The Bench Press is without a doubt the best compouind movement for testing and developing your upper body strength. It’s an incredibly valuable exercise which develops your upper arm muscles in a way that no other lifting exercise can. I’m going to show you how to ensure proper bench press technique in this article.
The first thing you need to do to execute this lift is to have a spotter on hand. You don’t want the bar to come crashing down on your sternum, or worse your thrat, if you misjude the weight. You can also develop shoulder problems by lifting the weight of the rack pins.
Once you are on the bench you want to ensure your arms are just about fully extended once the bar is racked. Grip the bar firmly just beyond shoulder width. Don’t go too narrow or too wide until you are expereinced using this lift. Doing either can injure your shoulders and elbows.
Cue the spotter to help you lift the bar off the rack pins. Your arms should be 90 degress parallel to your upper body. Take a deep breath as you lower the bar, make sure that you stay in control of the weight. This is very important as you will not be able to control the bar if you’re going to over-extend or under-extend.
Pause at the bottom then raise the bar faster than you lowered it. Exhale strongly as you are doing this. Imagine you are pushing your elbows together as you lock out your arms. This works the pecs harder. Squeeze them at the top. Steady the bar, compose yourself and inhale and lower the bar again for the next rep.
Repeat the process for 6-10 reps. Always warm up on the bench press with this exat technique with very light weights before you do your working set (s). I like to start with the empty bar.
When you lift, keep the bar straight and make sure that you don’t jerk the bar off the ground. Also, make sure that you have your feet flat on the floor.
The best way to improve your bench press is to use the barbell. The barbell is much easier to manipulate than the dumbbells and has a much longer lifespan.
Using Dumbbells Instead of Barbells
You can also use dumbbells instead of a long bar. Dumbbells are versatile and many people feel they are better for sculpting the chest and developing muscle mass than the barbell.
The lifting technique has a lot of the same cues. Use a spotter when things get heavy.
After the Bench Press exercise is complete, you can now do dips. Doing the exercise correctly will build up your chest muscles in such a way that they will be much more noticeable when you look at yourself in the mirror. This is because a well-built chest will cause your shoulders to look wider.
Now that you’ve learned how to execute the Bench Press technique properly, I think it is time to move on to more advanced exercises like the Military Press, Close Grip, and the Military Barbell Row. If you’re not sure what exercises to use, then simply Google them.