Bench Press Overloading – Rack Presses vs Board Presses

Posted: May 26, 2015 | Author: | Filed under: 02 - Bench Press Tips | Tags: , , , , , , , | 4 Comments »

Bench Press LockoutsOverloading your bench press weight is an important step in building a bigger bench press. You are probably familiar with the two most common methods, Board Presses and Rack Presses (also called lockouts), but what are the differences between these two effective training approaches, and how do you program them into your training plan? Here are a few pointers to help you use them effectively.

 

Board Presses

Board presses are exactly as the name implies: lay a board or boards on your chest, lower the bar to the board(s) and press back up.

What are the advantages to board pressing?

  • The Partial Range of Motion (ROM) allows you to overload the weight lifted. The more boards you use (typically between 1 and 3 boards), the more weight you can lift.
  • Unlike Rack Presses, Board Presses mimic bench pressing lifting pattern. Board presses have an eccentric (descent) and concentric (ascent) component. This allows you to practice your proper bench press technique with board presses.
  • Because board presses have an eccentric component, board presses take advantage of the body’s stretch reflex to give you more starting power at the beginning of the press.
  • Regardless of the gym or bench you use, you will always have a specific starting point for board presses, based on how many boards you use.

How can you use board presses?

  • Use as a primary exercise: Because board presses use basic bench pressing patterns, you can use board presses as a primary benching lift. You can use them to train the bench press at heavier weights than you use for full ROM bench presses.
  • Train for heavier weight: Using more boards, train your bench press weights above your current one rep max (1RM). As your training progresses train that heavier weight with fewer boards until you can press it from your chest.
  • Equipped/bench shirt training: If you’re an equipped bencher boards are a particularly useful tool. When using a new or very tight shirt, using boards helps you break the shirt in. As you are working up to a weight heavy enough to touch the chest, use a decreasing number of boards as the weight increases, bringing the bar closer to your chest.

Rack Presses (also called Bench Press Lockouts)

Rack Presses are performed in a power cage. Set a bench inside the cage and set the safety pins to the desired height and press the bar directly off the pins.

  • Because you’re using a partial ROM, Rack Presses allow you to overload the weight pressed. Note that for low pin positions (at or below your natural sticking point) you may not be able to press as much weight as you could press in a full ROM bench press. This is because (at least on your first rep) you do not have the use of the stretch reflex to assist in starting the press. Second and subsequent reps are typically easier than the first because of assistance from the stretch reflex.
  • Because you start Rack Presses from the safety pins there is no eccentric phase (of the first rep). You must start the first rep from a dead stop with no assistance from the body’s stretch reflex. This makes the first rep much more difficult than a board press, or full ROM bench press, and will build greater strength at that point.
  • Because you’re training in the power cage, you need very little assistance to perform Rack Presses. You don’t need spotter assistance – if you fail you simply return the bar to the pins. You don’t need assistance to hold the boards in place as with board presses.

How can you use Rack Presses?

  • Supplemental Lift: Because Rack Presses technique is not the same as bench press technique, they are used more effectively as a supplemental lift than in place of a full ROM bench press.
  • Single rep sets/Dead Bench Presses: Performing all sets of Rack Presses with a single rep forces you to start each set and rep from a dead stop without the aid of a stretch reflex. This can help build starting strength at that point in your bench’s ROM.
  • Train your sticking point: Setting the pins at the weak point in your bench press (typically the mid-point, where your pec strength declines and your triceps strength takes over) allows you to build strength at that point. Use them to overcome this weakness and lockout heavier weights.
  • Overload the top-end lock out: Training the top two inches of your bench press with a weight far above your full ROM 1RM prepares your body and central nervous system to handle heavier weights. You will find that it gives you much greater control and strength when lifting your full ROM 1RM.

Other Partial ROM Presses

Properly programming these overloading techniques at the appropriate point in your program can help you bust through plateaus, and let’s be honest, piling on a whole bunch of plates for theses presses is just plain cool!

