Answer by Larry Gritz for Why is bench pressing your bodyweight harder than...
When doing push-ups, you are making your body into a lever! Your feet are the fulcrum. So you get the mechanical advantage that makes levers useful. It's just like how lifting the handles of a...
View ArticleAnswer by Dancrumb for Why is bench pressing your bodyweight harder than...
When you're doing press-ups, your arms have a mechanical advantage over the mass of your body. The force that they exert does not pass through your COM and, instead, exerts a torque on your mass with...
View ArticleAnswer by user126527 for Why is bench pressing your bodyweight harder than...
When doing pushups, you're not lifting all of your body weight the full distance. Your heels don't move any appreciable amount and a point halfway between shoulders and toes only moves about half the...
View ArticleAnswer by Chris H for Why is bench pressing your bodyweight harder than doing...
Consider leverage. Assume as in @Michael's comment that the centre of mass is somewhere near the middle. Further assume that the toes are fixed to the floor. If the torso and legs are rigid the centre...
View ArticleAnswer by Frederick John for Why is bench pressing your bodyweight harder...
It's harder because you are benching more weight. Benching your bodyweight requires your upper body to complete 100% of the lift. When your feet are on the ground and you are pushing yourself up you...
View ArticleAnswer by xCodeZone for Why is bench pressing your bodyweight harder than...
While doing push-ups, you don't push your whole body weight. You have your toes on the ground, so your body weight is distributed between your feet and your arms.While benching, you have no support...
View ArticleWhy is bench pressing your bodyweight harder than doing a pushup?
Why does bench pressing your own bodyweight feel so much harder than doing a push-up? I have my own theories about the weight being distributed over multiple points (like in a push-up) but would just...
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