The Bench Press

The bench press is the most popular lift in the gym, but how do you do it properly? It can be broken down into three steps; the setup, the un-rack and decent, and the press and lockout. The most critical part of the bench press comes before you even touch the bar, the setup. First you lay on the bench aligning your eyes straight up and down with the bar. This sets you close enough to the bar for a proper un-rack, yet far enough from the rack to clear it when you do the exercise. Once aligned with the bar, you want to make sure your head, upper back and butt are firmly planted on the bench while you keep your feel planted on the floor. Next, you grip the bar. You will want to put your index finger about two inches outside shoulder width. This is just a general rule but will need to be adjusted slightly to make sure when the bar is touching your chest that your forearms are perpendicular to the bar. After the setup comes the un-rack and decent portion of the exercise. After you get your grip, you will want to try and bend the bar in half while trying to pull it apart. What this does is activate all the muscles in your back to give you a nice stable platform to press from. Next, take a deep breath and un-rack the bar. Once the bar settles over your chest and you have total control, you can start your decent. During the decent your back should be pulling the bar down, not your chest trying to push it away. Once the bar comes to rest on your chest, you are ready to press it. The final, and hardest step is the press and lockout. During the pressing portion, you want to keep your body tight, this means squeezing your glutes, abs and back, while pressing with your legs from the floor. You also want to keep your elbows tucked, this is the most common mistake that people make. Pressing with flared elbows put all the pressure on the shoulders, mainly the front deltoid, which is a small and weak muscle, and can cause shoulder injuries. Keeping your elbows tucked moves the pressure from the shoulders to the triceps, which the triceps are a much bigger and stronger muscle group compared to the shoulders, and helps prevent shoulder injuries. Once you come to the top, and have locked out your elbows, you are done! You have completed one successful repetition of the bench press. Performing a correct and heavy bench press gives a gym goer bragging rights over the others that don’t do it properly. As elusive as it seems, the bench press is quit easy once broken down; the setup, un-rack and decent, and the press and lockout, but still requires lots of practice and hard work to be efficient at it.