How To Increase Your Bench Press With Proper Technique

By Lee Hayward

The Barbell Bench Press is one of the most popular gym exercises. It isalso one of the most misused exercises. Part of the problem is that thebench press is an ego exercise. A lot of guys judge their trainingprogress based on how much they can bench. So often times they end uptraining too heavy and using poor technique in effort to lift moreweight.

The average gym member will usually try to increase their bench pressby doing more reps, sets, or weight on bench press. When in realitythey will gain more strength and make better progress over the longterm if they focused their effort on improving their bench presslifting technique rather then simply lifting more.

The best way to make big strength gains in your bench press in theshortest period of time is to improve your form. The techniques listedbelow are used by the best bench pressers in the world. But keep inmind that changing your bench press technique can take a bit of gettingused to and initially your poundages may go down before you get thehang of the new technique.

This is just like when you first learnt how to use a computer andstarted off as a two-finger typist. You can type with two fingers, butnot very fast. Then when someone eventually taught you the proper wayto type, using all fingers, you probably found it very frustrating atfirst. Most likely you couldn't even type as fast as you could withjust two fingers. But with a bit of practice you eventually got to thepoint where you can click away on the keyboard faster using the propertyping technique compared to the old two finger method. The same willhold true for your bench press, once you get used to the proper liftingtechnique your strength gains will progress much faster.

Many people do not realize how much strength they lose by making thebar travel further than necessary. The less distance you have to movethe weight the stronger you will be. To shorten the distance that youpress the bar you need to expand your rib cage and stick your chestout. While at the same time squeezing your shoulder blades backtogether behind you.

You can even try this now while sitting hear reading this. Right nowsit up tall in your chair and take a deep breath, expand your rib cage,and stick your chest out as far as you can. At the same time squeezeyour shoulder blades back as far as you can. Now do it again, but thistime hold your arms out in front of you as if you were doing a benchpress. You can even alternate holding your arms out in front with yourupper body relaxed and then holding your arms out in front with yourchest out and shoulders back.

There will be at least a few inches of distance in the difference. Byexpanding your chest you can shave an inch or two off your bench pressstroke. And by pulling you shoulder blades back together you'll reducethe distance by another inch or two. Look at the picture below andyou'll see the difference. See how far the elbows are in front of thetorso in the first pic compared to the second pic. Yet, the arms arestraight and locked out in both pictures. 

In addition to proper upper body positioning, you also need to drivethrough your legs to be a good bench presser. When you set up on thebench your feet should be firmly planted on the floor and you shouldpush with your legs as if you were trying to slide your back up thebench, without actually letting your back slide up the bench. A lot ofpowerlifters will put lifting chalk along their upper back to helpcreate more friction on the bench and allow them to drive with theirlegs without sliding up the bench. This will help stabilize and supportthe entire body and also help you hold the "chest out and shouldersback" position even better.

When you position yourself on the bench press, set up so that your eyes are in direct line with the bar. This is the ideal place to take the bar out of the rack and maintain your proper body position as outlined above.

To handle maximum weights you need to keep your entire body tight. Onceyou are set up on the bench, grasp the barbell and squeeze it hard andtry to pull outwards while keeping that tight grip on the bar. Thiswill instantly tense and activate the muscles in the upper back andcreate a more solid base.

Once you un-rack the bar hold it at arms length for a couple secondsand let the weights settle. Focus on keeping your proper set up bysticking your chest out, pulling your shoulders back, and driving withyour feet. Then take a deep breath and hold your air. By holding yourair you'll stabilize your torso and keep more tension in your body.(Note: you can breath in and out normally in between reps, but duringthe actual lift itself hold your air in).

Lower the bar somewhere between your nipples and where your chest andupper abdominals meet. The actual spot where you touch the bar may varyfrom person to person, and depends on your individual body structure.

As you lower the bar keep your elbows tucked in so that your upper armsare at a 45 degree angle with the sides of your torso. By keeping yourelbows tucked in like this, and not letting them flare straight out tothe sides you'll keep more strength in the bottom of the lift and placeless stress on your shoulder joints.

When you lift the bar back up the chest muscles will start the initialdrive off the body, but once you get half way up the triceps will takeover and finish the lift. To help activate the triceps more and lockoutthe lift, visualize straightening your arms out underneath the bar.Rather then trying to keep pressing the bar up. Another way to think ofit is to visualize shoving yourself away from the bar, rather thenpressing the bar.

To show you what I mean, stand up against a wall and assume a push upposition. Lean in and push hard against the wall, almost like you aretrying to push a stuck car. In this position you are pushing hard, butyour elbows are still bent. Try it again, but this time stand upagainst the wall, and instead of pushing hard against the wall, justfocus on straightening your arms out and shove yourself away from thewall.

This is what you should do when you get to the half way point of therep, rather then just pushing against the bar, focus on straighteningout your arms underneath the bar and shoving yourself away. This changein focus can really help you finish off the lift when you hit thesticky point half way up.

Implementing these technique tips into your bench press workouts willtake a bit of practice, but once you get good at them the results areamazing. You'll feel solid and strong during your lifts and mostimportantly you'll be able to lift more weight, with better form, andless risk injury as you will not be placing excess stress on theshoulder joints.

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