Planet Fitness is a widely spread fitness network known for its low rates, amenities, and spooky vibe. Many folks still do not seem happy and argue about the low charges, even though the service has proven wildly popular even among those who are too lethargic to go to a real gym.
When you think of a bench press, a barbell press is the first image that immediately comes to mind. Recent years, however, have seen a shift toward the use of dumbbells in commercial gyms, particularly for exercises that mainly involve the upper body. Even though dumbbells are very practical and simple to use exercise tools, mastering them may take some time.
The bench press, on the other hand, is arguably the most popular exercise equipment for building strength and muscles in the upper body. As you weigh the benefits of joining Planet Fitness, you may wonder if they have a bench press.
Let’s see if Planet Fitness offers a bench press and review everything else you need to know before signing up.
Does Planet Fitness Have Bench Press?
Bench presses and other free weight exercises are not available at Planet Fitness; instead, the gym offers Smith Machines as a bench press alternative. This is why Planet Fitness is not a good choice for folks who want to bulk up massively.
Planet Fitness is better suited for those who wish to improve their health, muscle mass, and level of physical activity. It is the best place to go if you want to gain muscle mass and strengthen your muscles.
Aside from those just starting, there is no need to go back to the beginning of the weight lifting process.
Weight lifting options at Planet Fitness are extremely limited and aimed solely at individuals seeking strength and leanness gains. It lacks the range of weights necessary to promote substantial muscle gain.
Why Doesn’t Planet Fitness Have a Bench Press?
As a company, Planet Fitness has established a distinct identity, one that speaks directly to those who are interested in leading healthy lifestyles. Those who want to get in shape can take advantage of the company’s nationwide network of fitness centers.
These facilities make no secret of the fact that they are not intended for serious weightlifters. It’s not the best option for professional weight lifters or anyone trying to increase their muscle mass drastically.
If you visit Planet Fitness, you’ll notice that they don’t have any real weightlifting machines. Aside from a few treadmills, this gym lacks many weight-lifting options. You might want to skip Planet Fitness if your goal is to gain a massive amount of muscle mass.
There aren’t many options with bar weights, so you might as well go elsewhere if you are looking for these kinds of equipment.
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The Benefits of Using A Bench Press
The mainstay in any gym’s weight training routine for increasing push strength and bulking up the chest is the bench press. The bench press is a popular choice for strength training since it targets the pectoralis major muscle group and produces impressive results.
Although Planet Fitness doesn’t have a bench press, it still is a good idea to become familiar with the benefits if you are still thinking about joining a gym and wonder how a bench press would help you build a muscular body.
The following are some benefits of using the bench press:
Upper Body Strength
Your pressing strength, especially in the horizontal plane, will increase the most with the bench press, which is why it is one of the best exercises. Pressing power is not only a very important skill to learn, but it also helps with a wide range of other movements.
If you improve your pressing power on the bench press, you will almost certainly see improvements in your incline press, overhead press, and dumbbell press.
The bench press may be most recognized for developing the chest, but it also works your triceps quite nicely. If you take a look at biomechanics, you’ll see why.
A lot of elbow flexion occurs when the barbell is at chest level and the triceps have a large range of motion when extending the arms during the concentric phase.
Furthermore, because the bench press engages so many muscles, you can load your triceps significantly.
This is particularly true for the eccentric contraction, the movement component most directly linked to hypertrophy. Put simply, if you want big triceps, you must focus on establishing a strong bench.
Whole Body Training
Although the sternum, triceps, and shoulders benefit most from bench press exercises, you can engage your whole body if you do it in the right body position.
First, the bench press will work your stabilizer muscles since you need to use them to keep the bar stable as you move it back and forth.
When done properly, the abdominals, forearms, back, and legs get a good workout. Learning the correct motion is a process, so give yourself plenty of time to educate yourself.
Burns Calories
The primary goal of any strength-training exercise should be to improve strength, but additional calorie spending is a nice bonus. Since bench press is a complete-body exercise, doing it requires a great deal of energy or calories burned.
Stop fooling yourself into thinking that cardio is the only way to get in shape; weight training is just as effective at burning calories and building muscle.
One theory that suggests doing heavy compound exercises can help you keep muscle mass even when dieting is that they stimulate protein synthesis, which helps your body store less fat.
Read: Does Planet Fitness Have Free Weights?
It Provides an Opportunity for Competition
One of the few lifts you can contest favorably is the bench press, so this is a truly special perk.
This can be accomplished at a dedicated bench press competition or as part of a larger powerlifting contest.
This may be of great interest to people who thrive in a competitive environment or anyone looking for a real motivation to exercise weights.
Muscle Growth
The great thing about employing large compound workouts is that they are ideal for boosting both muscle growth and strength simultaneously. People who start going to the gym make the mistake of thinking isolation workouts are the only way to build muscle.
On the contrary, compound workouts with progressive loading are just as beneficial as isolation movements in helping with muscular growth. They also provide strength increases that isolation movements do not.
As a result, you’ll be able to spend less time at the gym on this endeavor and more on your core fitness.
Read: Can You Deadlift at Planet Fitness?
Improvement in Athletic Performance
The bench press is the ideal workout for developing your horizontal pressing strength in the upper body. It so happens that this movement is widely used in competitive sports. In contact sports like football, rugby, basketball, and hockey, where players often hit each other while moving forward, pressing force is very important.
This is because the conventional bench press is a highly efficient functional exercise that closely approximates natural movements.
Bone Health
The importance of strong muscles is not to be underestimated, but neither is the importance of healthy bones.
Thankfully, building strong bones is as simple as loading them up with bigger and heavier weights, that is, by gradually lifting heavy weights.
This results in teeny-tiny stress fractures, which are then healed by osteoblasts. The bone that forms, as a result, is considerably more robust.
Read: Does Planet Fitness Have a Sauna?
Conclusion…
If you want to strengthen your upper body, you should try bench presses. Planet Fitness has Smith Machines, one of several varieties of bench presses available out there.
Planet Fitness picked this bench press model because it is more user-friendly and safer for newcomers to the gym. The policy is consistent with their “No Judgment” policy.