The Effects Of Leg-drive On Bench Press Performance: Results Of A 5-week Training Study

Among common resistance training methods, the bench press is often implemented to train upper body strength. Recently, curiosity regarding the potential impact of lower extremity involvement on overall bench press performance has gained in popularity. While the effectiveness of bench press training on strength has been shown in the literature, many suggestions as to the importance of leg-drive have been offered. Yet, to our knowledge, no studies have evaluated the impacts of leg-drive technique on bench press performance. PURPOSE: To determine if bench press training with leg-drive elicits similar strength characteristics to a standard bench press in strength and body fat measures after 5 weeks of bench press only training. METHODS: 23 apparently healthy, college-age men were randomized into two groups: standard bench press (STD) (n = 12, age 22.2 ± 2.3 yrs, height 173.2 ± 6.8 cm, mass 75.1 ± 7.5 kg), and leg-drive (LD) (n = 11, age 22.5 ± 1.9 yrs., height 176.8 ± 5.0 cm, mass 82.0 ± 10.4 kg). Pre and post analyses of bench press 1-repetition maximum (1RM), and changes in body fat percentage were conducted. Average bench-press volume was determined on a weekly basis. The training consisted of two sessions per week for five weeks of either standard bench press or bench press using leg-drive. For each session, participants completed four sets of bench press to volitional fatigue at 80% of his 1RM. During week three of training, a new 1RM was conducted to determine whether to move the participant up in weight. A 2 x 2 repeated measures ANOVA (RMANOVA) was conducted for 1 RM and body fat, and a 2 x 5 RMANOVA was conducted for average weekly lifting volume. RESULTS: Significant condition main effects were found with both groups experiencing an approximate 5% increase in 1RM strength (p-values < 0.001), and an approximate 0.5% reduction in body fat percentage (p = 0.040). A condition main effect was found for average lifting volume (p = 0.041) and post-hoc analysis revealed that week three was significantly higher than all other weeks. No significant group main effects were observed for any of the variables (all p-values > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Five weeks of bench press training did result in favorable strength outcomes for both groups, but leg-drive focused training did not produce noticeable changes in performance compared to the standard bench press.