Lats in the Bench Press

Another reason raw benchers might train their lats would be to improve the unracking of the bar
before starting the press. In theory, this would certainly seem plausible since this motion is largely
reliant on shoulder extension. However, biomechanical analysis shows that the lower portion of the
pecs actually have a pretty similar internal moment for shoulder extension above 90-degrees of
flexion when compared to the lats (1). In fact, the lats’ peak shoulder extension moment occurs
around 40-degrees of flexion (1) – well past the unracking point in the bench press. We see this
driven home in studies showing that the pecs are actually more active in a dumbbell pullover exercise
than the lats (5). So, realistically, the lower pecs are at least just as important for unracking the bar,
but people still might feel their lats… or do they?
The last theory I’ve been mulling over with the lats and the bench press is that people might simply
be mistaking their serratus anterior muscle for their lats. I often see a similar conundrum with people
thinking their hamstrings are sore after squats, when it’s really their adductors (more info in our
article here). The serratus anterior is the muscle that’s situated between your ribs and shoulder blades
and is mostly responsible for protraction and upward rotation of the shoulder blade (13). Whenever
you do a lat spread pose, you’re actually contracting your serratus to “spread” the lats. Many people
end up mistaking these muscles for being one and the same, but they certainly are not.
While neither protraction or upward rotation will happen to a large degree in a properly-performed
flat bench press, the serratus is the muscle that provides the “foundation” for shoulder flexion (13). In
addition, slight protraction will certainly occur during the unracking motion – hence why people
probably feel their “lats” in this action. Multiple studies have found significant serratus activation in
the bench press (4,17) whereas other studies show minimal lat activation in the bench press (2,5).
When I say minimal, I mean that the pecs are ten times as active as the lats in the bench press. This
was first reported in 1995 by Barnett et al. and was repeated 23 years later by Borges et al. in 2018.
It’s pretty rare to see data be repeated so similarly between studies that were published 23-years
apart. I think we can accept that the lats are minimally active in a bench press, and that the serratus
probably plays a more significant role, even if primarily through stabilization.
 Takeaways and Conclusion

Ultimately, I don’t
think the lats play much of a role in the bench press. Sure, they probably help stabilize the shoulder a
bit, but they’re not nearly as important as the pecs, shoulders, or triceps – or even serratus, for that
matter. Now, I don’t want people to think that means that lat training is pointless for developing a big
bench. Muscle imbalances between anterior (pec and deltoid) and posterior (lats, etc.) shoulder
muscles are still one of the most common causes of shoulder injuries in athletes (3,12). You can’t
develop a big bench if injuries are constantly cutting your pressing days short. With this in mind, I
still recommend that people with big bench aspirations perform at least as much pulling volume as
pushing volume. Other professionals, like Matt Wenning, often recommend a 2:1 ratio of pulling to
pushing volume for optimal shoulder health.
All-in-all, keep training your back! While I don’t think lat training is going to directly boost your
bench press, any improvements or maintenance of shoulder health should help you continue training
with minimal injuries. It takes a long time to develop a monster press, and staying healthy throughout
your training career is the most important step you can take to reach a multi-plate milestone on
bench.

As a brief conclusion, we have three main criteria we seek to satisfy when confirming whether or not
a muscle is involved in an exercise:

1. Does the muscle’s function(s) align with the joint actions performed in the exercise?
2. Does mechanical modeling show that the muscle significantly contributes to the joint actions
in an exercise?
3. Does EMG data show that the muscle is significantly active during an exercise?
The lats fail all three for the bench press.

References
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exercise on the EMG activity of five shoulder muscles. The Journal of Strength & Conditioning
Research, 9(4), 222-227.
3. Bell-Jenje, T. (2005). Incidence, nature and risk factors in shoulder injuries of national
academy cricket players over 5 years-a retrospective study. South African Journal of Sports
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