If you want to know how to do it right and how to increase your bench press, this article will tell you everything you need to know about it.

"How much do you press?".

If you have been exercising for certain period time, you've probably been asked this question a lot. And you know, without further ado, that they ask about the results in the bench press.

Like it or not, nothing catches people's eye like lifting an impressive weight on the bench press. And nothing seems to be more frustrating for beginners than poor results in this exercise.

There's a reason every well-designed training program includes the bench press as one of its main exercises. The importance of this exercise cannot be overestimated.

The fact is that the bench press is one of the the best exercises on upper part a body that develops the pectorals, lats, shoulders, triceps, and even to some extent the muscles of the legs.

If you are reading this article, then perhaps all this is not news to you. You are here because you want to improve your bench press, and I can help you with that.

The first thing you need to know, although it may sound simple enough, the bench press is an exercise that requires a certain amount of technique. If you do not know what and how you are doing, then sooner or later stop in progress unless of course you manage to avoid it injuries.

In this article, we will talk about everything you need to know about the bench press in order to increase your bench press performance and get the most out of this exercise.

Video on how to reap the most.

Let's start with a discussion of technique.

Bench press looks good enough simple exercise, but how to do a bench press?

You lie on a bench with your feet on the floor, remove the bar from the racks, lower it to the center of your chest, and then press up.

This exercise can be done in many ways, but unfortunately, in most cases it is not done correctly.

So in order to break down this exercise in detail, let's start with the equipment.

What equipment is suitable for the bench press?

Properly selected equipment has a significant impact on the effective performance of the bench press.

First, if possible, do not use Smith simulator.

The main disadvantage of the Smith machine is that it provides a smaller increase in muscle mass and strength compared to free weight.

One of the main reasons for this shortcoming is the movement of the neck exclusively along a vertical fixed path. On the other hand, the free weight must be stabilized to prevent it from deviating from the correct trajectory.

When I used to bench press on the Smith machine, I never lifted more than 110 kg in several repetitions. But when I first switched to free weight, I struggled with 80 kg.

That was a few years ago and since then I've been benching up to 130kg for 2-3 reps. The result is not outstanding, but quite decent.

Power rack is the best choice

A regular power rack is an excellent choice if you are training with a spotter partner, because if you train without one, you will most likely not be able to lift your maximum weight for fear of dropping the bar on yourself.

Even if you are an experienced athlete and know your strengths well, when training to muscle failure there may be a situation where you feel that you can do one more repetition, but fail.

Train in a power rack. Here is a classic example of a bench press power rack.

This simulator is made safe by the barbell lifting control system. Set the restraint bars to the right height and they will prevent the projectile from falling on your chest when you do not master the repetition.

Here's how to do it:

The Bench Press and the Bar Matter Too

Since we're on the subject of equipment, let's talk about the bench and the bar.

You need to make sure the bench is large enough to support your upper back and stay stable while doing the exercise. A bench 30 cm wide is fine.

If you are training at home, then I suggest getting a high quality bar with sleeves that can rotate independently of the bar. This way the weight discs can spin without the bar spinning, which would put a lot of stress on the wrists.

Correct body position for bench press

When the equipment is ready, it's time to talk about correct position body while doing the bench press. The first two steps are the following actions:

1. Lie down on a bench with your eyes under the bar.

1. Raise your chest, squeeze your shoulder blades together and press them against the bench.

You should feel tension in your upper back and maintain this position throughout the exercise.

1. Grab the bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width.

Take the bar in the palm of your hand closer to your wrists than to your fingers and squeeze it as hard as you can.

The wrists should be straight and not bent towards the head. This will help prevent wrist pain.

A good way to test your grip width is to have someone stand behind you and look down at the position of your forearms at the bottom of the exercise.

Forearms should be perpendicular to the floor. That is, like this:

As you can see, on the far left photo, the position is too wide, on the middle one, too narrow, and on the far right, the position is correct.

1. Bend your lower back slightly and place your feet shoulder-width apart at a right angle to your knees.

The back should not lie flat on the bench, and at the same time, you should not bend it so much that the pelvis is almost under it.

Just maintain the natural curve that occurs when you arch your chest.

1. With straight arms, remove the bar from the racks, and then move it in a horizontal line until it is directly above your shoulders.

You are now ready to perform the bench press.

Do these movements every time you bench press, whether you're warming up or preparing for a personal best.

This is a good practice for developing correct technique, which will not only improve the exercise, but also reduce the risk of injury.

