If you want to build a bigger chest, you need to focus on your bench press. It is one of the most important and effective chest exercises out there.
But it can be hard to improve your bench press when you aren’t sure what to do. So we asked some world-class strength coaches to share their tips on how you can get more out of your bench press.
1. Focus on form
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced lifter, bench pressing is a key exercise for building chest size and strength. However, if you don’t perform it properly, it can lead to injury and potentially limit your gains.
One of the most common mistakes people make when bench pressing is not focusing on form. It can be easy to become distracted and think about how many reps you’re going to do, what weights you should use, or what muscles you want to target in the exercise.
This is a very dangerous way to perform the exercise, as it can lead to serious injuries. Luckily, there are some simple tips you can follow to improve your bench press and maximize the benefits it has to offer.
Focus on Using Your Lower Back, Hips, and Legs
When you’re performing the bench press, it’s important to use your whole body to create a strong base. Unlike a squat, the bench press requires your entire body to work together, so you’ll get more results from it if you use your lower back, hips, and legs as well.
Squeeze Your Shoulder-Blades
Keeping your shoulder blades squeezed together will reduce horizontal bar movement and increase stability when you’re lying on the bench. This will also help you feel a connection to the bar throughout your body, which can make it easier to perform the exercise.
Don’t Overarch Your Chest
You should only overarch your chest if you’re doing the bench press with an extremely heavy weight. Overarching your chest will cheat the exercise and decrease your bench press.
The safest and most effective way to perform the bench press is with straight wrists, vertical forearms at the bottom, and a straight bar to your wrist at the bottom. Your build determines how much you should tuck your elbows, but typically a 75deg angle works best.
2. Don’t overdo it
Using heavy weights to build your chest might seem like a good idea, but doing so can be risky. The reason is that if you do too many reps, you can actually damage your back or shoulder joints.
Fortunately, there are some simple tips you can follow to avoid this from happening. The first one is to focus on form, which can help you avoid squeezing your muscles too hard or pressing the barbell up off the floor.
Next, it’s important to tuck your elbows. The exact angle will depend on your build, but you should never lower the bar with your elbows perpendicular to your torso. This can cause shoulder impingement, which can lead to rotator cuff injuries.
You should also hold the barbell with a Goldilocks grip. That’s a slightly-wider than shoulder-width grip, which is perfect for benching and works the most chest muscle fibres. Too narrow a grip shifts the emphasis away from your chest and can limit how much weight you can lift.
The final tip is to keep your shoulders back throughout the entire movement. This will prevent your shoulders from rolling forward during the press.
This is important because it keeps your deltoids engaged in the movement. The more you can keep your delts engaged, the more your chest muscles will work during the press.
Another important thing to remember is that it’s best to bench for a set number of reps. You can either do 3-5 reps or 6-10 reps, depending on your strength and muscle growth goals.
3. Keep your elbows in
The bench press is one of the best exercises to build a bigger chest. It works the pectoralis major muscles through a wide range of motion, and it also puts your pecs under a stretch at the bottom of each rep.
To improve your bench press, you need to focus on your form. This will help you to lift more weight and gain stronger reps.
It is important to keep your elbows in when you are bench pressing. This will prevent you from dropping the bar on your face and hurting yourself.
You should finish every rep by locking your elbows. This will allow your skeleton to hold the weight above your shoulders, and it will prevent you from losing the bar if you get tired during the set.
Another good tip for keeping your elbows in when bench pressing is to use a narrow grip. This will shift the emphasis from the chest to the triceps.
This will also make the exercise safer for you because it will reduce the risk of hitting your shoulder.
It is also a good idea to use a negative (lowering) rep when you are trying to increase your strength. This will let you handle up to 40% more weight than you can with a positive repetition.
To make the best use of this technique, you should take your time to unrack the bar. This will give you better balance and ensure that you aren’t putting too much weight on your wrists when you unrack the bar.
If you aren’t sure whether or not you have the right form for the bench press, ask a coach to check it out for you. They will be able to assess your performance and recommend any changes that could help you get stronger.
4. Keep your shoulders back
The bench press is one of the most famous and effective ways to make your chest bigger, but it can also be a tricky exercise to master. That’s why it’s important to focus on proper technique if you want to get big on this lift.
One of the most common mistakes that beginners make is letting their shoulders roll forward when they lower the bar to their chest. This leads to a lot of back pain, and it can also cause rotator cuff injuries.
To avoid this, keep your shoulder blades retracted throughout the entire bench press rep. This will help you develop the tightness you need to protect your shoulder from injury.
Another great way to protect your shoulders is to grip the bar slightly narrower than you would when doing a regular bench press. This will shift the emphasis to your triceps, and it’s also better for your shoulder health.
In addition, don’t bend your wrists as you lift the bar up. This can strain the wrists and transfer power to the barbell inefficiently, leading to weaker strength.
Lastly, it’s important to hold the barbell in a strong position from start to finish. This means squeezing the barbell as hard as you can. This will engage your grip and forearm muscles, which will ensure that the barbell remains in a strong position all the way up to the top of the rep.
Before you begin a set of bench presses, it’s a good idea to spend some time getting psyched up. You can give yourself a TED talk, do some deep-breathing, or do a bit of yoga to improve your mentality and boost your performance.
5. Keep your feet on the floor
When you Bench Press, keeping your feet on the floor is crucial to your form. It not only improves stability and balance, but also increases strength by making it difficult to lose your stance on the bench.
Whether you’re new to the gym or an experienced exerciser, focusing on the proper technique is essential for increasing your bench strength and busting through plateaus. Tonal’s performance analysts and data scientists analyzed anonymized data of tens of thousands of members to discover the most effective strategies that can help you build bigger bench presses.
The first tip is to get a spotter and lower the weight in a controlled fashion. This allows you to adapt your body to more total stress, which is necessary for building big lifts like the Bench Press.
This will allow you to complete a higher number of reps with the same weight, which can help you boost your overall strength and muscle gains. This is especially important if you’re using the Bench Press as part of your workout plan for developing a lean, strong physique.
A second tip is to keep your stance narrow. Using a wider stance can decrease stability, putting you at risk of injury when you’re lifting heavier loads. Narrow your stance to shoulder-width apart from heel to heel, and turn your feet out about 30deg.
Another important tip to improve your bench press is to keep your chest up and shoulders back throughout the exercise. This will help prevent your scapulae from slipping out of place and hurting your shoulders. Additionally, it will reduce the distance you have to push the barbell down.
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