Bench Press vs Push Ups | Which is BEST? (Two Studies)

Bench press vs push ups, is one better or more effective than the other?

Let's look at what the research says.

A 2017 study by Kikuchi & Nakazato compared the bench press and push-up for muscle and strength gain.

Subjects: 18 young men (min 1 year of training experience) were split into a bench press group and a push-up group.

Protocol: The bench press group used 40% of their 1RM. The push-up group adjusted their hands and feet to mimic a resistance that would be roughly equivalent to a 40%1RM load on the bench press. For some, this was regular push-ups, while for others, it was variations of kneeling push-ups. Both groups performed 3 sets of their exercise to failure, twice per week, for 8 weeks.

Measurements: Ultrasound imaging was used to obtain thickness of the pectoralis major and triceps brachii. 1RM on the bench press was also tested.

Results: The push-up group similarly increased pectoralis major thickness and triceps thickness to the bench press group. For increases in bench press 1RM, both groups experienced statically similar increases. Although looking at the overall percentage increases, it does slightly favor the bench press group. It's likely the advantage with the bench press group was a result of the principle of specificity. Although the push up is quite biomechanically similar to the bench press, it makes sense that the bench press group would have been more primed for a one-rep max test on the bench press, given they were training the movement for 8 weeks.

A 2018 study by Kotarsky et al. compared progressive push-up training to the bench press for muscle and strength gain.

Subjects: 23 men (2-6 months of training experience) were split into a progressive push up group or bench press group.

Protocol: The bench press group started with 3 sets of 6 reps at a given load and aimed to add reps until they achieved 3 sets of 8 reps. Once this was done, load with increased by 4.5kg and they reverted back to 3 sets of 6. A list of push-up variations were given to the push-up group. If a participant in the group could perform 3 sets of 3 reps on a single-arm progression - they started on this exercise. If they couldn't, they started on a double-arm variation they could complete for 3 sets of 6. Once a participant could perform 3 sets of 8 reps with a double-arm variation, they progressed to the next level. Whereas, if a participant was performing a single-arm variation, once they achieved 3 sets of 4 reps, they progressed to the next level. Both groups trained 3 times per week for 4 weeks.

Measurements: Ultrasound imaging was used to obtain thickness of the pectoralis major. 1RM on the bench press was assessed. Also, for both groups, the level of push-up according the to table they could comfortably perform was assessed.

Results: Both groups significantly increased their 1RM on the bench press with no statistically significant differences between them. However, looking at the raw percentages, the bench press group does appear to have outperformed the push-up group. This again is likely due to the principle of specificity. Also, following the principle of specificity, the push-up group on average were able to perform a push-up variation 2.78 levels higher than at the start of the study, while the bench press group only progressed by 0.78 levels, which basically isn't any progression at all. For increases in pectoralis major thickness, both groups experienced statistically similar increases. However, if we looked at the raw percentages, we can see the push-up group actually had a slight advantage.

As we can see from both the longitudinal studies, the push-up does a very respectable job compared to the bench press.

It appears that for hypertrophy of the chest and triceps, the push-up has similar potential to the bench press. Also, the push-up actually has quite a good carryover to bench press strength.

Practical advise:
Although the bench press is simple to overload, there are tons of harder push-up variations that can be used to apply progressive overload. A combination of adding reps and performing harder variations is what can be done. Something that is essential I mention is that even though this video is a comparison between the two movements, we must remember that in practice we don't need to pick either-or. Both exercises can be successfully included in a training program

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References:
Kikuchi and Nakazato (2017) - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1728869X17301028#bib19
Schoenfield et al. (2017) - https://elementssystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Schoenfeld-17-altas-bajas.pdf
Ebben et al. - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21873902/
Kotarsky et al. (2018) - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29466268/

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