How to lower weight properly

The first thing you need to know about arm movement when doing the bench press is proper elbow position.

Many people make the mistake of flaring their elbows out to the sides, which can lead to shoulder injury. This mistake is the main reason the bench press is considered dangerous exercise for shoulders.

A less common mistake is to keep your elbows too close to your body, which makes you less stable and less able to exert maximum effort.

It is necessary that the elbows are located at an angle of 50-60 ° to the body. This will prevent the risk of injury and is also a stable and secure position to perform the exercise. To better visualize this, look at the diagram:

If in the lowest phase of the exercise the elbows are at an angle of about 20º, then this is too close a position, and at a 90° angle it is too wide. The middle position at an angle of about 60° is optimal.

So, now that you know the correct position of the elbows, let's get back to the exercise.

Keeping the correct position of the elbows, lower the bar to the lower part of the chest in the nipple area.

Yes, the bar must touch the chest! Forget about incomplete repetitions!

You must control the movement of the bar as you lower it, but you should not lower it too slowly because it Not in the best way affects muscle mass gain. Lower the bar for about 2 seconds.

How to remove the barbell and put it on the rack

Now that the vulture has touched the chest ( touched, but not rebounded away from it), you are ready to press the bar up.

Although the name of the exercise suggests that you should "push" the barbell, it's better to imagine that you are pushing it.

That is, imagine that you are pushing your body away from the bar, and not vice versa. This will help you maintain proper technique and apply maximum effort.

The bar should describe a small arc, moving from the chest to the starting position, in which it is easiest to balance.

Straighten your arms at the elbows, and do not keep them slightly bent. This will prevent the risk of you dropping the weight.

When lifting the weight, the body maintains the above position: the shoulder blades remain pressed to the bench and brought together, the elbows are at the right angle to the body, a slight deflection in the lower back is maintained, the buttocks are on the bench, and the feet are on the floor.

How to properly place a barbell on a power rack

Do not try to put the barbell on the racks, squeezing the weight towards its limiters, as you risk dropping the projectile in your face.

Always, finish the rep first, and when the bar is over your shoulders and your arms are extended, transfer it in a horizontal line to the racks.

Summarizing the above

For a better idea of ​​the whole process, watch the video. Here's what it all looks like in action:

Types of bench press

The standard barbell bench press is a core exercise in many programs. strength training, but it is usually accompanied by several varieties.

Let's look at the most common options.

Although this exercise is not a direct replacement for the bench press, it is nonetheless dumbbell press is an exercise that deserves attention.

One of the main problems that athletes face when doing this exercise is maintaining heavy dumbbells in the correct position.

Here's what it looks like:

If speak about training program, I usually alternate between dumbbell presses and barbell presses. shoulder workout.

For example, I do 3-4 sets of dumbbell presses for incline bench, 3-4 sets per horizontal bench, 3-4 sets of weighted dips for 8 weeks. Then for 8 weeks I will do 3-4 sets of flat bench press, 3-4 sets of incline bench press, and 3-4 sets of dumbbell flat bench press.

Close Grip Bench Press

The narrower the grip, the more load falls on the triceps.

This grip is not desirable if you are focusing on chest training, but this is one of my favorite ways to train triceps. And by the way, strong triceps guarantee good results in the standard bench press.

A narrow grip means you should grip the bar slightly narrower than shoulder width.

You can see some lifters holding the bar with their arms just a few inches apart. This is a bad idea because it puts the wrists and shoulders in a very weak and risky position.

All other recommendations regarding the technique of performing the exercise remain the same: the shoulder blades are firmly pressed to the bench, a slight deflection in the lower back, feet on the floor, the bar describes a small arc when lowering, touches the lower part of the chest, and then rises back.

If you feel discomfort in your wrists or shoulders in the lower phase of the exercise, then simply widen the grip by about the width of a finger and continue the exercise.

If discomfort is still felt, once again increase the width of the grip by the width of a finger and repeat this until you find a comfortable position for yourself.

Here is a good tutorial video:

Incline Bench Press

The discussion about the upper chest is one of the "controversial" aspects of bodybuilding.

Do I need to do chest exercises to work out the upper part of it? Or do all chest exercises to pump all possible muscle fibers? And even more than that - is there such a thing as "upper chest" at all?

I'll try to explain briefly.

There is a part of the pectoral muscle which is what we call the "top of the chest". It is located in the clavicle area and looks like this:

Although these muscles are part of the pectoralis major, their fibers are quite different. Thus, some exercises can focus on the main muscles of the chest, while others - on her clavicle.

