Whats the difference between the two? Is bench press better than doing push ups?
It depends how much weight is involved
Doing push ups works more of the upper back muscles (trapezes or traps) along with the chest, triceps and shoulder muscles including the rear deltoids. Doing push ups you have to balance your weight which also works the ligaments and tendons of the muscles. A free weight bench press is the same as a push up because you have to balance the weight. The free weight bench works everything the push up works except the traps and rear deltoids. FYI: Whenever you can, do free weights. They work your ligaments and tendons along with the muscles because you have to balance the weights while you are pushing or pulling them. In my opinion the push up is better than a bench press because it does work more muscles. This does depend on how big you want to get. Your body weight can only build so much muscle. For me my body weight is enough and therefore the push up is better for me. Someone else may have different goals and of course the push up will not be good enough for them. However, there are creative ways to add weight to the push up to make them more difficult for more challenging goals.
Push-ups use your own body weight for resistance, so they will never get any harder than what you weigh. Bench-pressing, since it involves a weight-bar which can be loaded endlessly, can always increase in difficulty. One is not necessarily better than the other. Generally, though, body-weight resistance exercises like push-ups build longer, leaner muscles. Using heavy weights cause your muscles more immediate damage, which ultimately results in bigger muscles. So if you just want to tone your body and build a moderate amount of sculpted muscle to your chest, do push-ups. But if you want to beef up, do bench presses in addition.
