The BENCH PRESS is USELESS!
I'm just wondering why we continue to use the flat bench other than to have an answer to the ubiquitous question..."hey bro... whats your bench?"
If your answer is simply for bodybuilding, hypertrophy, or causer Rippetoe (and everyone else) says to then that is fine but just a couple of observations...
From the standpoint of functional movement in the "wild human" I don't see many big pec hunter gatherers. When I think about their daily life I can't come up with any reason to do the bench. Seems like our exercise would be pull centric at least 2/1 with leg movements and some overhead press (carrying water or dead animals).
Lastly I'm a bit jaded after rupturing my pec (an injury that happens almost exclusively doing bench press). I understand that its a choice and I don't HAVE to bench. I'm more wondering/hypothesizing that it is likely to produce imbalances in the shoulder and upper body and may be just hanging around cause its been made so popular.
Oh, lastly.....as a football lineman or sumo wrestler or other sport specific exercise I may see the point. Just don't get it from an evolutionary standpoint.