Notice what I said make an emphasis, and not isolate, because exercises that work the first or second part of the muscles affect both parts to a certain extent.

Nevertheless, proper development chest muscles require working out the muscles of its upper part for two simple reasons:

1. working out these small stubborn muscles takes more time;

1. The best exercises for these muscles are also great for developing large pecs.

The best way to ensure that the upper chest does not lag behind the rest of the chest muscles is to often bench press on an incline bench.

bench press reverse grip will also help you with this, and we will talk about it soon.

That's why it's great place occupies incline bench press in my programs "Bigger, Slimmer, Stronger" And "Slimmer, Slimmer, Stronger" so the same I will recommend to you here.

When performing the bench press on an inclined bench, the angle of the bench should be 30-45 °.

I prefer an angle of 30°, others like an angle of around 45°. I recommend that you try different angles in this range and choose the one that works best for you.

• The bar should go past the chin and touch the body just below the collarbones. This will provide a vertical trajectory for the movement of the neck.

Here is a video showing how to do the incline bench press correctly:

And also with dumbbells:

Bench press on an incline bench upside down

The Bent Over Bench Press is a popular exercise for some lifters, but I'm not one of them. Due to the reduced range of motion, this exercise less effective than regular or incline bench presses.

The main argument given in favor of this exercise is that it develops lower part pectoralis major muscle, however, for this I prefer to do push-ups on the uneven bars.

The bottom line is that you will never get a great chest if you only do bent over presses.

Reverse Bench Press

The reverse grip press has its merits, which are often overlooked.

You should clasp the bar with your palms facing you, which will not only reduce the load on your shoulders, but also more effectively work the upper part of the chest.

Here's how to do it:

Calculator for calculating one rep with a maximum weight (1RM) in the bench press

The only 100% accurate way to know how much weight you can bench press for a certain number of reps is to simply perform the exercise. But there are several formulas that can predict results with a fair amount of tonality.

The most commonly used formulas Brzycki, Batchley And dos Remedios.

Use a calculator to predict your 1RM.

lifted weight: _____ ○ pounds. ○ kilograms.

Number of repetitions: ____

1RM
95% 1RM	90% 1RM	85% 1RM	80% 1RM	75% 1RM	70% 1RM	65% 1RM	60% 1RM

If you're wondering how to measure your performance, here's a handy guide.

The following figures are figures that can reasonably be expected from people with different levels of training.

The "no training" column shows the expectation for those who have not benched before.

Column " average level” demonstrates the standard level of strength for someone who has several years of bench press experience.

The "professional" column contains figures for competitive athletes (1% of athletes).

10 Scientifically Proven Ways to Improve Your Bench Press Performance

Knowing the correct execution technique does not guarantee that you will increase the weight lifted over time.

On this path your progress will stop, and these 10 strategies will help you avoid such situations.

Correct mental attitude

The right mental attitude will positively affect all your results.

Don't be sluggish while doing the set. Catch pumping and drive ( right music might be a great help).

One study showed that all this can increase performance. It also found that absent-mindedness, on the contrary, reduces performance.

Before you start doing the approach, put on your headphones, set yourself up, and at the same time the whole room as it should, and go!

Another simple but effective "trick" for increasing strength is to visualize the success of a set before you do it. I know, I know it sounds lame, but research show that the visualization actually works.

Use heavy weights

Ronnie Coleman said it best:

Debate about "ideal" number of repetitions for building muscle mass are infinite, but there is little argument that heavy weights best for increasing strength.

But what does “heavy” mean then?

A "strength" rep range usually starts around 80-85% of your 1RM or around 4-6 reps and rises in line with your 1RM.

If you are currently doing mostly light weight bench presses (for example, doing 10-12 reps), then great benefit you can get by focusing on heavy weights. You don't have to completely stop doing your 10-12 reps, but do them better. after hard approaches.

Here's how I would do it in my workout:

Incline Press: Warm up, then 2 sets of 2-3 reps (≈ 90% of 1RM).

Incline Press: 3 sets of 4-6 reps (≈ 80% of 1RM).

Dumbbell bench press on a horizontal bench: 3 sets of 4-6 reps.

Flat Bench Press: 2 sets of 8-10 or 10-12 reps (≈ 70% of 1RM)

This is known as "periodizing" training, which you can read more about. Here.

