Could board presses be switched around for pin presses? Or are they too taxing? I train in a gym full of people that even have a hard time understanding something a simple as spotting, explaining how to hold the board seems like mission impossible to me.
Yeah, you could do that. If you're starting from the bottom though you'd need to adjust the percentages. If you're starting from the top and bringing it down to pins you could use the same percentages. The latter option would be closer to a board press.
For me though I don't like board presses. I feel like they mess up my technique. I think you get two things out of doing them: 1) heavier weight in the second half of the concentric portion and 2) maximum force development a few inches higher off the chest than normal.
Normally you generate the most force when you reverse the direction the barbell is traveling, slightly less if you pause the bar first. In a bench press then maximum force occurs at chest height. Then the bar travels upwards a little but and force drops off. Using the board raises the height of reversal and so forces you to generate maximum force at a height force output usually falls off. Then you also get to use a little extra weight as well.
Since I feel like the board press interferes with my technique (my left shoulder is very sensitive to technique screw ups so I can't have that) but I still want the benefits of the board press I use chains (at 80% instead of 75%, 10kg each side) more frequently. For generating increased force at a different height I will pause the bar a few inches off my chest on the way up. I haven't tried combining these two (chains with a pause) yet but it sounds interesting.
