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How to barbell bench press [Article, Free download]

Posted by Pascal Landshoeft

Jan 17, 2019 12:24:55 AM

How to barbell bench press

How to barbell bench press?

Take care of your setup. Be safe and decide on a powerlifting or bodybuilding style bench press. Build maximum tension and stay focused. Rinse and repeat for a decade for best results. 

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What is your why 

Before we go into the details of the barbell bench press let me ask you a couple of questions: 

 

  • Why do you want to barbell be ch press?
  • Why do you want to get stronger? 
  • Why do you want to pack on muscle? 
  • What happens when you do? 
  • What happens when you don’t? 

 

These questions are important. They are the key factor to your long term success. If you don’t have meaningful answers to these questions life will take over. Your fitness goals will become a low priority and disappear altogether. Most people go about everyday life like this 

 

  • What do I want 
  • How do I get it 
  • Why do I want it 

 

Almost everybody knows what they want. Fewer make a detailed plan how to get it. Almost no one knows why they want what they want. If you focus mostly on what you want you will become a victim of your surroundings. What we want is highly influenced by our daily interactions. Whom we talk to, what we see and what we touch influences are needs and want to a high degree. However, this does not drive long-term goals. With this, you will feel like a hamster in a wheel. So Instead flip this dynamic on its head: 

 

  • Why do you want something 
  • How do you get it 
  • What do you need to do to get it 

 

This way your thoughts and actions will always be tied to what matters most to you. Annoying little tasks become meaningful. You will be more invested in your life. Others will be more likely to support as they can clearly see the meaning of your actions. If you want to I keep how this works on a psychological basis read Daniel Kahneman's book thinking fast and slow. If you are still not convinced watch Simon Sinek's TED talk on the golden circle. He makes a very compelling case telling the story of the Wright brothers. 

 

I personally turned my life around when I started a journal. The best I could find was the self journal from best self. It helps to structure your du and to pay attention to the good things in life. 

 

Setup 

 

Place the J cups at the right height for yourself in the rack. You should be able to unrack the bar by slightly straightening your arms. If you struggle to pass the J cups your setup is too high. If you already do a half repetition to unrack the weight the setup is too low. 

 

Also, pay attention that you are still able to rerack the bar by letting it fall back. Especially on heavy sets, it is good when you can just drop the weight backwards to rack it. Sometimes the J cups are just that little bit too high for this manoeuvre. This ends in a panic or a barbell dropped on your face. 

 

The bench should be placed accordingly. While the height of the rack position is one thing, the be ch placement determines how easy or awkward unracking becomes. I personally like the be ch to be as far forward as possible without risking the rerack position. This minimizes the risk to touch off anything during the lift. This also sets you up to just drop the bar backwards I to the rack

 

Play around with this with low weights until you find your optimal setup. Increase weight afterwards. I usually do little adjustments during warm-up sets. Especially when I travel.

 

Hand placement 

 

There are three variants of the grip for the barbell bench press:

 

  • Close grip 
  • Wide Grip 
  • Somewhere in the middle 

 

A close grip bench press pits more emphasis on the triceps than the chest. If you have a relatively big chest and still can not bench huge weights it is probably due to port developed triceps muscles. Putting more focus on close grip bench presses can fix this.

 

The wide grip bench press leans more towards the chest. With a lower range of motion, you get a bigger stretch in the muscle. This helps with chest development at the expense of triceps stimulation. 

 

Somewhere in the middle is the answer for everyone who wants to maximise their strength. Start a thumb length away from the inner knurling. Adjust from there depending on your size. The bigger you are the wider you go. The smaller you are the narrower it gets. Usually, the place where you feel strongest is the best spot to start. 

 

Elbows

 

Many forget to activate their triceps sufficiently because they do not turn their elbows inwards. I picked this concept up first for my deadlifts. It also works excellent for the bench press.

 

Think of it as if you were to squeeze lemons in your armpits. Do this after you grip the bar and keep doing it during the entire lift. Your bench will go up if you haven’t done this before.

 

Arch

 

The arch is highly debated for the bench press. Some say it is bad for your back, while others say it ain’t that bad and you need it to max out. 

 

A fact is that when you build an arch you will bench press a higher max. To build an arch you get your feet as close as possible to your head while laying on the bench. Only your shoulders and butt cheeks touch the bench. Your entire back will be off the bench.

 

Chest 

 

The bench press does train your chest. Depending on how you perform it you will get more or less chest stimulation out of it. 

 

My bench press max sits at 150kg at a bodyweight of 85kg. Pound for pound it is my best lift. However, I have a chicken breast and very big triceps compared to the rest of my body. You will find this phenomenon with other bench pressers to. If you want to train the chest more take the triceps and legs out of the lift. 

