Welcome back to Bro Basics, a series that covers exercises which might be popular and may be useful but are sometimes done inadequately and shows the exercises’ broader function and perform them accurately.
Bros do lots of isolation moves just like the exercises we’ve covered on this series to date: the tricep extension, the bicep curl, and the lat pull-down. After they do do one in all the key “big 4” lifts, it’s typically the bench press.
The bench press is popular with bodybuilder bros and serious powerlifters alike since it’s an exercise that produces each functional and aesthetic results. Plus, it provides a ready (if not comprehensive) measure of somebody’s overall strength. Dudes enjoy asking one another, “How much ya bench?”
Should you’d wish to bench greater tonnage, you’ve gotten to know more about this lift than rack more plates on the bar; you’ve got to learn bench efficiently. We’ll cover that below, in addition to far more on this mother of all bro basics.
What Muscles Does the Bench Press Work?
The bench press primarily works the pectoralis major (chest), anterior deltoids (front of shoulders), and triceps.
The indisputable fact that it really works those latter muscles allows it to enable you develop big guns. As we discussed in our article about tricep extensions, the tricep muscles make up most of your arm girth. Should you want big arms, it’s good to work them out. You’re employed your tricep muscles on the bench press throughout the lockout portion of the lift.
Besides your chest, shoulders, and triceps, the bench press also works your forearms and lats. It’s an awesome all-around upper-body exercise.
Why Do the Bench Press?
You get lots of bang in your buck. As mentioned above, the bench press works several large muscles in your upper body, particularly your chest. So that you get lots of bang in your buck with a single lift. If you desire to increase upper-body strength and size, the bench press will enable you try this.
Helps offer you that masculine v-shaped torso. That is undoubtedly a most important reason men bench press. Amongst the physical traits that make men sexually attractive, the v-shaped torso — large chest, shoulder, and back muscles that taper right down to a narrower waist — arguably reigns supreme. To extend the dimensions of the highest a part of the v, it’s good to work your shoulders, chest, and back. The bench press does that.
It’s fun. The bench press is a fun lift. You’re hoisting lots of weight over your face while lying on a bench. Should you don’t perform the lift accurately and safely, you can seriously injure yourself and even die. That element of risk gives the bench press a little bit of a manly thrill.
The way to Bench Press
Setting Up Your Equipment
J-cups are set in order that if you grab the bar, your elbows are barely bent.
Should you’re using a bench with built-in uprights — a configuration you’ll find in most industrial gyms — establishing the equipment for the bench press is a no brainer. Just put the bar within the uprights and also you’re good to go.
Should you’re understanding at home in your garage gym, you’ll likely be using your power rack because the uprights, so that you’ll must think concerning the optimal height to put the j-cups so you’ll be able to properly get in your bench press starting position and unrack the bar.
You would like to set your j-cups in your power rack in order that your arms are barely bent if you grab the bar.
In case your j-cups are too high, your arms shall be straight if you grab the bar. To get the bar out of the j-cups, you’ll must shrug your shoulders forward or lift your butt off the bench. This, in turn, will take you out of the correct position for efficient bench pressing.
If the j-cups are too low, your arms shall be very bent if you grab the bar. Getting the bar off the j-cups would require you to do half a bench press rep and can likely put you out of position to bench efficiently.
So set the j-cups in order that your arms shall be within the Goldilocks position if you grab the bar: not too straight and never too bent.
Lie Down on the Bench, Eyes One Inch in Front of the Bar
Lie down on the bench and slide yourself up or down in order that your eyes are about one inch in front of the bar if you’re looking up on the ceiling. This position will prevent the barbell from hitting the j-cups if you press it up.
Feet Flat on the Floor
Place your feet flat on the ground so your knee is at a couple of 90-degree angle. It’s okay in case your knee angle is barely acute. This foot position will give you the steadiness it’s good to safely bench press and will let you use your feet to drive against the ground as you lift the bar.
Some people like to put their feet back so that they’re closer to the hips and create a very acute angle with the knee. To attain this acuteness, people will often just have their toes on the ground. They do that since it helps make their lower back arch up. While, as we’ll discuss in a bit, you do want your back to arch a bit whilst you lift, this foot placement creates an excessive amount of arch, causing the butt to come back off the bench and leading you to bridge your bench press. Not only would this be illegal in a contest, but you’re cheating yourself from working all of the muscles involved on this lift.
In case your legs are too short to place flat on the ground, you’ll be able to place plates beneath your feet.
Grab the Bar
Grab the bar in order that your hands are a couple of full hand’s width from the break within the knurling in the midst of the barbell. A simple technique to check for correct hand placement is to ensure that your pinkies are near the primary grip mark on the barbell.
