DECONSTRUCTING THE BENCH PRESS
Updated: 3 minutes ago
The bench press has a long-standing tradition of being the number one lift for strengthening the upper body. Far from it serving the purpose of a 'masculine' exercise for an ego-measuring contest, the bench press offers much more in return than the superficial view that is commonly held on it: stronger muscles in your arms; greater bone density in your humerus, forearms, and wrists; more muscle mass in your shoulders, triceps, and pecs; and greater mental resilience.
It takes a pinch of courage to attempt a heavy bench set. How heavy 'heavy' really is, is anyone's guess. I suppose the only person to find out is you.
Nothing in life is guaranteed. Apart from two things: one, you need to bench press for reasons outlined above - whether you want to, or not. And two, my promise that it will all be worth it in the end.
The following article is a break-down of the different phases of the bench press, each of which carries some hopefully useful tips for you. Credit to Mark Rippetoe, author of 'Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training', for the inspiration and ideas of this article that have risen from his book. On top of it, I sprinkle my cheap two cents over it.
STARTING POSITION
First, the bar needs to be pushed forward into the cups of the J-hooks. This shortens the distance over which the bar has to be unracked. As any excess movement done in barbell training is a waste of time and energy, we can all agree that this makes perfect sense.
Obtain a position on the bench where your gaze just about clears the side of the bar closer to your legs, and pick a spot on the ceiling you keep your eyes fixated on. It is important to note that you never actively look at the bar during the bench press. A fixated gaze ensures that you learn correct form by receiving kinaesthetic feedback from your body. You have to 'feel' the movement without your eyes following the bar path. If they wander, you are using visual feedback to interpret what's going on. This distracts from the fine-tuning of your muscles making a coordinated effort to execute the movement - something which is crucial for 'imprinting' the correct movement pattern into your body.
Take a grip that places your thumbs about a hand's width away from the side knurling (Photo 1). The bar needs to rest on the heels of the palm, and your knuckles need to be pointing vertically towards the ceiling.
This kind of grip produces two things at the bottom position: a stacking of the bar on top of your wrists and elbows, as well as a vertical forearm when looking at it from the front (Photo 2). If you combine the two, you are producing an efficient force transfer between the bar as well as joints and muscles involved in the movement (i.e. your hands and arms).
Position your feet about shoulder-width apart, and walk them towards your head as closely as possible, provided your heels are still firmly planted on the ground. This is essential for them to create a downward drive as you press the bar upwards.
Having your feet positioned close enough towards your head facilitates an arch in the lumbar spine. The degree of how big this arch is is largely determined by your anthropometrics (and therefore genetics). This makes the need to consult a 'mobility expert' superfluous, as not even a person like this could get your spine to arch like a ballet dancer, no matter what they claim. Either you have a high degree of mobility in this area, or you don't. And if you don't, no need to worry about it. You can bench anyway.
The arch in the bench press is important for various reasons. Firstly, I am going to argue that as your shoulder blades can obtain retraction a little easier through an arch, you are adding a bit of lengthening to your pectoralis and anterior deltoid in the eccentric phase. Through this mechanism, you are creating slightly higher levels of tension in those muscles, which shall transfer to a stronger drive of the bar upwards. Picture the string of a bow being lengthened (and therefore being stretched) before it releases the arrow. Same principle.
Secondly, the arch allows one point of rotation in the bench press - the shoulder joint - to slide down towards your feet more easily. This shortens the moment arm between the shoulder joint and the bar. The shorter the moment arm (or say distance) between the bar and the point of rotation (i.e. the shoulder joint), the easier the lift is as there is less leverage to be overcome.
Thirdly, the arch facilitates the pushing-down of greater amounts of muscle mass of your upper back into the bench. This creates a stable platform from which the bar can be pressed off.
Would you rather have a wide base supporting your bench press, or a narrow one?
I think the answer is obvious.
UNRACKING THE BAR
We keep this one short: draw air in, and get the bar off the hooks by straightening your elbows. The bar needs to end up in the most balanced position, which is right above your shoulder joint.
You need to predominantly use your triceps to unrack the bar, as the triceps are the muscles which extend the elbows. I do not advise using your shoulders as the main body part getting the bar into the starting position, like doing a cable-pushdown on a machine to 'activate your lats'. I have seen issues being developed in people's shoulders from this (including my own - in times when I didn't know better). Your rotator cuff is going to bear a higher amount of load when you use your shoulders to unrack, which can potentially lead to issues in this area.
