE ME, AND HEAR THE LAMENTATION OF THEIR WOMENZ! All while doing le splits, of course!
i officially triple dare you to have someone bench press you holding you by the thighs while you do the splits. with video proof.
I'd volunteer but frankly wouldn't know whether to hold him facing towards me or away. Either one sounds horrific.
