The Bench Press Cheat Sheet

The bench press is, without a doubt, the most popular exercise in the history of all exercises. This is true in every city, every state, and every country all over the world.

Not all gyms have a squat rack, but all gyms have a bench press.

Not everybody squats or deadlifts, but everybody benches. The bench press is a great exercise to get jacked triceps, shoulders, and a gorilla chest.

Lately though, your bench is going nowhere. In fact, it’s been stuck for quite awhile…and with the problems you’re having, you feel that you won’t be able to put up a PR anytime soon.

We’ve all been there, but it doesn’t have to stay this way.

There are a number of things that can hamper the progress of your bench press. More than that, because of its popularity, there is a lot of misleading information about this exercise out there.

In this article, you’ll learn about the right way to bench. After that we will take a look at how to improve the numbers on your bench press. Before you know it, you will be sprinting past your old PR’s like Usain Bolt running the 100 meters at the Olympics.

The Right Way to Bench

To bench correctly, you must take the following 5 steps:

1. You need to lie down on the bench so that the bar is directly underneath your eyes. Put your feet in the correct position.
2. Pull your shoulder blades back and grab the bar. Try to bend or break the bar to tighten your upper back and create a stable position for your shoulders. Squeeze your glutes, push the knees out and try to create ‘sticky feet’.
3. You can now lift the bar out of the rack, over your shoulders. Make sure you have the correct grip before you lift the weight out of the rack.
4. Keep your shoulders blades back, your upper back tight, and lower the weight under tight control but as fast as possible. Lead with your elbows.
5. When the bar touches your chest, you can extend your arms (leading with the elbows) and lock out the weight.

Your PR is doomed from the start if you make a mistake in any of the first steps.

Now, there is something we need to address before you even lie down on the bench. Along with your bench setup, and the reason that is so important, we need to discuss rack height.

Rack height

I know, it seems silly to talk about rack height for bench pressing, but I’ll do it anyway. You need to set the rack to a height so it allows for a slight bend in your arms.

With an ideal height all you need to do is to extend the arms and press the weight out of the pins while keeping your shoulders firmly on the bench. If the pins are set to high, your shoulders need to come off the bench and you lose all stability. This makes it hard to keep heavy weights under control.

That being said, lets start looking at your setup. We will start with your position on the bench.

What Are You Looking At?

Start by sitting down on the bench, then lie on your back. When lying on the bench your eyes should be looking at the bar, or just past it, when looking straight ahead. I prefer to be directly underneath in a way that I am looking right at the bar.

Any other position will increase the difficulty of unracking the bar. Try out different positions if you don’t believe me.

Bench Like A Soldier

When you lie down on the bench, make sure your upper back is tight, and is planted firmly on the bench. Having a tight upper back will actually make it easier to maintain stability and keep a firm position on the bench. This position will also keep your chest up during bench pressing, giving you an advantage. Your range of motion will be slightly decreased.

Most people find it difficult to keep their upper back tight while keeping their shoulders retracted. Understandable, there’s a lot going on when you are trying to break your bench record. Here’s a tip that will teach you how to keep that position.

“Ten-hut!”

I am sure you can “stand at attention” like they do in the army.  Part of that “drill” is to stand upright, with the chin up, chest out, and shoulders back. This is the same position you should emulate on the bench. Try to assume this position while lying on the bench and do a few reps. Put the bar back and reestablish your correct position every time you feel you’ve slipped.

During the press movement itself, your shoulders and upper back should move as little as possible. One way to keep tight, and in the correct position, is by pushing the bar with your elbow. That is the only part of the body that should move.

During sets of 8 or 10, you will notice that after a few reps you will feel a bit looser. It will become more pronounced with each rep. Just try to keep as tight as possible, for as long as possible. Over time you will be able to maintain it throughout a complete set.

The Importance Of Feet

Your stance is just as important as any other part of your set-up. Most people don’t pay much attention to it, and because of that, they don’t press as much as they could. A proper stance will allow for a stable position on the bench while pressing massive weights.

There are two things you need to be aware of. These are foot placement, and stance width. Stance width is almost always a matter of personal preference. The only thing you should keep in mind is that a narrower stance makes it easier to raise your butt off the bench. This is unacceptable.

Foot placement is something you will need to pay a bit more attention to. Your feet need to be placed so your shins are nearly vertical. In this position, you will be able to generate most force in your legs, and you will be able to generate a good amount of tension in your upper body. This will help to stabilize your trunk when benching.

When you place your feet too far back under the hips, it will also make it easier for you to raise your butt off the bench. Still unacceptable. You can avoid this by placing your feet extremely far behind, all the way back so you need to stand on your toes. If you do this though, you will be less stable.

Honestly, you will see a lot of lifters in this position with shaky legs. This creates loss of energy. That energy should be used to remain rigid on the bench. A less common problem is the fact your feet are placed too far in front of your knees. It’s mostly a newbie mistake. But if this is something you have a habit of doing, just place your feet under your knees and practice driving the heels into the floor when pressing.