Lift weight explosively

Many trainers advise very slow reps for better muscle building, but research shows otherwise.

• Study, conducted by scientists from the University of Sydney, proved that those who performed the bench press at the traditional "fast" pace built strength faster than those who performed the exercise slowly;
• Study, conducted by scientists from the University of Connecticut, proved that those who trained in very slow pace, had lower levels of peak strength and energy compared to those who trained at a normal pace.
• Study, conducted by scientists from the University of Wisconsin, proved that even untrained people who performed workouts at a normal pace had higher strength in the squat and showed more peak force in the high jump.
• Study, conducted by scientists at the University of Oklahoma, proved that 4 weeks of training at a traditional pace was more effective in increasing strength compared to training at a very slow pace.

Besides, research show that during the bench press, rapidly lowering the bar (within 1 second) and then, without a pause, explosively lifting it, leads to a greater increase in strength than when slowly lowering it following a pause and explosive lifting.

Don't make the typical beginner's mistake of bouncing the bar off your chest at the bottom of the exercise. This is incorrect and may result in injury.

How to lower the bar

Here is another old advice from powerlifters that has found its scientific confirmation.

The idea is simple:

1. When lowering the bar, don't let it just fall down.

Instead, imagine that you are pulling the bar towards your chest in a controlled manner. This will help maintain the correct position of the body and generate maximum force in the vertical direction.

1. When you lower the bar, imagine that you are bending it in half or tearing it apart.

To do this, it is necessary that the shoulder blades are in the correct position, that is, they are brought together.

The latissimus dorsi will help generate more vertical force while lifting the bar. It is for this reason that you can lift more weight with a barbell press than with a dumbbell press. You won't be able to apply that much effort with dumbbells because they require stabilization during the exercise.

Bench Press More Often

The ideal training frequency for gaining muscle mass- a contentious topic. And here's what we can know for sure.

If you want to be successful in any exercise, you must do it often.

This is why any training program is valuable if it includes squats, deadlift and/or bench press 2-3 times a week. Many programs for bodybuilders as well as mine " More Leaner, Stronger », include them.

You see, while increasing muscle strength is an integral part of overall body growth, muscles can get stronger without increasing in size.

This is mainly due to neuromuscular adaptation. Muscle fibers can “learn” to work more efficiently and energetically, and as with any type of physical activity, the more often you do something, the better you get at it.

So, if you are currently doing the bench press once a week, then doing this exercise 2-3 times a week will increase your strength.

However, when you increase the frequency of the exercise, remember to do it carefully to avoid overtraining.

Read on to learn more about this.

Change grip width

This, too, comes from the world of powerlifting, and there is research to support its effectiveness in improving bench press results.

Research prove that a grip that exceeds the width of the shoulders by a few centimeters allows you to shift the emphasis on big muscles chest, while a narrower grip shifts the focus to smaller muscles such as triceps and shoulder muscles.

By practicing both grips, you will be able to work and strengthen each of these muscle groups. This, in turn, will help you overcome possible stumbling blocks in this exercise.

An easy way to do this is to include in the program chest workouts 2-3 sets of bench press with wide grip and 2-3 sets with narrow grip into the program arm training.

Eat enough calories

Whenever someone complains that or to increase strength, I immediately have a suspicion that he is not taking enough food. And very often I am right.

There is one simple fact about muscle growth that many do not understand:

If you want to gain mass and build muscle as quickly as possible, then you need to consume enough calories. If you don’t do this, you will never gain mass and build muscle.

For example, I know that I need to consume 3300-3600 calories per day in order to gain weight consistently. This may seem like too much, but it's not.

I can't complain because I've seen much worse situations. I've worked with hundreds of skinny guys who couldn't put on a single pound until they were eating more than 4,000-4,500 calories a day. Every day! Seven days a week!

It's just that some people's bodies burn calories very quickly, and they require large amounts of them to maintain weight gain and muscle mass.

Therefore, increasing your calorie intake is an easy way to improve your weight gain and strength gains.

At the same time, you should not eat everything indiscriminately. If the process gets out of control, you will begin to gain fat in large quantities.

Here how to do it right.

Practice the rest-pause method

In general, I am not a fan of any kind of drop sets, supersets, giant sets, etc., as I think it is better to perform heavy power sets instead.

However, one "unconventional" method should be included in the training program. It is called "rest-pause", and I will now tell you what it is.

You perform the exercise to muscle failure (the point where you can't complete another rep) and then rest for a short period of time before doing another set. Then again a short rest and a new set to failure, etc.

