How to perform a bench press for crossfit for beginners

The bench press is one of the most commonly performed free weight movement’s in the gym. Even Hollywood incorporates it in a scene between Robin Williams and Matt Damon in the movie Good will hunting as a test of manliness. The major variations of the bench press are related to the width of the grip and whether it is performed in straight movement or with a pause on the chest. For this article we assume you wanted to perform a one rep repetition under maximum load or the maximum amount of repetitions at a lower load.

The setup

As for the squat think about attacking the bar. You want to bend that steel and make it your own and not be dominated by the steel.

For this place your hands approximately one thumb width away from the knurl or whatever feels most comfortable for you to exert maximum force to drive the bar up from the chest. Your head should be positioned below the bar and at the center of it. Experiment with distances on how high above your chest you want the bar to be in the racked position and how far the bar has to travel to get into the locked arms position depending on your individual physique. Ideally you can easily rerack the bar position by tilting it slightly backward and lowering it in the cups when your arms are fully extended. If you can barely unrack the bar it is positioned too high. If you already have to perform half a bench press to get it to starting position it is too low. Squeeze the bar as hard as you can and press your hips up and bring your backside back on the bench to form a bridge. Walk your feet in as close as possible to your shoulders and squeeze back together to achieve this. Only your shoulders and your bottom touches the bench, not your lower back, if done correctly. In addition squeeze your glutes as hard as you can as if you wanted to suck that bench in through the place where the sun does not shine. Build this tension and keep it.

The bench press

Unrack the bar and lock out your arms until your arms are straight and not tilted forwards or backwards. Than lower the bar in a controlled manner to your chest while maintaining the tension in the bridge. Touch the chest slightly and move the weight back to full extension in the locked position. Repeat this movement until your set is finished. Put the bar back into the rack by tilting it backwards when you are finished.