If you grab the bar, rotate your hands in barely in order that the bar sits across your palm.
Squeeze the bar along with your hands and wrap your thumbs across the bar.
Don’t use a thumbless grip! It’s called a “suicide grip” for a reason. If the barbell slips in your hand, there’s no thumb within the technique to prevent it from slipping right out of your hands and crashing in your face or chest.
Thumbs across the barbell in any respect times if you’re bench pressing.
Set the Arch in Your Back
When most individuals bench press, they lie down with the whole lot of their back flat on the bench. This is wrong.
You wish a little bit of an arch in your back in order that there’s some space between your lower back and the bench while your upper back and butt remain in touch with the bench.
Back arch does a pair things.
First, it reduces the range of motion of the bench press. If you don’t arch your back and due to this fact bench press while your back is flat and chest is lower, you’ve gotten to press the bar farther up. If you arch your lower back, your chest comes up, shortening the bar’s path.
Second, the low back arch puts your shoulders able to generate more force if you bench press.
Setting the arch in your back is counterintuitive for beginners, so it might take a little bit of practice to get it right.
Together with your hands gripping the bar, imagine attempting to pinch the vinyl or leather of the bench between your shoulder blades. This may lead you to retract your scapulas, causing your chest to puff up.
You would like to keep your shoulder blades squeezed together for the whole lot of the lift. This gets hard to do as the load gets heavier or as you do more reps. Nevertheless it’s essential to make sure an efficient bench press.
So as to add to the arch a bit more, use leg drive. We’ll talk more about leg drive here in a bit, but throughout the setup, take into consideration pressing yourself backward on the bench along with your legs. Doing this can bolster your arch. You don’t actually need to move backward on the bench; just use this as a physical cue for correct position.
Move the Bar to Starting Position
Together with your hands gripping the bar and your back arch set, you’re able to lift the bar off the j-cups and move it to the bench press starting position.
Straighten your elbows. This may take the barbell out of the j-cups. Together with your elbows straight and locked out, move the barbell forward until it’s directly over the shoulder joint. That is the bench press starting position or lockout position (what it looks like is depicted above).
Ensure you’re engaging in leg drive at this point by pushing yourself back on the bench along with your legs. You’ll want to take care of this leg drive throughout the lift.
Lower the Bar to Your Sternum
Perform the Valsalva maneuver.
Keeping your wrists straight, lower the bar towards your chest.
When most dudes bench press, they lower the bar straight down in order that the bar touches the highest a part of their chest. This may set you up for shoulder impingement and can be inefficient.
As an alternative, lower the bar and touch it somewhere near your sternum. Where it touches your sternum depends upon your body’s anthropometry and your grip width. Lowering the bar towards your sternum will end in a diagonal bar path. It can also end in your elbows being barely in front of the bar when the bar touches your chest.
You wish the barbell to the touch your chest gently. Don’t let it bounce off your chest. Imagine you’ve gotten a bit of glass in your chest and wish to tap it with the barbell but not break it.
I wish to pause for about one second with the barbell on my chest as a substitute of just touching and going back up.
Proceed to leg drive and proceed to perform the Valsalva maneuver.
Push the Bar Up and Back to the Starting Position
Push the bar up and back to the starting position with the barbell over your shoulder joint. Again, this can end in a rather diagonal bar path. For a lot of starting bench pressers, this bar path is counterintuitive; they need to push the bar straight up.
A couple of cues that I exploit to assist me keep the up and back bar path are “eyes” and “elbows.”
“Eyes” jogs my memory to push the bar back towards my eyes.
“Elbows” jogs my memory to maintain my elbows tucked in. Keeping your elbows tucked in will help maintain that diagonal bar path up. I tend to let my elbows flare out after I’m pushing the bar up — especially when things get heavy — and this ends in a bar path that goes up but not back.
Take a Deep Breath; Perform Valsalva; Repeat
After completing a rep, take an enormous, fresh breath, perform the Valsalva, and repeat for the prescribed reps.
Bench Press Safety
The bench press can kill you. It’s the one lift where the barbell is directly above your throat and the vital organs in your upper body, and there’s no technique to bail out if you happen to fail the lift.
Since the bench press can potentially kill you, you desire to take extra precautions to make sure your safety throughout the lift. One in all those precautions is using a spotter.
But there’s a right and incorrect technique to spot someone on the bench press. Review our guide on spot someone on the bench press for more details.
Should you don’t have someone who can spot you on the bench press, follow these 4 safety rules so that you would be able to bench press alone and live on of your legendary PR.
Tags: Bro Basics