The bench press is a perfectly reasonable exercise if done correctly. If you know what you’re doing, you’re liable to gain in strength and develop an impressive physique. However, too many people focus solely on the bench press and do very little else, or do the bench press poorly and develop shoulder injuries, massive pecs, and tiny legs. Done correctly, the bench should complement your workout. Done incorrectly, it becomes the focus. So unless you want to be one of those guys wearing the $400 poly steel shirts who wears out there spotter’s traps more than they do their own pecs, read this article, do the bench right, and understand its place in your workout.
The bench press s a relatively simple exercise. A press is any exercise in which you push the weight away from your body, and this exercise is no different. Lying on your back, you lower the barbell down to your chest, and then push it back up into the air. Simple, no? No. I’m going to walk you through a correct version of the press, and soon you’ll realize that there’s more going on than meets the eye.
The first thing to get straight is how you lie on the bench. The positioning of your body is crucial in not only preventing yourself from becoming injured, but allowing your body to exert maximum force in pushing the barbell back up. The weight of the barbell goes directly from your hands to where your back lies on the bench, but by correctly bracing your feet at shoulder width and arching your back, you can help connect that weight to the ground itself, allowing you to exert more force on the barbell. Thus when you lie down, put your feet at shoulder width, and arch your back so that somebody could slip their hand beneath the small of your back.
Of crucial importance is that you tuck your shoulder blades in tight. They should be as close together as you can make them, and the reason for this is that in so doing you align your arms so that when you push up, the load is placed squarely on your pecs and not on your shoulders or stabilizer muscles. Thus the points that are the most in contact with a surface or your feet, butt, and shoulder blades. Your body should be tensed between those points like a bent steel ruler, pushing with your feet and resting on your tail bone and shoulder blades.
Grip the barbell at slightly wider than shoulder width. Make sure that your shoulders are positioned just before the bar, so that when you lift the barbell you can move it forward enough to clear the supports and gain clear vertical lift. Fix your eyes on a point on the ceiling just above the bar, and keep your eyes there so that you have a point to aim for when you raise the bar.
Take a deep breath, and lower the barbell to your chest, pausing just a fraction above your shirt. Don’t bounce the bar back up, don’t hang out there either, but make sure to lift it smoothly back into position. Remember that the goal here is to work out your pecs, and for that to happen you have to have your shoulder blades tucked in together under your back, and to make sure that your upper arms are moving perpendicular to your chest.
Do five reps three times, twice a week, and focus on doing other compound exercises such as the squat, the press, the dead lift or the pull up. Don’t just work your biceps and chest, or you’ll be walking around looking like an awkward gym gorilla, and nobody wants that. Do they.
Author Resource:
If you are interested in an incredibly tough and challenging workout program that will take you to the next level, check out the infamous P90X by Tony Horton. Or perhaps you might be interested in Debbie Sieber's incredibly successful Slim in 6. Phil Tucker is a product review specialist for EFR.
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