How you can improve at bench pressing

How much weight you can lift in bench press is the standard question when it comes to performance measurement among strength athletes. Two hundredweight are often the magic number in this regard. Anything under 100 kg is often scoffed at.

That doesn't mean that many strength athletes actually manage the 100 kg. After all, talk is cheap – actions speak louder than words. If you too want to improve your performance and increase your bench press, you should heed the following.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE TECHNIQUE

In bench press, as with all other exercises, proper and clean execution is key. With the right technique, you avoid postural errors, prevent injuries, and increase your performance in the long run.

Once the basic execution is correct, you can make small individual adjustments. Depending on your hand spacing, different muscle groups are targeted. The grip technique can either increase or decrease your performance, depending on how developed and strong the targeted muscles are.

With a wide grip, the power movement comes from the pectoral muscles, and you can better balance the weight. A narrower hand position, on the other hand, puts much more strain on your triceps. If this is not regularly trained, a weak triceps can be the reason you don't achieve the desired training goals.

In fact, your workout then needs enough triceps exercises to eliminate this weak point. Also remember to hold the bar with full strength. Imagine, you want to break it. This effort once again targets your triceps and gets you into high gear.

BENCH PRESS - LEARN FROM PROFESSIONALS

In strength training, you can always learn from professionals. Sometimes it's just a small tip that can take your training light years ahead. So why reinvent the wheel when it's already been invented?

One of these tips is the following: To increase your bench press performance, you should start your training with bench press. Why?

Because at the beginning of your workout you are still full of energy and strength and can fully concentrate on weight lifting. Furthermore, you should rather train with high weights and few repetitions, than with light weights and more repetitions. Experience shows that this training method - of course with correct and clean exercise execution - brings a high increase in strength.

ELIMINATE WEAKNESSES – SHOULDER, PECTORAL MUSCLE, TRICEPS & CO.

Another important point to increase your strength performance is the elimination of physical weaknesses. Although bench press is generally an exercise for the chest, other muscle groups also have a huge impact on success or failure.

We've already mentioned the triceps several times, but the shoulders and back are also part of it. Your back must be strong enough to actively support the pressing movement and immediately compensate for any muscular imbalances. Also read our article on how to optimize your back training.

The shoulders need to be just as strong to develop the necessary power potential. Therefore, regular shoulder training should also be part of your training program. With reverse flys, for example, you can perfectly strengthen your rear shoulder area and achieve more performance in bench press.

A TIP IN THE END:

Try to adjust your leg position in addition to your grip on the bar. With a firm straight stance you stabilize your body, and can concentrate better on the lifting movement.
Avoid the T-movement, where your arms are at a 90 degree angle to your torso, and perform the exercise in a V-movement i.e. your arms and torso form a 45 degree angle. If you struggle with shoulder pain during bench press, it's usually due to the T-movement

CONCLUSION

As you can see, there are numerous ways to increase your performance. Sometimes only small changes are necessary to achieve better results and sometimes a complete rethinking is needed.

The important thing is that you always pay attention to the right technique, maintain a clean execution, perform the training regularly and additionally focus on your weaknesses during the workout. This way you will certainly quickly achieve better performance in bench press - and it won't just be words, but actions. Show what you can do.