Over the last couple of years in the wrestling forums I have seen the comment about the bench press only being an effective for a wrestler if the wrestler is on his back. I do not believe it is completely true. I have never heard a football coach discredit the value of the bench press by saying the only thing it is good for is to throw off you the tackler who just slammed you to your back. Football coaches seem to place value in the bench press exercise.

In a strength training book that I have it lists these as the muscles strengthened by the bench press: "Back of upper arm (triceps), front of shoulder (anterior deltoid), and chest (pectoralis group)area." If you use a narrow grip bench press technique the book states that the development emphasizes more the back of the upper arm and front shoulder area and to a lesser extent the chest area than a normal grip bench press.

I would think that strengthening these areas would help a wrestler on top in preventing escapes, securing back points and in applying pins. I am not saying it is the most important exercise for a wrestler and it might be overly emphasized by some football and wrestling coaches, but I do think it has its place in a strength program for a wrestler. Leg exercises and other upper body exercises done on your feet are probably more important for a wrestler.

In the book I referred to "Strength Training for Young Athletes" by William J. Kraemer, PhD and Steven J. Fleck, PhD, there are sport specific strength training programs given. Here are the wrestling programs in the order of exercise listed:

Off Season Program-Wrestling: Bench Press, back squat or leg press, dead lift, overhead press, seated row, knee curl, lat pull-down, elbow curl, abdominal exercise. Additional or replacement exercises-Front squat, calf raise, neck exercises. All these are recommended to be done in two to three sets of 10 to 12 repetition resistance. They recommend rest periods of 1.5 to 2 minutes per set but they do say that due to the high intensity of wrestling that the rest periods need to be gradually decreased from 1.5 minutes to 30 seconds during the course of your training cycle. Recommended exercises for advanced lifters are: Power clean or power snatch from floor, knee, or thigh level. Clean pull or snatch pull from floor, knee, or thigh level. They recommend that the advanced exercises should be done at the beginning of the training session with no more than five reps per set but using lighter weight (weight where you can perform the exercise 8 to 10 times at that weight).

The book also has a Preseason and In Season program for wrestling. The dumbbell bench press or dumbbell incline press is a recommended exercise in the preseason program and the regular bench press is included in their In Season program. A couple of years ago I saw Oklahoma State University wrestling team's strength training program in an article and I believe the bench press was included in the program. I will try to find that article.