 

Powerlifting 

 

The ideal powerlifting setup ticks following boxes. 

 

  • Big arch 
  • Maximum leg drive 
  • Triceps heavy 
  • Medium width grip 
  • Minimum range of motion 
  • Minimum time under tension

 

The ideal setup varies on lifter based on gender, size, weight and build. You will train in lower repetition ranges with high weight. 

 

Bodybuilding 

 

Bodybuilders want to maximize muscle growth, especially in the chest area, when they do the bench press. For this you want 

 

  • Minimum leg drive 
  • Minimum involvement of the triceps 
  • No arch 
  • A maximum range of motion 
  • Maximum time under tension 

 

This makes a bodybuilding bench press a lot different form a powerlifting style bench press. Consider the two options based on your goals and what you want to do. 

 

How to barbell bench press

 

Build maximum tension and k is exactly what the goal of the bench press is for you. Set the bar and bench up at the right height and place. Take care of your safety. Bench away and get better. 

 

Most popular Rogue bars in 2020

This is an overview of the most popular Rogue barbells per views and click through rates for Marathon-Crossfit.com in 2020. If you want more details on how the data was collected you can dig deeper in what were the most popular Rogue products in 2020.

Most popular rogue bars in 2020

 
This is an overview of the most popular barbells on Marathon-CrossFit.com during 2020. The ranking is as followed:
 
 
That the operator bar was so popular on Marathon-CrossFit in 2020 came as a surprise to me. It is one of the cheaper Rogue barbells which still has a cool name rather than being a variation of the Rogue Ohio barbell. If you want to feel a little more camouflaged in your life, go with this one. You can read the full review of the operator bar via this link.
 
The West side bar is a variation of the Ohio bar specifically for powerlifting. It is very similar to the Rogue Ohio power bar which recently has gotten a little more attention from influencers. This is a solid bar if you do not intend to do the Olympic lifts and stick to the bench press, deadlift, and barbell back squat in your training. You can read the full review of the west side bar via this link.
 
The Rogue Russian bar is another surprise on the Marathon-CrossFit popularity list. While it is one of the most expensive bars you can get from Rogue I personally find that it is more of a collector's item with nostalgia attached to it. It is a great piece of craftsmanship to recreate a bar from the Soviet era. Unfortunately, the collar system is not used in competition anymore and also tenders the bar useless once you lose one of the collars. Rogue also does not provide an option to buy the custom collars separately in case you do lose them. Based on this I would take the Pyrros bar over the Russian bar any given day for this budget. You can read the full review of the Rogue Russian bar by following this link.
 
The Rogue Multi-grip bar is a great additional tool to bring your bench press training to the next level. Especially if you are a big fan of the Westside training method as it asks for many grip variations. This bar might not be your first purchase, but fun addition to your gym once all the essentials are covered. You can read the full review of the Rogue Multi-grip bar by following this link.
 
The Chan bar is my personal favorite if you want to do it all with your barbell. It is reasonably priced, has a cool design, and can be used for Olympic lifts and the big three alike. If you are a CrossFit fan who wants to workout from home, this is a great pick. You can read the full review of the Rogue Chan bar by following this link.
 

Classic barbell

The classic barbell is what you you will find in most gyms. They vary widely in their quality with the York ones being the most cost efficient and therefore at the lower end of the quality range. You might find barbells with bushing or bearing, still most of them will have bushing in your local gym.

If your local gym is serious about lifting you might find specific olympic weightlifting and powerlifting barbells. These have a more aggressive knurl to ensure more grip for the professionals. You will experience these to be rougher on your skin which has the benefit of being able to lift more and the downside of higher likelihood to get your skin damaged.

In addition the knurl marks are slightly different between olympic and powerlifting bars to show you where to put your hands. Usually the powerlifting bars are built to withhold more psi (basically tells you how mch weight you can put on the bar until it breaks) than olympic bars due to the fact that there is more load moved in the powerlifts than in olympic lifts. 

Lifting is not always for beginners. You need proper technique, balance and a bit of strength to do it. Otherwise you might hurt your shins on the deadlift or pulll some muscles when squatting. Improper squatting might also harm your spine. So get proper advise or start deadlifting with other bars.

 

Further reading 

14 easy steps on how to get a bigger bench

4 simple strategies to use smolov jr to increase your bench [Article]

An easy guide to bench press like a powerlifter for any age [Article]

Can barbells help lose weight? [Article]

Which Rogue barbell to buy? [Article, Free download]

Topics: Lift stronger, Bench Press, Fitness, Strength