How does a World Champion Olympic weight lifter build upper-body strength? The great Russian lifter Yuri Vlasov used the bench press (among other exercises) in his program back in the 50's and 60's. Of course, by the looks of things he sure didn't mess around like the gym lifters of today.
"Getting stronger" and plenty of technique work were part of the game back then. It seems to have worked quite well for Mr. Vlasov, who set 34 Weightlifting World Records during his career... That's 190kg above, over 400 lbs.... Maybe the bench press isn't so bad of a lift after all?