Bench-pressing doesn’t ultimately matter in bodybuilding, which is all about muscle, not metal. Because the bench press has been ordained the best arbiter of upper-body strength, most of us want to truthfully answer that clichéd query with a big number.
Thankfully help has arrived if you’re in need of touting a more impressive max. The Bench Press is a great exercise to strengthen an athlete’s pushing force by developing his or her chest, triceps, back and deltoid muscles.
Here’s how to boost your bench. If you’ve been doing the bench press without being too concerned about how you’re doing it, it might be time for you to take a step back and focus on improving your technique.
Get Help:
Why:
- Whenever you plan to push a set of bench presses to near failure, have a capable spotter hovering just behind you.
- This is for safety, but also for the peace of mind that will allow you to go for that crucial extra rep that you never locked out before.
- A spotter can also help you unrack and rerack the bar.
Take a Stance:
How to:
- Lie down on a flat bench.
- Place your feet flat on the floor shoulder-width apart and either directly under your knees or slightly behind your knees.
- You want to form a strong base, and to do this you need your feet in the best position to stabilize your body.
- If your feet are in front of your knees, your base will be weaker.
- If they’re too far back, your heels will come off the floor, again weakening your base.
- And—this must be shouted—if your feet are on the bench or up in the air with legs folded, your legs will be useless.
Get a Grip:
Why?
- The width of your grip will depend on the width of your shoulders.
- Take a grip where your forearms are vertical to the floor.
- A wider grip will put too much pressure on your shoulders, and a narrower grip will work your triceps more than your chest.
- For safety, put your thumbs beneath the bar and your other fingers over the bar.
- You also need to grip the barbell low in your palms.
- This may feel like a less secure grip, but if you take a mid-palm or high-palm grip, your wrists will bend back, limiting your strength and eventually straining wrist tendons.
- Squeeze the bar and keep your wrists straight.
Arch Naturally:
Why?
- Your spine has a natural curve.
- You want to maintain it or slightly exaggerate it during each set.
- This puts you in the strongest position and also raises your chest, slightly reducing the range of motion.
- An extremely exaggerated arch can dramatically reduce the range of motion, but it can also compress your spine.
- Arch naturally and keep your butt tensed and touching the bench but not pressing against it.
- Lower-body support will come from your legs, not your glutes.
Tense Up:
Why?
- Before you unrack the weight, squeeze your shoulder blades to tense your upper inner back.
- Staying tensed throughout the set boosts stability and strength.
- You’re not just lying on the bench.
- You’re pressing against it with your upper back.
- Keep your shoulders down.
- Many people reflexively raise their shoulders as if to meet the bar, but this lengthens the range of motion.
- If you keep your shoulders down and your upper back flexed, your chest will be maximally elevated, shortening the range of motion.
Unrack:
How to:
- Position yourself so you need to move the bar forward no more than a couple of inches, just enough so your reps clear the supports.
- Reaching back to unrack the bar by yourself and then pulling it forward drains energy and strength before you’ve even begun your set.
- Take the barbell off the supports, ideally with the assistance of a spotter, by slightly straightening your previously slightly bent arms.
- Throughout the liftoff, keep your shoulders back, chest up, back tensed, spine naturally arched, butt brushing the bench, glutes and legs tensed, and feet firmly on the floor.
Hold Your Breath:
Why?
- Inhale deeply before each rep.
- Hold that breath as you lower and raise the bar, and exhale just as you’re locking out each rep.
Lower the Bar:
Why?
- The first thing to know is the bar shouldn’t travel straight down because it shouldn’t travel straight up.
- Take it down at a slight diagonal angle from your shoulders to your lower chest.
- This will be more pronounced after your first rep.
- The second thing we need to focus on is elbow flair versus elbow tuck.
- Traditionally, bodybuilders bench-pressed with their arms at 90-degree angles to their torsos.
- Conversely, powerlifters usually tuck their elbows in, aiming for 45-degree angles.
- Keep tight from your hands to your upper back to your glutes to your legs.
- If anything, you want to get even tighter as the bar descends.
- Lower the bar under control, but not slowly.
- Imagine you’re doing an upside-down barbell row.
- You don’t want to waste any strength on the descent, but you also don’t want the bar to fall out of its groove or descend so fast that it bounces against your chest.
Bottom Out:
How to:
- Touch the barbell to your lower pecs.
- Don’t pause.
- Powerlifters have to do so by rule.
- But there’s no good reason for you to make your bench presses harder.
- Touch and go, but never bounce.
Press:
How to:
- Keep your butt on the bench, and drive your feet down, as if to push them through the floor.
- Simultaneously, press the bar away from you by driving your upper back into the bench.
- Keep your chest up and your shoulders down.
- Instead of focusing on the weight’s movement, imagine that you’re pushing yourself away from the barbell as if doing an upside-down pushup.
- This will help you stay tight and form the strongest base of strength to propel the bar up.
- Your upper arms are going to stay at the 75-degree angle.
- Your forearms should be nearly vertical but angled backward very slightly, and your wrists need to stay straight without your hands bending back.
Lockout:
How to:
- The barbell should end its up-and-down journey above your shoulders.
- Lockout your elbows briefly at the top while maintaining the tension in your body and the arch in your spine.
- (If you have trouble with lockouts, do sets focused on just the final half of reps in a power rack or on a Smith machine.)
- Don’t pause.
- As with the touch-and-go at the bottom, lock briefly and go on to your next rep.
- If it’s your final rep, rack the weight and rest up for the next set.
