Just about every person that’s ever picked up a weight has likely hit the bench press. It’s the king of all movements when it comes to trying to impress your friends or family members. But one thing is certain, about 99% of the people that bench press have no clue as to what they are doing, or how to even get better. I was even one of these people not terribly long ago, but taking the time to reach out to smarter, and much stronger people than me has paid off to helping me increase my own bench press to respectable numbers.
In the article below, I’m going to go into vast detail on everything bench press related. From set up and execution, performance, programming, technique, and even some sample outlines of what a good program might look like for your bench press.
So let’s get to it.
General Set Up and Mechanics
First things, first. Let’s get the execution and performance side of things covered first.
Now there are a few different ways you can bench press, and how specific you want to get with it. For someone not looking to powerlift, some of these more subtle cues and tips aren’t as big of a deal. But if you want to use the biggest poundages you can in your training, and keep your shoulders healthy for a long career, they will still probably be of value.
Setting the Shoulders
Without being too obvious, you need to lay down on the bench first. But after that, I recommend learning how to set your shoulders. You want to emphasize setting your traps and upper back into the bench as hard as you can, so that you feel this pressure. We ideally want that same pressure the whole time we are executing the lift. Once you’ve got this down, we’re going to ensure that our shoulders stay set but pulling your shoulder blades back and down – as if you were going to put them in your back pockets. What this does is help set a better foundation to push into the bench so that we can deliver more force up into the bar.
Setting the Feet
After you’ve got your shoulders in a good position and understand how your traps and back should feel during the movement, we’re going to focus on feet placement. Now, this one will have some options for you to choose from, so if you’re a competitive powerlifter (or want to be), you’ll want to make sure you read the rule book for the federation you’re looking to compete in. The two options are to have you feet tucked, where you will be only on your toes; or you will have your feet flat and more out in front of you. Here’s some of the key points for each:
Feet Tucked
- You want to get your feet back as far as possible, but ensure that you still have a good footing and grip
- You want to actively be able to press your heels towards the floor (even though they will never actually touch the floor)
- You want to ensure that your knees are lower than your hips
- You want to squeeze the bench with your adductors (inner thighs), so that you can remain tight
Feet Flat
- You’ll want your feet out as far as you need, so long that your knee is lower than your hip
- You can press through your heel or front of your foot, but the pressure should be pushing you towards the head of the bench (so you almost slide)
- Still press your knees out hard, just like you would during a squat
Setting and Determining Your Grip
This is another aspect of the lift where you will get some freedom in terms of what feels best for you. Ideally your grip will not be too narrow, or too wide. You’ll want it to be wide enough that it helps decrease your range of motion to some extent, but narrow enough that you can use your triceps, chest, and shoulders to their fullest capacity. This might take some experimenting to find what works best for you, but a good starting point is to use a grip that is slightly wider than shoulder width.
Once you determine where you grip is, the next thing to ensure you’re grabbing the bar correctly. You’ll want to have the bar in the meat of your hand, where you can squeeze it has hard as you can. You’ll also want to have your knuckles facing straight up towards the ceiling, so that your wrist is stacked over your elbow. This will help the load to sit on the skeletal system, and let the muscles focus more on moving the weight, rather than trying to stabilize it or put it in the correct position mid-lift.
Execution
Now that we’ve got our set up down, let’s go through the execution of the lift.
Big Air
First thing you should do is take a big breath of air into your belly and partially into your chest. This is going to help stabilize you and keep you tight throughout the lift, especially for big singles or one-rep maxes.
Unrack
Then unrack the bar (ideally with a spotter or lift-off person), so that the weight is loaded onto your wrists and elbows, which should be directly over your shoulders. Remember your shoulders should be pulled back and down, and at this point all the weight is loaded into your back, traps, and lats.
Descent
Either with the command of the referee (for powerlifting competitors), or on your own, begin to lower the barbell to a level that is slightly lower than the nipple-line or chest level. Remember you should be squeezing the bar hard, and pushing your feet into the floor.
Press
After a brief pause (for competitors) or after touching the chest, drive the weight back up to the start position. Think to yourself about pressing the bar away from you, and continue to push your legs into the ground without your butt coming up off the bench (especially for competitors).
Muscles Used And Attacking Weak Points
I’ve got a rather detailed article over on Elitefts, that I would highly suggest you give a read when you have the time – Building The Raw Bench Press.
This will help you determine your weak points and also all the muscles you need to specifically be working on bringing up to increase your bench.
Three Tips For Advanced Lifters
Here is a video I put together as well for three tips that can help increase your bench press immediately. These are more advanced cues, but still very good things to know.
