What is a bench press lockout? [Article, Video]

What is a bench press lockout?

The bench press lockout refers to the upper third of the bench press which becomes relevant if you are weak at it and therefore fail to complete the motion. The lockout is especially of interest to anyone interested in maximum strength efforts in the sport of powerlifting. More details in the article for the interested.

You are lining yourself up to be the new local bench press hero. When someone asks you for your number you want to react like Bretton James to Shia LeBeouf in the movie Wall Street. Yet the journey is a long and troublesome and while you research the best ways to increase your bench press you read about lock out, bar path, bar speed, velocity based training, deep water method and several powerlifting templates depending on the source and how much time you have to spent on the internet. At the beginning, this can be quite confusing. Even though most of the terms seem self-explanatory it is worthwhile to double check, especially if you want to become a student of the art and take this journey seriously.

When you are talking about the three big lifts, the bench press, deadlift and squat, you will usually find that lifters have problems in several phases of the individual movement. The more advanced you get as a lifter the more a weakness in a specific area of a lift will limit your progress. When talking about a lock out physically usually it is meant to bring a part of the body in a "locked", which means upright and fully extended position and thereby usually strongest position. In the squat and deadlift, a "lockout" is achieved when the hip is brought into its strongest position at the top of the lift. In the bench press, the lockout refers to locking the elbow joints into position to bring the arms to full extension

The lockout is discussed a lot especially amongst equipped lifters, which means lifters who use bench press shirts, squat, and deadlift suits to achieve their total, as the lockout is also usually the part of the lift in which the gear helps the least. So a weakness in the lockout in relation to the weight that is being moved is more likely to occur if you use gear than for raw lifters. Still, depending on the individual body composition and training history the lockout can be an area of special interest for any individual lifter.

If you read up on improving your bench press and someone talks about the lockout in an article discussing the bench press they are therefore most likely referring to the upper third of the lift. A weak lock out can lead to failed repetitions and is also likely to expose the lifter to a higher risk of injury than failing at lower parts of the lift because more energy has been stored in the barbell (if you do not get this, get back to school and redo the basics of physics regarding gravity).

From my perspective there are three main ways to address a weak lockout and improve it without using a bench press shirt:

Board presses
Pin Presses
Using a Mark Bell Sling Shot

Board presses are bench presses which are performed with a board resting on the lifter's chest which is between 1.5 to 8 inches thick. The goal is to minimize the range of motion to address the weakest part of the lift with the highest amount of load possible. To work on your lockout you will most likely work with a 4 or 5 board. If you have very long arms maybe even a six board. One number stands for 1.5 inches so a 1 board is 1.5 inches and so further. The advantages of board presses are a more natural movement compared to other options, no bench press shirt needed, less stress on the wrists compared to pin presses and that you will be able to keep your tension throughout the lift easier. Disadvantages of the board press are that you need a spotter to do it properly (you can put the board under your shirt, but it is especially not ideal for lock out training) and the extra equipment needed.

Pin presses are another option which can achieve similar means like board presses. The good thing about pin presses is that you can perform them in any gym with a power rack with safety pins. In my personal opinion, they are also safer than board presses as there are less free moving parts involved which can possibly lead to disaster. So this is the option for the average joe who is not training in a facility full of bench pressing monsters who are willing and capable assisting. Backdraws of this option are the comparably higher noise levels, more loss of tension in the body when the barbell hit the pins and more stress to the wrists when the weight drops. The advantage is less risk of decapitating yourself in the process.

The Mark Bell Slingshot is an option which comes close to the effect of a bench press shirt, but with less hassle to put it on and off and at a lower price. For a weak lockout the overload you can implement in your training compared to raw lifting might help you to increase your lockout by working with bigger weights. Advantages are the higher load you can work with, that you can reasonably use the sling shot without assistance and that the natural bar path in a full range of motion is kept. The disadvantage of the Sling Shot is that you can develop weaknesses for raw lifting if overused.

Conclusion

The lockout for the bench press refers to the upper third of the lift in which you bring the elbows into a fully extended position to "lock out". For professional and experienced lifters, especially the ones who work equipped, this can become the main area of interest for the bench press as it is the limiting factor to world class results.