Big Bench Tip #3 – Leg Drive

Posted: November 7, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 02 - Bench Press Tips | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

This is more of a pet peeve than a tip, really. Watching poor form drives me crazy, particularly when a bencher completely ignores half their muscle mass when benching: legs hanging limply off the bench, feet dancing around as the reps get tough, feet up in the air during the press.

Ok, that last example actually has a useful function. However if you’re 5’9”, weigh 155lbs, and are pressing 135lbs with your feet in the air, you’re wasting your time. Learn to bench properly first, add some muscle, build some strength, and then start playing with isolation techniques.

Failing to involve your lower body in the lift is a common error. How exactly do you involve your lower body in the lift? Leg Drive!

What does leg drive do for you?

Driving through your feet creates muscle tension from your toes all the way up to your traps. It helps you maintain stability throughout the lift, and helps you maintain your back arch and keep your chest up. Put together, these lead to a bigger bench.

How do you incorporate leg drive into your bench?

  • Plant your feet flat on the floor. You may have to try different foot positions to find what works for you, but start with your feet underneath your hips.
  • Keep your shoulders firmly planted on the bench (you may need to chalk them so they don’t slide on the bench), drive though the balls of your feet and push your hips toward your shoulders. This will push your torso up into a tight arch.
  • Continue pushing through your legs maintaining the drive throughout the full range of your bench press. Your entire lower body should be tight, from the balls of your feet through your thighs.
  • If your legs are too short to plant them firmly on the floor and drive hard, try placing a plate underneath them as you bench.

If you are maintaining proper leg drive and tension, the only noticeable motion in your bench is the bar moving up and down. Your feet, legs, hips, abdomen, and chest should remain stable and motionless.

Big Bench Tip #4 – Non-Bench Training

Posted: October 16, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 02 - Bench Press Tips | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

You all will love today’s tip. It results in larger ego muscles, a huge upper body, and most importantly, when these results cause people to ask ‘how much do you bench’, you actually can say ‘a lot’ (I don’t , however, recommend using that exact reply to customs agents…or other law enforcement agencies, they generally aren’t amused…so I’ve heard).

I call this the non-bench training to train your bench.

I generally don’t follow workouts you find in the literature. I don’t believe in one size fits all workouts, and feel a lot of them are posted to sell magazines or web site views. I also generally don’t believe in ‘workouts’. Notable exceptions are some of the proven strength training program templates you find out there and, of course, BWOW. That painfully long introduction is to say this isn’t going to be a workout plan. It is meant to tell you what to train to build a bigger bench.

Pectorals do not build a big bench. Your pectorals are simply one piece of the puzzle. A powerful bencher has learned how to turn their entire body into a bench pressing machine. Your pecs help you drive the bar off the chest, but they do not do it alone. If you do not have a powerful back, your press off the chest will be weak. Did I mention that if you do not have a powerful back, your press off the chest WILL be weak? A powerful back gives you stability at the chest. Working jointly with your biceps, it allows you to control the bar as you bring the bar to your chest. Pressing with a strong back is like pressing off a granite slab, it helps you thrust the bar explosively off your chest. A strong back is also responsible for a huge upper body, and the classic v-taper.

Strong pectorals do not help you with a strong lock out. Your pecs can help you press the bar, but as we discussed in Big Bench Tip #1, finishing the bench is about locking your elbows, not pressing the bar up. A strong lockout is created with powerful triceps. What is the sticking point in your bench? It’s the point where your pecs begin to weaken, and your triceps must begin to take over the lift. Your triceps play a major role in half of your bench press. They also play a major role in over half of your arm size…

How do you put this knowledge into action? A good training program balances upper body pushing with upper body pulling. You should have as many pulling sets in your weekly program as you do pressing sets. Given it is a smaller muscle group, your triceps don’t (necessarily) warrant as many weekly sets as pushing or pulling, but they do warrant more than the finishing isolation exercise on chest day (and they really should never be insulted with tricep kickbacks). Include at least 3-4 sets of a compound lift for the triceps, and then finish them off with the isolation exercises.

