Buckeye bites wrote:i don't know if you have allready thought of this or not but why isn't bench press factored into the strength rating? i know that bench press has to do with arm length to so you could somehow add that into the equation too
Not to offend anyone, but bench press is pretty much a worthless measure of overall strength. It is a completely unnatural motion with little to no practical purpose in day to day or sports. The only exception in football would be the initial punch off the line but if you've let a guy far enough into your body that your awesome bench factors in, you've lost or are in danger of losing the leverage battle. Beach body exercises don't make you a beast. Football requires explosion from the lower body and hips combined with strength at extension from the upper.
At some point in every boy's life, they overhear someone bragging about their bench numbers and the myth that that person is buff is perpetuated. The pec is not aligned to push a weight off your chest. It pulls across. That's why if you truly want functional strength in your upper core, pec and lat flies are much more effective, natural and less likely to produce an injury. You want an exercise that truly measures strength? The clean and jerk. Lower body explosion, transition then finish with the upper.
In combine terms, the bench is there to ensure a guy spent some time in the weight room and is somewhat a judge of stamina. Other than that, it's like trying to judge someone's intelligence by giving them one section of the SAT.