Transform Your Bench Press

If you walk into the gym on a Monday afternoon, chances are that you will see tons of people doing bench press. Monday tends to be universal chest day; the start of the week is usually led by working your favorite body part. 

 

Maybe you’re still new to the gym (less than one year of going) or maybe you’re just looking for new way to crush your bench press. Either way, you’ll learn some new tips and techniques which will enhance you lifts. 

 

Tip 1: Keep Your Feet Planted and Legs Engaged

 

All too often I see someone’s feet flailing around when they’re benching. Keeping your feet planted is important as it helps stabilize you throughout the lift. Throughout your lift, you should aim to drive your fee into the ground. There are different foot placement styles that are accepted, one being a neutral foot position with your feet ankles below your knees and feet flat on the floor, and then a competition foot position here the feet are angled more back, and the pressure is on the balls of the feet. Both have their place in benching, but the most important thing is to have constant tension in your legs throughout the lift. A slight arch in you back while doing the competition feet placement is fine, but keep your butt, shoulders, and head on the bench at all times, and never lift your feet off of the floor.

 

Tip 2: Pack Your Shoulders and Tuck Your Elbows

 

Having your shoulders flat, spread out, and passive across the bench means you don’t have a stable base to press off of the bench. Also, your humerus bone has a higher chance f sliding in the joint, which can cause injury to the shoulder joint. 

 

Envision pinching your shoulder blades tightly together then pulling them down towards your lats. Keep this form throughout your entire lift. This give you a stable platform to drive the bar away from the bench, and also creates an “open” shoulder joint. 

 

This is an old-school powerlifting trick, and it also helps if you imagine that as you are performing the lift, imagine you are trying to bend the bar in half. Maintain this position and tension as you ascend. This increases shoulder stability. It also explains why you may not be able to press as much with dumbbells as with a bar. Since dumbbells require mores stabilization, you cannot generate as much lateral force because the dumbbells will move further away from each other. 

Performing a bench press incorrectly is known to lead to shoulder injuries which can leave you out of the gym or doing lower-body workouts only for a while. The biggest mistake people make when performing a bench press is sticking their elbows out. You should aim to keep your arms at a 45degree angle relative to your torso, which is the best way to protect your shoulders.

 

Tip 3: Drive Yourself Away From the Bar

 

After you’ve lowered the bar, instead of focusing on pressing the bar above, try to imagine pressing yourself off of the floor, as if the bar was the floor, to create distance between you and the bar. This keeps your legs engaged and your upper back tight. 

 

Doing so helps avoid the mindset which makes your upper back and legs to go soft. Otherwise, the amount of force you can put into the bar (i.e., the amount of weight you’re able to lift) as well as increases the risk of injury. Therefore, envisioning the bar as something you are pushing off of, not pressing away from you, can lead to more stability, reduced risk of injury, and possibly allow you to add more weight. 

 

When bench pressing, quickly lowering the bar over 1 second then exploding it upward without a pause can increase your power gains more than a slower descent with a pause then an explosive lift. However, don’t bounce the bar off of your chest at the bottom, as it can be quite dangerous, especially with heavier weights. Another thing don’t simply “drop” the weight down to your chest, the 1 second descent is quick enough, because you still want to have full control over the bar. 

 

Tip 4: Don’t Neglect Your Upper Chest

 

Having a balanced body in terms of muscle formation is important for not only esthetics, but also functionality. Having uneven chest development can look bad and also cause you to have a weaker bench press than necessary. 

 

Incorporating an incline bench press during chest day has been shown t help build all of the muscles involved in a traditional flat bench press as well as utilizing the upper chest muscles (clavicular pectoralis) which can get neglected in a flat bench press. 

 

Tip 5: Vary Your Grip

 

There are some variations of hand grip that should certainly be avoided during a bench press, namely the “suicide grip” , r thumbless grip. However, the placement of your hands on the bar can target different areas of your chest.

 

A wide grip (a grip and hand placement several inches wider than your shoulder width) targets your larger and prime-mover muscles (the pectorals). A narrow grip (hands at shoulder width r even slightly narrower) targets the smaller muscles involved in the lift, such as the arms and shoulders. 

 

Varying your grip widths allows for a more balanced muscle development, and therefore can allow you o break through a plateau. These varying grips can be incorporated into the same workout, but if you’re going to be doing high reps of each, its better to use a moderate-to-heavy weight, and definitely not anywhere ear your 1-RM. You could even split a few sets of wide grips into your chest day, and a few sets of narrow grips into your arm workouts. 

 

Tip 6: Avoid the Smith Machine

 

If you want to be able to practice good form naturally as well as develop increased strength, stay away from the smith machine. The smith machine has its place, especially with those who may not have a spotter, don’t have a trainer to assist with natural form, or perhaps your gym is lacking a traditional bar for bench press and squats (tip: find a new gym), but for most of us, a regular bar will do wonders. 

 

Since the smith machine acts as a crutch, less muscle fibers are activated than with a free weight bar (or dumbbell) bench press. 

 

Try these things on your next chest day. Some of these tips may seem foreign or hard to adapt (especially keeping the feet planted), but after a few sets you’ll be surprised how much more control you have over the bar, the bench, and your body.