Including the right non-bench bench press training in your program will build an impressive bench press as well as an attention getting, balanced upper body build.

Big Bench Tip #1 – Tight Shoulder Blades

Posted: October 15, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 02 - Bench Press Tips | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

This tip is quite honestly the easiest way there is to add weight to your bench. It’s a relatively simple technique tweak, and doesn’t require any increase in strength (although a BWOW circuit will help considerably).

Squeeze your shoulder blades together as you bench.

How can squeezing my shoulder blades together increase your bench press?

Whenever I’m helping someone new with the bench press, the first thing I watch is the shoulders. Most untrained benchers don’t pay attention to their shoulders as they bench.  They simply press the bar up haphazardly. Their shoulders remain loose throughout the lift and they often raise them off the bench with each rep. Even those who keep their shoulders on the bench for the easy reps begin lifting them as they tire to push the bar up.

Squeezing your shoulder blades together tightly keeps your shoulders on the bench and reduces the range of motion of the press. If a movement does not add to the power of your lift, or does not make you bigger or stronger it should be eliminated. The thing to realize is that the bench press is complete when your elbows lock, it does not matter how high you press the bar. Lifting your shoulders off the bench to raise the bar higher is wasted motion. It wastes energy and distracts you from completing the lift. Instead of pressing the bar up, concentrate on locking your elbows. This prevents you from lifting your shoulders and helps you engage your triceps decisively to finish the lift.

 

How do you maintain tight shoulders throughout your bench?

Plant your shoulders on the bench. Find your hand and foot position, and drive your CHEST UP. Once you have your lifting position on the bench, squeeze your shoulder blades together and continue squeezing them throughout the full lift. Imagine you are trying to pinch a quarter between your shoulder blades, squeeze it and don’t let it go until your set is complete. As you lock your bench out, concentrate on locking your elbows, don’t press the bar up.

Practice this technique from your first warm-up to your heaviest set. Done correctly, it can add weight to the bar in your next bench session.

Big Bench Tip #2 – Chest Up

Posted: October 14, 2014 | Author: | Filed under: 02 - Bench Press Tips | Tags: , , , , , , | 12 Comments »

A few years back I was reffing a powerlifting meet, and a kid benching got crushed by his second attempt. He was going to pass on his 3d attempt, I wouldn’t let him. I made him put in his attempt, and gave him these CHEST UP tips, and he killed it on his third.

Chest Up

Keep your chest up throughout your bench, from the moment you unrack, until you lock out each repetition. Keeping your chest up does a number of things for your bench:

  1. It reduces the range of motion you’re lifting. As a powerlifter, a shorter range of motion increases the amount of weight you can lift. That being said, for most lifters keeping your chest up limits your range of motion to a useful range of motion. In other words, you could move the bar farther, but the additional motion is not effectively building power or mass.
  2. It increases the stability of your bench. Driving your chest up and keeping it there throughout your repetitions significantly increases the stability of your upper body. When done right (and in conjunction with my other Big Bench Tips), your entire upper body will be tight, you will control the weight to your chest, the bar touches your chest without sinking in, and drives explosively off your chest.
  3. Keeping your chest up expands the area over which your pecs stretch as the bar comes down. This can increase the power of the stretch reflex*, helping you drive the bar more powerfully off your chest. As a muscle stretches out, it has a reflex in which it tries to contract. You can take advantage of this stretch reflex by driving the bar up powerfully in conjunction with your pectoral and triceps muscles attempting to contract involuntarily giving you more explosive drive off your chest. If you let your chest collapse, you lose some of this energy with your chest sinking as you attempt to drive the bar up.

Driving your chest up and expanding the area over which your pectoral muscles must stretch can increase the power of the contraction, increasing the drive off your chest (this is purely my own observation, but check it out).

What does keep your chest up mean?

I’ve covered a bit of why you want to keep your chest up. Now how exactly do you do it?

