Whatever our goals who doesn’t want a bigger bench? Let’s face it, it is the one lift that the general public knows about and will ask you about. Athletes and bodybuilders may not compete in any contest related to bench pressing but its carryover effects of greater muscle mass and strength in the chest, shoulders and triceps is highly prized by both.

The Bench Press is a lift where progress is often rapid up to a point, but once you hit a plateau frustration and disenchantment can set in as trainees find that even increasing their efforts fails to produce a positive result. Indeed, sometimes I have seen that once people hit a wall in their progress they will sometimes go backwards after a period of time.

As always, things happen for a reason and the fastest way to get things moving in the right direction are usually to address issues related to poor technique. Once these issues are fixed many trainees will notice a jump in strength quite quickly.









Fix Your Technique

Most people in the gym have no idea how to bench press effectively! From having their feet on the bench, to incorrectly setting up the lift, or using a faulty movement pattern, there are a large number of errors for what looks a simple lift. Although I could write an article about technique alone here are some essentials everyone should be doing BEFORE the lift even starts.

·Place your feet on the floor and keep them locked in place throughout the lift. No more shifting feet between reps!

·Retract your shoulder blades together, arching your back while keeping your chest up high off the bench. This will provide greater stability and reduce the length the bar has to travel in the pressing motion.

·Grip the bar as tight as possible. This will ensure greater activation of all muscles involved in the upper body.

At this point you should be in a very “tight” position and feel rock solid. Next, get your spotter to unrack the weight for you (always use a spotter as unracking the weight yourself will compromise your performance) and lower the weight keeping your back muscles very tight and shoulder blades retracted.

One problem many trainees make is lack of consistency between reps. You should aim for the same spot on the chest for every rep which will help improve intermuscular coordination.
The Lift

Ensure you keep your eyes locked on the bar as you lift and drive through the floor pushing your heels into the floor and your hips into the bench. Keep your head on the bench and push it into the bench also.

When lifting the bar unless you have very strong triceps you should aim to push the bar in a path back towards the rack over your eyes. Ensure when pressing that your elbows stay in line with the bar. If it deviates from this path then you will limit what you can lift.

Sample Program

Now that your technique is fixed you need to consider that like a footballer practising free kicks you need to practise the lift to improve performance. Here is a sample Bench Press program for you to try to improve your lift within a month.

We will assume you can hit the gym 4 x a week. If you do not, then 3 x a week will allow for good results still.

Week 1

Monday

You should be feeling freshest on Monday after the weekend so this is a heavy weight day. The weight used for the Bench Press, Tricep Dips and Extensions should be challenging but you should aim to select a weight which allows you to do all the reps by yourself and which keeps one rep in reserve. You should absolutely NOT train to failure on any set. The weight should be the same for all five sets so do not select your 6 rep max for set 1 and assume that is keeping one rep in reserve as there is no way you would be able to maintain that weight and perform 5 reps still for all 5 sets.

For the back and biceps exercises pick a weight which again allows you to keep one rep in reserve.

Bench Press – 5 x 5

Barbell Rows – 3 x 5

Tricep Dips – 3 x 8

Chin Ups – 1 x 10

Tricep Extensions – 2 x 12

Biceps – 1 set

Tuesday

Assuming this is a leg day start the day off with the following workout.

Bench Press – 5 x 3 (Use a light weight around about 60% of your 1 Rep Max).

Focus on your technique by ensuring each and every rep is consistent and you follow the technical tips outlined above.

Proceed to training your legs after these sets.

Thursday

Today’s workout will be focused around building explosive strength and maintaining hypertrophy so will be different to Monday’s upper body session.

Bench Press – 5 x 3 (Pick a light weight roughly 50-60% of your 1 rep max)

The focus during these sets is to generate maximal bar speed without compromising technique. Focus on exploding upwards at maximum speed almost throwing the bar up.

T-Bar Rows – 3 x 5

Incline Dumbell Press – 3 x 6

Chin Ups – 1 x 10

Plyometric Press Ups 3 x 5

For this exercise you need to focus on pushing off the floor explosively with minimal contact time. You should aim to clap your hands together while you are in the air.

Friday

Leg Training or Off Day

Week 2

Monday

Bench Press – 6 x 4

Barbell Rows – 3 x 5

Tricep Dips – 3 x 7

Chin Ups – 1 x 10

Tricep Extensions – 2 x 10

Biceps – 1 set

Aim to increase the weight on Bench Press, Dips and Extensions this week while still aiming to keep something in reserve.

Tuesday

Repeat week 1

Thursday

Bench Press – 5 x 3 (Pick a light weight roughly 50-60% of your 1 rep max)

T-Bar Rows – 3 x 5

Incline Dumbell Press – 3 x 6

Chin Ups – 1 x 10

Plyometric Press Ups 3 x 5

Do not increase the weight on Bench Press or Pressups. Rather focus solely on improved bar speed, decreased contact time/greater height.

Week 3

Monday

Bench Press – 7 x 3

Barbell Rows – 3 x 5

Tricep Dips – 3 x 6

Chin Ups – 1 x 10

Tricep Extensions – 2 x 10

Biceps – 1 set

Aim to increase the weight on Bench Press, Dips and Extensions again this week while still aiming to keep something in reserve. With the heavier weights used this week ensure focus is high.

The rest of the week is a repeat of week 2.


Week 4

Monday

Bench Press – 4 x 2

Barbell Rows – 3 x 5

Tricep Dips – 3 x 5

Chin Ups – 1 x 10

Tricep Extensions – 2 x 8

Biceps – 1 set

This week the reduction in volume and reps should allow for a significant weight increase on Bench Press.

Tuesday

Repeat Week 1-3

Thursday


Repeat the earlier weeks.

Friday


Repeat the earlier weeks

This is the end of the program. On Monday you can go ahead and test your Bench Press by performing a series of warm-up sets (no more than 2-3 reps per set) before going for a new 1 rep maximum. After this program you should hopefully find a significant gain in strength.

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