Also consider that just before the bar is being unracked, your elbows are placed relatively close to the bar (almost right underneath it), which places your humerus close(r) to 90 degrees of abduction. This is the classic 'impingement position' where the tendon of the supraspinatus muscle gets pinched between the acromion process and the socket of the shoulder joint. If you use your shoulders as the main driver to 'scoop' the bar out, the magnitude of the pinching is going to increase, I argue.
Use your triceps (and therefore elbows) to get the bar into the starting position. There is no reason not to.
DESCEND
Once you have unracked the bar, you will see the bar in your peripheral vision while your eyes are gazing at a fixated point at the ceiling. Again: do not actively look at the bar. It will terribly distract you from lifting the bar correctly.
Where you see bar in the periphery, aim to bring it back to the exact same spot as you press it upwards to lockout. Treat it like a target you are trying to hit on the way up.
Back to the descend. Remember the arch you have created in your lumbar spine in the starting position? You need to do everything possible to maintain this arch during the entire set.
Imagine your chest is chasing the bar as you lower it. This guarantees stability of your upper back on the bench, as when you raise your chest, your shoulder blade muscles will push down into the bench. This leads to much greater control in the movement.
I would like to point out that from my experience, the success in the bench press largely stands and falls with your ability to stay tight during the lift. There is only so much work required to fix a faulty bar path (and from my experience, it is not necessarily the number one reason why lifters fail their benches).
You need to control a weight first before you can overcome it.
Control means that you are in charge of the weight, and not the other way round. It means that the tension of your muscles produce a well-coordinated effort with your body to move at the right speed. Not too fast, not too slow - but in a way where control in the downward phase and optimum force production in the upward phase meet.
Think of absorbing the bar onto your chest through the contraction up your upper back muscles (shoulder retractors, lats), rather than letting it plummet.
ASCEND
Now the actual press of the bench press starts. It makes up half of the lift (which sounds a bit disappointing, doesn't it?). Nevertheless, this is where the 'meat' of the exercise is.
It is important to note that there is a transition phase between the descend and ascend - i.e. the point at which the bar touches your chest a couple inches below your shoulder joint.
Two things are crucial in this phase: one, you need to use a very controlled bounce of the bar off the chest as you drive it up. Let me repeat: very controlled. Think of a rather 'quiet landing' of the bar on your chest. Do not make noise with it, as a possible injury to your sternum is a rather debilitating thing. Two, you need to keep your chest glued towards the ceiling in order to maintain tightness in your upper back and trunk. Do not let them slack. Stay tight, by all means, as this will allow you to control the bar path.
At this stage, the leg drive into the floor comes into play. This is going to further stabilise your position on the bench and will generate extra force into your arms as you press the bar up.
Do not use the leg drive excessively to such an extent that your butt comes off the bench. This is cheating and does not qualify as a correct rep. Think of a strong engaging of your feet into the floor, rather than a strong push like you are generating into the floor in the deadlift.
Drive the bar back up to the starting position where you saw it in your periphery as you unracked it. Use a hard stroke with your arms, rather than a throw. I guarantee you that if you try to 'explode' the bar up, you will not only loose tightness, but also the bar path. The upward motion has to be consistent (yet strong), rather than thinking 'fast'.
IT'S ALL IN YOUR HEAD
Whenever you press on the bar in the bench, you have to do so with 100% effort. 99% are not enough. If you push the hardest you can, you are going to recruit more muscle fibers into the movement. There more muscle fibers you recruit, the more force you produce, and the stronger your lift is. The simple equation is: maximum effort = maximum force production. Whether you bench at 100%, 90%, or 70%, you have to apply maximum force into the bar.
This becomes most important when trying to work through 'sticking points' in the bench press. Usually, this is a couple inches off the chest in the ascending phase. You feel the bar gets 'stuck', and you either let the bar come down (which constitutes a failed rep), or you push through with maximum force.
Most of the time, sticking points do not represent a physical weakness, but a mental weakness where you are unable (or unwilling) to apply the highest force possible into the bar.
Follow the bench through. You are going to find that this cue alone makes a huge difference to whether you manage to lock the bar out or not.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
The bench press to many is a highly satisfying lift as very few other movements come close to a sense of achievement of overcoming a heavy weight while being stack on a rigid platform.
I deem the bench to be a lift in which the downward motion is equally important (if not more important) than the upward motion. Tightness means stability, stability means better control, and better control means better force production.
Sure, the concentric phase is where the 'real value' of the movement is.
But in my opinion, optimising the eccentric phase is where the 'secret' to a better bench is.
Needless to say, there are no secrets in the world of strength training.
Apart from the fact that you need to shove yourself under the bar, and get the job you are supposed to do done.
Now you know how to do that.
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