  1. Chalk your shoulders and plant them firmly on the bench. This will help keep your shoulders from sliding as you drive your chest up.
  2. Plant your feet firmly on the floor. Drive through the balls of your feet and push your hips towards your shoulders. This will result in an arch in your lower back. Maintain this pressure and arch throughout the lift.
  3. Take a huge breath of air before you start bringing the bar down and hold it – don’t breath in as the bar is coming down, this will prevent you from filling your lungs completely. Hold the air in your lungs until the bar passes your sticking point on the way back up, and exhale through lockout.


Keeping your chest up, a simple technique you can use to add pounds to your bench press even without increasing your upper body strength.

Proper Lift Setup – Tight is Right

Posted: December 29, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 00 - Lifting Tips, 01 - Squat Tips, 02 - Bench Press Tips, 03 - Deadlift Tips | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

The problem: Many strength trainers spend hours, maybe weeks, researching the perfect workout or trying out the latest lifting fad. More experienced lifters focus their effort honing in the technique for their squat, deadlift and bench press. Far too many, however, miss one of the most fundamental aspects to lifting big weights – perfecting the setup.

The solution: Neglecting your setup is a huge mistake. A proper setup leads to stronger lifts. The setup is the one point in the lift you have the time (and your wits) to enable you to do everything perfectly every single time. To set up correctly your entire body needs to be tight before the bar even comes out of the rack or off the floor.

How does a tight setup aid your lift?

  • Efficiency: An improper setup leaves you expending more energy than necessary before even starting to lift.
  • Stability: A tight set up allows you to control the weight easily, giving you greater stability with which to start your lift.
  • The Weight Feels Light: Setting up tightly gives you a mechanical advantage. The weight feels much lighter coming out of the rack, or off the floor. Although it doesn’t matter how heavy it feels, the lighter the weight feels, the more confidently you will attack your lifts.

Squat Setup: The idea for this article came up while watching one of my lifters setting up to squat. Before unracking the weight she dropped down slightly, and then slammed up into the bar. Extra movements like this do not help with the lift and by doing so she loosened up before lifting the bar.

Keeping your body tight allows you to transfer all of your power from your legs doing the work directly to the bar on your shoulders and eliminates energy leaks. Done right, the bar feels lighter and moves more easily, wastes less energy, and mentally prepares you for your lift.

  • Hand Position: Bringing your hands in closer to your shoulders on the bar increases the tightness of your upper back. Bring them in as closely as your flexibility allows, while still enabling you to drive your elbows forward under the bar as you lift the weight.
  • Bar Position: Bring the bar down from on top of your traps (high bar position) to the shelf between the base of your traps and your delts.
  • Tight Back: Once you have your grip on the bar, and have positioned the bar on your back, squeeze your shoulder blades together to contract your lats and tighten your upper back.
  • Big Air: Take a large breath of air into your lungs, and tighten your core. This will create intra-abdominal pressure, providing stability to your spine.


What is Big Air?

When I get under the bar very very tightly it feels like my body is a loaded spring. Let it go and it drives the bar up easily out of the rack, even with a loaded down bar. For more tips on your squat setup, read ‘A Perfect Setup Leads to a Bigger Squat’.


Setting up your squat

Bench Press Setup: You’ve seen a lot of guys do it, hell I used to this before I knew what I was doing: before unracking the weight, he pulls his body up off the bench and as his shoulders come back down onto the bench he unracks the weight. This is probably the worst thing you can do to prepare for your bench press. Before unracking the weight you want to have your body in the perfect position and completely tight. There is no way to properly set up with a moving target!

  • Shoulder Position: Place your shoulders on the bench and squeeze your shoulder blades together tightly. Think about trying to squeeze a quarter between your shoulder blades and holding it there throughout your full set.
  • Leg Drive: Place your feet under your knees with your toes pointed slightly outward. Push through the balls of your feet driving your hips towards your shoulders. This will push your lower back into a slight arch, and it will tighten your entire body from your toes through your traps. Maintain your leg drive throughout all reps in your set.

Note: If you have lower back issues, consult your doctor before benching with an ‘arch’.

