How Much Do Ya Bench?

Love it or hate it most guys judge your strength levels by how much you bench. Most gym goers have no idea how much weight they can power from the floor to above their head (clean & press) but they lay down and push just about every time they hit the gym.

Bench press – powerlifting style

If you’re above all the ego shit of bench pressing and you just care about being a serious athlete this article might not be for you. Marathon runners and cyclists don’t need a big upper body, but if you’ve come this far chances are you want to have a better answer to give when the inevitable, “What do you bench?” is tossed your way! On your journey you’ll see your shirt sleeves getting tighter and stop getting mistaken for a bookmark.

For me improving this measure of manhood has been a long road. It took me 6 months to start using the big wheels (20kg plates) and 4 years to finally hit a single with 2 big wheels (100kg). Over the last 8 months with the plan I’ve described below I’ve added 20kg to my bench (whilst adding 6-8kg of muscle mass) and I’m confident there is still plenty of improvement left to come. Let me also add that I wrecked my shoulders and my posture in the early benching days by not paying attention to the details in this article.

Yes and No. It’s a good measure of upper body strength but a big doesn’t mean you’re necessarily athletic the way a big power snatch or vertical jump does.

No doubt, and most women don’t mind having a handful to grab these days either.

1. Put your feet on the ground and screw them down for the whole lift. (If your back is so bad you can’t do this then you’ve got a lot of work to do and you should go and focus on that then come back to the bench once you’re in a fit state to lift.) You can have your feet placed out wide driving your heels into the ground or my personal favourite is up as close to the bar as possible almost underneath your butt up on your toes. This gives a great tight feeling and it’s a good stretch for the hip flexors as Mel Siff mentions in Supertraining.

2. Lock your upper back with the chest pushed out. Again here there is a “lock the lats,” Westside Barbell style where your shoulders stay low or “shrug the traps”, Christian Thibaudeau style. Personally I feel like I do a bit of both but the big thing is keeping your back tight so that you have a solid platform to push from. There should be a big gap under your lower back but your hips should be on the bench. Getting used to this position is good for your thoracic mobility and hip flexor length. If your thoracic spine is too locked to nail this position you can work on it with the foam roller and by doing prone cobras.

3. Grip the bar about 3-6cm outside the smooth part or about 5-10 cm wider than the width from one acromio-clavicualar (AC – where the collar-bone connects to the shoulder-blade) joint to the other. This will keep your shoulders healthy for the long haul that you’ll need to gain real strength.

4. Grip the bar hard. Just improving grip strength will give you great gains in the gym!

5. Tense your glutes and abs. Keep your butt on the bench at all times!

6. Pull the bar apart. Or at least attempt to and you’ll get more triceps activation.

These steps alone with some practice will improve your bench and shoulder health massively. It’s not uncommon to improve by 10kg with 30 minutes of working on these techniques.

Arnold – big triceps

1. Lower the bar quickly but under control keeping the chest up and the elbows in with a tight upper back. Letting the bar free-fall onto your ribs and then pushing it up on the rebound works ok for high repetitions but when it comes to the heavy stuff it’s cheating.

2. Use your elasticity in the bottom. The transition between the eccentric and concentric phases should be as quick as possible like when you drop down and up to do a vertical jump (counter movement jump).

3. Lock the bar out by pushing hard keeping your elbows tucked. Don’t let your elbows flare. In this phase you should be thinking about pushing yourself into the bench rather than pushing the bar away from you. These are proven survival reflexes. You should feel like you’re trying to push again the opposite side of a cave wall while squeezing through a gap.

Once you’ve got your technique right you can worry about your sets and reps. As well as lift variations.

Shoulder mobility and activation work (5 min)

HEAVY ACTIVATION WORK

Push jerk OR Push press (x3,2,1,3,2,1) OR Bench press lockouts OR Floor Press OR Board press (x6,4,2)

BENCH PRESS

Bench press (x6,4,2,6,4,2)

ACCESSORY WORK

Triceps Extensions (4×15)

DB Rows / BB Rows / Chin-ups

Depending on how you’re splitting your training you might be doing some squats which would make this a “push day” or you could do chin ups, Pendlay rows and curls if it’s an “upper body” day.

Remember being good at a few key lifts will improve your physique and performance faster than being ok at lots of lifts. Work hard on your technique and don’t test too often (maybe every 2-3 months max).