Improve Your Bench Press

Introduction

Amongst all the exercises one can complete in the gym, you might struggle to find one as popular as the bench press. This article will briefly take you over the main touchpoints you should follow for setting up and improving your bench press.

Bench Press Set Up

The bench press is a very simple movement, however you should place close attention to make sure that you are setting it up correctly. Principles of the bench press to bear in mind include points of contact, muscular engagement and hand placement.

Points of Contact

So firstly there are many different forms of bench pressing whether you're a powerlifter or just looking to improve muscle mass in the chest. For me I want to see three points of contact: your feet in contact with the floor, your hips and your glutes in contact with the bench and then your back in contact with the bench as well.

Engagement

I don't want excessive arching through the lower back but I do want you to push those feet into the earth so you're really driving down through the floor. You're going to engage your glutes and engage your back here.

‍Hand placement and Movement Initiation

For your hand placement find what feels comfortable but roughly a thumbs distance from the smooth bit of the knurling. As we lift the bar off we want to think about pulling the bar towards us and engaging that back, and the same thing as we go to press the bar away from us, we're going to be pushing but also maintaining that tension through our back as well. 

Conclusion

This short article has presented some of the most simple pointers for improving your bench press setup. The bench press is a key movement pattern in our functional training programme and functional bodybuilding programme.