How To Grab The Bar

You should grab the bar evenly. Duh. Use the rings on the bar to do this. Make sure you use a grip that allows you to keep your elbows at a 30 to 45 degree angle from your body,while maintaining a vertical forearm. Ideal grip width is something that will absolutely vary from person to person because it’s dependant on the width of your shoulder girdle.

The best way to make sure your grip is perfect is by using the rings on the bar as a reference point. Just keep in mind that when the bar touches your chest that your forearms should be vertical. You also want to keep the bar in the heel of your palm, with your hands in line with your wrists. This way the weight of the bar is distributed across the bones of the forearm and not the wrists.

It can cause serious wrist injury over time if you have your wrists in front of the bar, and your wrists folded back. If your wrists are behind the bar it can cause the bar to slip out of your hands. You don’t need me to tell you why this is bad.

Right, that covers it for the set up. Let’s take a look at the actual lifts, in which part of the movement you are failing, and why.

The Bench Press Is A Full Body Lift

As you might have figured out by now, the bench press can be considered a full body lift. The whole body needs to be in sync in order to perform maximally. If you can bench press with perfect form, the only reason you are failing a lift is because of a weak muscle group.

First, if you want want to know what your weakest muscle group is in the bench press, need to know how all the muscles work during a bench press. Your chest and shoulder muscles enable you to get the weight off your chest. Your triceps are the muscles that make sure you can lock the bar out.

The muscles on the back of your body are also involved. They help to stabilize you during a bench press. The trapezius and rhomboids keep your shoulder blades firmly planted on the bench. Your lats keep your elbows from moving out or towards your head when pressing the bar. This helps ensure the angle between your torso and upper arms doesn’t change in the bottom part of the movement. You can generate maximal force this way.

Even your legs play a part when you are benching maximal weights. They make sure you lay firmly on the bench. Also, if you use your legs properly, you can generate some decent leg drive to help get the bar of your chest in that first inch or so.

So yeah, the bench press is a full body lift, much like the squat and deadlift.

Fixing Weak Links

When you are benching, several things can go wrong:

•       The bar comes down too fast
•       The bar doesn’t come off your chest
•       The bar drifts towards your face
•       The bar moves to one side
•       The bar gets stuck in the middle
•       The bar gets stuck at the top

Knowing how every muscle functions during the bench press helps to analyze and solve all of these problems.

Let’s take a look–

The bar comes down too fast

There’s no way to sugar coat it- If you can’t control the bar on the way down, then the weight is just too heavy for you.

It’s time to check your ego and lower the weight.

The bar doesn’t come off your chest

Maybe you have no problem lowering the weight, but you can’t get it off your chest.

That might be because of 1 of the next 2 problems:

1. The weight is too heavy for you to press
2. Your chest is too weak.

I know they sound the same, but they’re not. Everybody is stronger in the negative portion of the lift. This means you can always lower more weight under control than you can lift. That’s why it’s possible the weight is just too heavy. This is when the bar just won’t budge.

But if you manage to get it off your chest just a few millimeters to even a few inches, it’s probably because of a weak chest.

If this is the case, you should focus on:

• Bench pressing with a pause
• Extra wide grip bench presses
• Dumbbell presses

Exercises like flyes are not effective to increase your strength, so they are of no use in this situation.

The bar drifts towards your face

Another problem is when the bar drifts towards your face when pressing. This turns the bench press in an impossibly heavy triceps extension. You need to work on your tricep strength in this case.

The best exercises to solve this problem are:

• Rolling extensions
• Floor extensions
• JM Presses

The bar moves to the left or right

This problem is a lot less common. If one of your elbows is flaring to the outside, it is because of weak lats. In this case, the weight will transfer to your shoulder. But your shoulders are a small and relatively weak muscle group, so the bar will start drifting toward one side. Soon after this happens, your shoulders won’t be able to support the heavy weight anymore, and the bar will come down.

You need to strengthen your lats, so work in some of the following exercises:

• Barbell rows
• DB Rows
• Seated Rows
• Cable Rows
• T-Bar Rows
• Chin ups
• Pull ups

The bar gets stuck in the middle

Another possibility is that both your elbows will flare out. When this happens, the bar won’t drift to the right or left, it will get stuck in the middle of the movement. It could be your lats are too weak, but more likely, it is because of weak shoulders.

The fix is to strengthen your shoulders with

• Standing Overhead presses, with barbells and dumbbells
• Seated Overhead presses, with barbells and dumbbells

Exercises like side laterals will not help you with this. Much like chest isolation exercises, they are useless for strength development.

The bar gets stuck at the top

Your triceps are too weak if you can’t lockout the bar completely. If you’re having this problem, it’s probably the lower tricep head near the inside your elbow thats too weak. The medial head.

You need to strengthen the whole triceps. But preferably with exercises that will focus more on the medial head. So try the next exercises to do that.

• Small grip 4-board and 5-board presses
• Rolling triceps extensions
• Elbows out dumbbell extension

Wrapping it up

That should cover it for your perfect bench, from head to toe.

You now know how to set yourself up for a max attempt on the bench press. You also now know what muscles you need to focus on, and what exercises will make them work better.

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