  • Lock Your Elbows: Squeeze the bar tightly, and try to lock your elbows before unracking the bar. You want to be able to bring the bar straight out over your chest, instead of lifting the bar up then bringing it out. This works best when you have a bench with adjustable height. With the perfect rack height you can nearly lock your elbows before coming out of the rack. Your spotter should have to just bump the bar up slightly, then help you guide the weight straight out, at which point you’re already locked out and ready to begin your first repetition.

Deadlift Setup: Deadlift setups are the trickiest. I watch deadlifters squat down to the bar loosening their entire upper body, and then jerk up as hard as they can to pull their new PR. Let’s look at this approach – loose upper back, heavy weight, jerking the bar with all their strength. Let’s say you’re going to tow your friend’s car out of the ditch with your Chevy. Do you connect the chains between the vehicles leaving 30’ of slack, then floor it getting your truck up to speed before the chain tightens and jerks the bumper off your friend’s car? My first thought is usually ‘well they won’t be wasting space in my gym too long’.

A proper deadlift starts with a tight upper body and a smooth, strong, steady pull:

  • Big Air: Take a deep breath into your lungs and tighten your core. This will create intra-abdominal pressure which stabilizes your spine. This is best done before you drop your hips down into the starting position. Once you drop your hips you will be unable to pack your lungs full of air.
  • Tight Back: Squeeze your shoulder blades together tightening your back. As opposed to your bench press technique, where you try and pinch a quarter between them, try and tuck your shoulder blades down into your back pockets. This will reduce the shortening effect on your arms while still allowing you to tighten your upper back (shorter arms equals a longer range of motion).
  • Pull the Slack out of the Bar: Pull upward on the bar before starting your deadlift eliminating any slack between you and the bar. You should have a smooth, strong pull when you start your deadlift, and not jerk the bar upwards.
  • Don’t Squat to the Bar: Rock back bringing your hips down and your head and chest up. Keep your back tight and upward tension on the bar as you rock back, dropping your hips to the starting position. Don’t squat down to the bar letting your knees drift forward over the bar and loosening your back and arms.

A tight setup on the deadlift allows you to transfer all of your pulling power directly from your legs to the bar. It allows you to turn your upper body into a solid lever, minimizing energy leaks as you begin your pull.

I probably frustrate many of my lifters. When squatting I’ll make them rerack and start over several times before they even take their first repetition, but the setup is that important. A proper setup can easily be the difference between a missed lift and a new personal record.


Overcoming Weaknesses in Your Bench Press

Posted: December 1, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: 02 - Bench Press Tips | Tags: , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

To build the strongest bench press possible, identify and overcome your weaknesses. Here I break your bench press down into the possible weak points, and give you approaches to correct them. You’ll notice that some of these corrective actions overlap.

Training Maturity: Before you start worrying about weaknesses in your lift you should be at a relatively mature level in your lifting. Before you start working on your weaknesses:

  1. Perfect your bench press technique: The training approaches I share here will have limited effectiveness if you have poor bench pressing technique. While improving your technique your bench press max may decline in the short term, but in the long run you will be much stronger, and have much lower chance of injury.
  2. Build a solid foundation of strength. Before working on your weaknesses, develop your overall bench press strength. I recommend working on your fundamental bench press strength until you reach at least an intermediate level of strength on the bench press. (Strength Standards for Bench Press: http://www.exrx.net/Testing/WeightLifting/BenchStandards.html)

There are three potential points of weakness:

Now that your technique is fundamentally sound, and you have a solid strength base, let’s look at where your weak points may lie, and how to improve them.

  1. Weak off the chest
  2. Locking out at the top
  3. Failing at the ‘sticking point’

Weak off the chest: If you fail at the chest with heavy weights and are unable to press off the chest, this indicates a weakness in your pectorals and a lack of explosiveness. You can address these weaknesses with a number of improvements in your technique, your strength levels in certain areas, and building greater explosiveness.

Key Technique Points: To improve your power off the chest, focus on techniques to improve stability at the chest.

