5 Tips to Help You With the Bench Press

Mud stomping a hole in Monday’s attempt to bring me down. 255lbs on the bench is probably light work for you, but it’s heavy for me. 

So getting 5 good controlled reps without ripping or breaking anything in my body is an accomplishment for my dinosaur butt. 

Here are 5 key points I teach / follow on the bench press are:

1. Proper grip, not too wide, not too narrow. Knuckles face the ceiling as you try to crush and pull the bar apart.

2. Body alignment on the bench, eyes under the bar, shoulder blades even on the bench, slight arch in the lower back, butt remains in contact with the bench, legs squeeze into the bench as heels drive into the floor. 

3. Lower the bar at a controlled pace to touch your shirt, never bounce the bar off your chest. Then explode in the push or concentric phase to get the bar up twice as fast as it came down ( in your mind anyway).

4. Inhale on the way down, hold and brace during the transition and then vigorously exhale on the push. Animal screams are authorized and encouraged.

5. Keep your core and legs braced and solid. Don’t let your body move under the weight. Drive the legs into the floor. Keep your butt on the bench. If a foot raises off the floor or your butt raises off the bench even for a second you are a no-go on that rep. 

My bench tutorial goes on but that is what people pay me for. I’ve had dozens of clients raise their one rep max by up to 25lbs just by receiving my class and implementing the instructions. 

Education and experience matter. My two key learning points that I teach are that 1. People think they know and 2. People don’t know what they don’t know. Always be open to learning from someone even if you think you know it all cause 1. You don’t know and 2. You’d be surprised at what you could learn. 

I’ve had the most problems/ resistance to learning over the decades from military clients and former athletes. 2 type A groups who definitely think they know. Then I teach them something they didn’t even know existed (so how could they possibly know that they didn’t know it?) and their minds get blown. 

And yeah I was that guy too until I learned stuff that I didn’t even know existed. Now I learn everyday because I’m acutely aware that I don’t know! Go learn something and hit the weights!

Do you feel some anxiety and fear before the next set of your workout?

When you are in the iron arena facing the beast and your next set is rapidly approaching, it’s normal for there to be a little anxiety, fear, and dread. 

It’s purely a mental battle but you still have to address it and drive on to the next set. A simple technique I use to overcome the mental battle is by using timed rest periods between sets. 

The general rule of thumb is heavy sets require longer rest periods, lighter sets require shorter rest periods. A lot of it has to do with ATP cycle rejuvenation. 

If you don’t experience this mental battle, then you should reevaluate the level of challenge and intensity of your workouts. 

An age old saying is “if you aren’t scared of your next set, then you aren’t working hard enough”. There is a lot of simple truth in that concept. Now on to the next set!