The Bench Press

Possibly the most popular exercise in the weights room, the barbell bench press is an excellent mass-builder and solid compound exercise for upper body pressing strength.

Which muscles does it work?

The bench press works the pectorals, the front delts, and the triceps. The closer your grip width, the more the shoulders and triceps are active, and the wider you go, the more you involve your pecs.

A surprising number of secondary muscles are active in this lift – not many people know that your lats and traps play an important role as stabilisers! Powerlifters even train them specifically with shrugs and rows to assist their bench press strength.

The basic How-To

For a detailed look at the finer points of bench-pressing form, check this out. Otherwise, read on.

Before lifting, ensure that weight is loaded evenly on each side and the collars are in-place.

Lie flat on the bench. Grasp barbell with medium width grip – hands inside the outer rung is a good bet. Position yourself under the barbell so that you have room to press when you unrack it, but you’re close enough to the rack to lift it off without difficulty. For most people, this means the barbell should be racked directly above your eyes.

Grasp the bar tightly and unrack by pressing skyward. Lower the barbell smoothly, under control, to your upper abdomen. Gently touch your body with the bar – do not bounce it off your chest! Bouncing heavy weight off your sternum is a good recipe for disaster.

The Press

Press the barbell upward. Ideally, the bar should follow as straight a line as possible. Lock your elbows out at the top of the movement. Do not pause at the top, but slowly lower the bar smoothly and under control back to your upper abdomen. That’s one repetition.

Bench-press form looks straight forward, and really it is – still, there are a few key points to remember - you can read about them in this article on perfect bench press form.

Variations

The Dumbbell Bench-Press

A good variation on the standard bench-press. Some people find they get a better stretch in the pecs with dumbbells, or they simply find them easier on the shoulders. Dumbbells require more stabilisation and you’ll find yourself able to lift a lot less total weight than you would with a barbell.

Switching over to dumbbells can be a great way to change up your routine and kickstart new gains.

The Incline Bench-Press

Most people find that the flat bench-press hits the lower pectorals a lot harder than the upper pecs. In a mass-building routine, too much flat-benching can lead to unsightly over-development of the lower pecs.

The incline bench-press is essentially the same movement, but performed on a bench set an inclined angle of ten to thirty degrees. This shifts the stress to the upper fibres of the pectorals.

Some people find that they prefer to train exclusively incline bench presses, or a combination of incline and flat. It generally depends how your chest responds to bench-pressing, and this will vary from person to person.

Other variations include the decline bench-press, which shifts emphasis to the lower pectorals, and dumbbell versions of both incline and decline.

How to include it in my training for:

Building mass

Train the bench-press whenever you train chest. It’s a good idea to do the heavy compounds first, and isolation exercises later. Many people favour a “split” routine, training chest once or twice per week. Three sets of eight to ten reps is ideal for gaining muscle mass.

Strength Training

There are a number of ways you can include the bench-press in your training. If you’re on a classic workout split with low reps and heavy weight (such as Max-OT) then the bench press fits well into into your weight lifting routine.

Another option would be benching 2-3 times a week, using low reps and staying well away from failure. It depends largely on what other exercises you are doing, and why you need the strength.

For ideas on how to push past a plateau on the bench, check out this article on how to bench press more weight.

If putting up big numbers on the bench is your main aim, it’s also well worth reading about how professional powerlifters train for the bench-press. After all, they make their living out of being able to bench more than anybody else!

Powerlifting

Training the bench press for powerlifting requires a whole ‘nother article. So, hop over to the powerlifting workouts for a detailed discussion of how to gear your training for competitive benching.

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