  • Full body tightness: Keep your body tight from your feet through your traps. Do this by maintaining a strong leg drive throughout the press, and using that leg drive to establish an arch in your back.
  • Keep your chest up:  Take a deep breath into your lungs before bringing the bar to your chest. Hold your breath until you press through your sticking point. This helps you keep your chest up throughout the press. Feel your pecs stretching across your rib cage as the bar comes down, ready to snap explosively and drive the bar back up.

Strength Improvements and Training: Improving your strength in certain areas using these techniques can help you improve the power of your bench press off the chest.

  • Chest/Pectoral strength: The pectorals are your primary mover to drive the barbell off your chest. Obviously, a strong bench press requires strong pecs. Strategies to improve your pectoral strength include:
    • Bench pressing at a strength building intensity range, sets of 3-5 reps.
    • Wide grip bench pressing, flat or decline. Note: wide grip pressing can put increased tension on your shoulders, if you have shoulder injuries or limited shoulder mobility take care using wide grip bench presses.
    • Pre-exhaust your triceps. Perform triceps isolation exercises prior to benching, and super set triceps work with your bench presses. With your triceps pre-exhausted, your pecs will be forced to do more of the lifting.
    • Supplemental bench pressing, any variation, in the 10-15 rep range for hypertrophy.
  • Upper Back/Lat Strength: The back is your primary stabilizer for the bench press when the bar is near the chest. A strong upper back will give you a powerful platform to press from. For an optimal bench press, your back strength should be in relative balance with your bench press strength. Your back training volume should be balanced with your chest training. Emphasize free weight, compound rowing exercises.
  • Shoulder/Anterior Delt Strength: Strong healthy shoulders are important supporting muscles for the bench press. Include overhead pressing and incline benching in your training program to strengthen your anterior delts. Note: Your shoulders are a relatively vulnerable joint. Take care to use perfect form and manageable weight when performing overhead pressing and incline pressing exercises.

Explosive Training: Improving the explosiveness of your bench training will condition your body and central nervous system to engage more of your muscle fibers at once to give you a more powerful drive off the chest. Concentrate on driving the bar off your chest with all of your power instantly.

Note: This does not mean you should bounce the bar off your chest. The bar should touch your chest lightly, and come to a stop before pressing it back up. If you have a tendency to bounce the bar off your chest, practice pausing at the chest before pressing.

  • Speed Bench Press: Include some speed benching in your weekly training program. Speed benches should be at a sub-maximal weight, light enough so that you can drive the bar off your chest explosively with perfect bench press technique. Condition yourself to drive each repetition up off your chest with more speed than the previous rep. My preferred sets and reps for speed benching is 9×3 at 50-70% of your 1 rep max (1RM).
  • Accommodating Resistance: Using bands and chains allow you to press a larger weight to lockout while the weight is lighter at the chest. Set the weight to your target at the top end (example if your target weight is 315, you might use 230lbs bar weight and 85lbs of chain). At your chest where the weight is lighter, drive the bar up as hard as you can.

Locking out at the top: Failing to lock your bench press out at the top may indicate a relative weakness in your triceps.

Key Technique Points: Lockout technique emphasizes locking out your elbows versus raising the bar.

  • Squeeze your shoulder blades together tightly. This prevents you from lifting your shoulders off the bench during the lift, greatly improving your bench stability and reducing the range of motion of the lift. Note: this is a good thing, this technique eliminates unnecessary range of motion. Think about trying to squeeze a quarter between your shoulder blades, and hold that position throughout the entire range of each repetition.
  • Concentrate on locking the elbows, not pushing the bar upward. The bench press is complete when your elbows are locked. Instead of thinking about raising the bar, think of simply locking your elbows.
  • Squeeze the bar, and try and pull it apart. This can help you activate your triceps, and turn your pecs and triceps into a rubber band ready to snap tight, propelling the bar upward.

Strength Improvements and Training: Your triceps are the primary movers to lock out the bench press. Improving your triceps strength will improve your lockout strength.

