Improve Your Bench Press

There are few exercises as egotistic as the barbell bench press. In powerlifting the bench press is the only exercise to test upper body strength. In the gym it’s the first exercise guys normally asks other guys about.

Before I even started coaching and personal training I had a fairly decent barbell bench press. In the Army I was made to do thousands of press ups and because I knew nothing about squatting and deadlifting back then I always did some type of bench press when I trained.

All this horizontal pressing made me stronger than the average guy at the bench press. Today my technique has changed dramatically due to me getting involved with powerlifting and becoming a coach and personal trainer. Below are a few tips that can help you and improve your bench press.

Warm Up –Don’t warm up on a treadmill and go straight in to the bench press. This would be regarded as an epic FAIL! If you warm up properly you will perform better and lift heavier. Running on a machine for a few minutes doesn’t crossover to lifting weights and in particular the bench pressing.

Here is a basic warm up you can try CLICK HERE. (Basic Warm Up Post)

After you have done 2-3 rounds of this basic warm up you can then either add in some warm up exercises specific to the bench press or go straight in and start with some barbell sets. Personally I like to give my shoulders an extra warm up and stretch out my hip flexors this enables me to get a bigger arch.

Once you’re warmed up properly then gradually increase the weight until you start your working sets. This gives your stabilizing muscles a chance to warm up as well as your primary muscles. By warming up through the weights you also give your central nervous system time to adapt by getting used to the particular movement pattern and increase in weight.

Shoulder Blades – Before the lift begins pull your shoulder blades together and push them in to the bench. This will help create a stable base to push from and help take some of the stress off your shoulders. This will create more tension in your chest by increasing the chest cavity and shorting the range of motion between the bar and chest.

Leg Drive – keeping your feet planted in to the floor allows you to drive from your legs. Try to dig your toes in to the ground as if you were trying to leave an imprint. A lot of trainee’s and even personal trainers place their feet on the bench or on a step. This is bad idea (unless you’re short) and should be avoided.

For some reason these people feel it’s better for their backs by elevating the feet and trying to flatten the spine. This isn’t true our natural posture is a curved back so it really doesn’t make sense to try and change it by flattening it, especially under a heavy load

Create An Arch – Digging your feet in to the floor and pushing your shoulder blades in to the bench should have resulted in you creating some type of arch. Creating an arch is important when it comes to benching heavy. Creating an arch means a smaller range of motion resulting in less distance the bar has to move. Doing this will also help you protect your shoulders as more stress is placed on the chest and triceps and not the shoulders.

Crush The Bar- Squeezing the bar as tight as possible as though you were trying to crush it creates tension throughout your shoulders and recruits more muscle fibres. You’re also tricking your body in to thinking that the weight is heavier!! This will mentally prepare you as well as physically.

Elbows – Some Body builders like to flare the elbows to “hit the chest better”. Personally I don’t agree with this and think it’s a bad idea for long term shoulder health. The more flared your elbows the more stress you will put on your shoulders. Keep your elbows tucked in slightly and don’t let them flare throughout the rep. If you try to bend the bar this will help with extra muscle fibre recruitment and also help with keeping your elbows in to your chest.

Wrist & Elbow Alignment – If you look at the picture you will see that my wrist and elbow are inline. By doing this you will not lose any power as you press as the force is going in a straight line. Try and maintain this alignment through the rep and also try and keep your wrists inline with your forearm.

Breath & Get Tight – Just before you start the decent of the bar take a deep breath in to your chest and hold it until you have completed the rep. This will make your chest bigger shortening the range of motion and will also help engage your core whilst keeping you tight and still throughout the rep.

Once you have finished the rep repeat this process. Benching properly is a tiring process.

Bar Speed – This aspect of the bench press and lifting weights is generally over looked. Each time you perform the bench press your goal should be to try and move the bar from the chest as quickly as possible. The quicker you move the bar the easier it will be to move heavier weights. Each rep the bar should be moved with intent and speed.

Frequency- Last is frequency. Like I said in my opening paragraph I did large amounts of horizontal pressing especially bench pressing. This made me better at it than anything else. There is nothing wrong with benching 3 times a week just ensure you change the volume and intensity of the press. My current program involves a low, medium and high intensity version of benching or pressing. One of them days I might perform a board press or floor press if I think certain areas of my barbell bench press is weak.

Jay Farrant Personal Trainer Dublin 

The ABS Gym Personal Training Studio

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