FREE Sample Four Week Bench Press Program
Week 1, Day 1
A1) Competition Bench Press – Work Up to a 5RM (RPE 9); 90%x4x3-5 *This is 90% of the 5RM*
B1) Close Grip Bench Press – 3×10
C1) DB Skull Crushers – 3×12
D1) Pressdowns – 100 total reps
E1) Inverted Rows – 4 sets, max reps
F1) DB Flys – 3×20
F2) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Week 1, Day 2
A1) Incline Bench Press – 4×8 (RPE 8)
B1) DB Bench Press – 3×20
C1) Pull Ups – 4 sets, max reps
D1) DB Rows – 4×12 per arm
E1) Lat Pulldowns – 3×15
F1) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Week 2, Day 1
A1) Competition Bench Press – Work Up to a 5RM (beat last week); 92%x3x3-5 *This is 92% of the 5RM*
B1) Close Grip Bench Press – 3×8
C1) DB Skull Crushers – 3×10
D1) Pressdowns – 100 total reps
E1) Inverted Rows – 5 sets, max reps
F1) DB Flys – 3×20
F2) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Week 2, Day 2
A1) Incline Bench Press – 5×6 (RPE 8.5)
B1) DB Bench Press – 3×15
C1) Chin Ups – 4 sets, max reps
D1) DB Chest Supported Rows – 4×10-12
E1) Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns – 3×20
F1) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Week 3, Day 1
A1) Competition Bench Press – Work Up to a 3RM (RPE 9); 92.5%x3x2-4 *This is 92.5% of the 3RM*
B1) Close Grip Bench Press – 4×6
C1) Dips – 3×10
D1) DB Skull Crushers – 100 total reps
E1) Seated Cable Rows – 5×10-12
F1) DB Flys – 3×25
F2) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Week 3, Day 2
A1) Incline Bench Press – 5×5 (RPE 9)
B1) DB Bench Press – 3×12
C1) Neutral Grip Chin Ups – 4 sets, max reps
D1) DB Chest Supported Rows – 4×10-12
E1) Bent Over DB Shrugs – 3×15
F1) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Week 4, Day 1
A1) Competition Bench Press – Work Up to a 2RM (RPE 9); 90%x3x1-3 *This is 90% of the 2RM*
B1) Close Grip Bench Press – 5×5
C1) Dips – 3×10
D1) Overhead Tricep Extensions – 100 total reps
E1) Lat Pulldowns – 4×12
F1) Deficit Push Ups – 3 sets, max reps
F2) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Week 4, Day 2
A1) Incline Bench Press – 4×5 (RPE 9)
B1) DB Bench Press – 3×20
C1) Neutral Grip Chin Ups – 4 sets, max reps
D1) DB Rows – 4×15 per arm
E1) Straight Arm Lat Pulldowns – 3×15
F1) Upper Back/Pre Hab Movement of Choice – 100 total reps
Questions and Answers
Below are some common questions and answers I commonly see or get regarding the bench press:
Should I tuck my elbows?
This is a bit of a tricky question. My first response is going to be yes, you should. But really, it kind of depends on what you’re cuing yourself while you’re actually benching. I don’t like to see people purposefully try to tuck their elbows in by their sides. But if they are actively pulling the bar apart and activiating their back when they do it, then yes, your elbows should be tucked to some degree. Like I mentioned in the video above, if you had to push your vehicle down the road, your elbows will probably be in a 35 to 45 degree angle.
How do I keep my butt on the bench?
I briefly touched on this in my video above, but this requires some practice and really dialing in your technique. For the most part you’re going to want to press your feet into the ground so that you’re trying to drive your body up into the bench and bar. So think about applying your leg drive horizontally instead of vertically. Also, having your knee lower than your hip will help as well.
How big should my arch be?
The simple answer to this – as big as you can get it that is comfortable. Each person will have different restrictions and limitations based upon the way they are built. But what’s more important is that your shoulders are packed down and your lats are tight. You can work on your hip flexor and thoracic spine mobility to see if this will aid you as well. A big arch isn’t required to have a big bench press.
How do I address wrist and shoulder pain?
This is probably one of the most common questions when it comes to rehab regarding the bench press. My first answer is going to be take some down time and get away from the straight bar. You’ve probably got an overuse issue somewhere in your training (and without knowing you personally, that’s about all that I can give). I’m also a firm believer that having supinated movements in your training program can take you a long way – curls, pulldowns, rows, and other various movements. The final thing I would suggest is some more external rotation work for your shoulder, so pre-hab based movements.
Finishing Things Up
Hopefully this article provided you with some sort of valuable information that you can take away and apply to help you increase your bench press. It was a lift that gave me a lot of trouble early on in my powerlifting career, but I’ve managed to make some good strides in my technique and programming to help get my bench press to the next level. If you’ve got any questions or need some help, don’t hesitate to reach out and contact me.