  • Triceps Strength: A strong lockout on your bench press requires strong triceps. Effective triceps training is based on a foundation of compound triceps exercises.
  • Lockout Training: Build your lockout strength by including heavy lockout training in your program.
  • Accommodating Resistance: Using bands and chains allow you to overload your bench press at the top end. Since the weight is lighter at the bottom of the bench, you can drive it up harder. This allows you to increase the top end weight above what you could normally press.

Failing at the sticking point: The sticking point is the point in your bench press where your pecs decline in force production and the emphasis transitions to your triceps. This should be at about the midpoint of your bench press. The key to getting past this transition point is getting the bar moving off your chest with enough speed so that the bar’s momentum carries it right past the sticking point and on to where your triceps have enough power to complete the lock out.

Key Technique Points: To drive the bar off your chest with enough power to get past your sticking point, you need to keep your entire body tight and keep your chest up. These points have been previously addressed.

  • Maintain full body tightness by establishing strong leg drive and holding a tight back arch.
  • Keep your chest up by taking a deep breath into your lungs and holding it until you are past the transition point.

Strength Improvements and Training:

  • Accommodating Resistance: Using bands and chains, the resistance increases as you press the bar up. You have to drive it off your chest with enough speed, and keep driving the bar through your sticking point as the weight increases.
  • Lockout Training: Using a lockout technique, set the starting position (rack lockout position, number of boards) to the approximate point at which your bench is at its weakest. Start your press from this point at a dead stop.

Explosive Strength: Practice initiating the press off your chest with all of your power so that the bar speed and momentum carries it through your sticking point.

  • Speed Bench Press: Using sub-maximal weight, practice driving the bar off your chest as explosively as possible. Concentrate on bar acceleration throughout each repetition until lockout, and try to drive each repetition up faster than the previous one.

Perfect your technique, build your strength foundation and then address the weak points in your bench. Use these approaches to maximize your bench press strength.


Positioning the Bar for a Bigger Bench Press

Posted: January 16, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: 00 - Lifting Tips, 02 - Bench Press Tips | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment »

Although it appears a very simple exercise, there is a lot more to the bench press than lowering the bar to your chest and pressing it back up. Applied correctly, small tweaks in your lifting technique can have a much greater impact on your bench than the workout routine you follow. Often overlooked during the bench press is the bar position.

Notice two problems with the bench press shown in this photo?

If you said the issues are that I couldn’t get the spotter to get his dang hands off the bar during the lift, and there is a world class powerlifter training in a flashy ‘fitness center’ (Beverly Crawford, two time high school national powerlifting champion, two time USA Powerlifting national champion and silver medalist at the International Powerlifting Federation world championships), you are correct…however not what I was going for.

Notice her right hand, circled in red. It appears that her wrist is bent sharply backwards. This is something I see done by the vast majority of bench pressers in the gym. To improve your grip on the bar, you want the bar to rest directly over your wrist and forearm. You do this by rolling your wrists forward, and letting the bar rest in the base of your palm, not up in the middle of your palm. The weight from the bar should travel directly down through your wrists and forearm, not suspended over…air.

If you use wrist wraps when you bench, use them to improve the stability of your hold on the bar. When you’re wrapping them, bring the wrap up around the base of your hand. When done right and tight, they act like a cast, and make it difficult to bend your hand backwards. This forces you to support the weight over your wrist and forearm.

If you look at Beverly’s left arm, circled in blue, look at the way her forearm is angled downward toward her feet. To get the most power, as mentioned above the bar should be positioned directly over your forearm. Now that we’ve fixed your grip on the bar, move the bar position up your chest so that your forearms are perpendicular to the floor as the bar touches the chest. You can also tuck your elbows in tighter to your body. This will allow you to bring the bar down lower on your chest and still keep the weight over your arms.

By making these two changes, you keep the weight of the bar directly over the supporting structure of your arms and chest. This should reduce strain on your wrists, elbows and shoulders, and also allow you to add lbs. to your bench press.

If you’d like more tips on bench pressing, check out my article, Powerlifting Basics: Tips to Increase Your Bench Press.