This method, like many others described above, came from powerlifting, and research prove that it effective method increase strength.

A few tips for incorporating the rest-pause method into your training program.

1. Do these sets with heavy weights that are 80% or more of your 1RM;
2. If you are using 80-90% of your 1RM then rest 20-30 seconds between sets. If you are using over 90%, then rest 45-60 seconds;
3. Do not perform more than 3-4 of these sets per workout, as they require a lot of effort.

If you want to dial muscle mass and increase strength, your number one goal should be to increase your working weight over time.

The bottom line is that if you want to get bigger, you have to get stronger.

A good way to do this is to work within a predetermined rep range (4-6 for example) and, once you can, increase the weight. That is, once you can do 6 reps with a certain weight, add 2kg (if you train with dumbbells) or 4kg (if you train with a barbell) and work with this new weight until you can do 6 reps, etc.

Repeat this simple process over and over again to ensure you progress in your workouts.

Sometimes this process can stall, and you find yourself working with the same weight for several weeks and cannot increase it. This is where microbooting can come in handy. The term was coined to refer to adding less than 2kg of weight to the bar.

For example, let's say your bench press progress stops at 80kg for 5 reps and hasn't changed in weeks. You tried to increase the weight to 85 kg, but you can not perform more than 2 repetitions.

Using light weight weight plates, you can add 1kg to the bar, bringing the weight of the projectile to 81kg. Let's say you can do 4 reps with this weight.

Then, a few weeks later, you press 81 kg for 5 reps and at that point add another 1 kg to the bar. Now you can do 4 reps with this weight again and continue to build your strength.

This is a useful strategy.

Here are some high quality discs that I recommend:

Strengthen your triceps and shoulder muscles

Many athletes feel that progress in the bench press is not being held back enough. developed muscles chest. They do not understand that the reason is in the muscles of the shoulders and triceps.

The front delts play a huge role in lifting the bar off the chest, and the triceps are actively working in the upper phase of the exercise.

So if any of these muscles are lagging behind in development, then there will be no progress in the bench press. Strengthen them and bench press results will follow.

• Army press is the best exercise to strengthen the muscles of the shoulders. You should do it at least once a week.

• My favorite triceps strength exercises are close grip bench presses. french press, extension of the arms from behind the head while sitting And crossover arm extension. You should do at least 2-3 of these exercises once a week.

Simple and effective training program for the bench press

Day 1:

• Incline Bench Press: warm up, then 3 sets of 4-6 reps (80-85% of 1RM);
• Incline dumbbell press: 3 sets of 4-6 reps;
• Bench press on a horizontal bench: 3 sets of 4-6 reps.

Day 3:

• Close Grip Press: 3 sets of 4-6 reps

Day 4

• Bench press on a horizontal bench: 3 sets of 8-10 reps (70-75% of 1RM);
• Military bench press standing or sitting: 3 sets of 4-6 reps;

Yes, just 15 heavy chest sets per week. Such a load may seem easy to you, but try it out - it's harder than you think.

Rest 3-4 minutes between sets.

This time will allow the muscles to recover so that you can put maximum effort into the next set.

As soon as you can perform the required number of repetitions in the approach, increase the working weight.

For example, if you do 6 reps on the first set when doing the bent press, add 2kg to each side of the bar for the next set and work with that weight until you can do 6 reps, and so on.

Conclusion

At correct execution the bench press is one of the best and most useful exercises to increase upper body strength.

If done incorrectly, this exercise is not only ineffective, but also dangerous.

So learn correct technique bench press, use the strategies in this article and be patient. Building a strong body takes several years, even if you do everything right.

The bench press is not only one of the disciplines of triathlon, but also simply an indicator of human strength. Therefore, the question of how to increase the bench press is one of the most relevant for gym visitors.

Bench press for different purposes

Each person, coming to the gym, puts for himself different goals. They change over time. But, in most cases, one thing remains the same - the weight in the bench press and other exercises increases up to a certain point.

Then a plateau comes and progress stops, as if the body has run out of resources. Stagnation in the bench press, squat, etc., each athlete perceives differently.

Some athletes give up and return to their usual way of life. They quit training, convinced that the sport is for someone else. Usually such people visit the hall for no more than six months or even a year.

Others heavily increase the load until the first injury, and then also leave. But already because of the physical impossibility to continue training.

As a result, few calmly remain to train and continue to achieve their goals.

The goals of going to the gym are different for everyone: from gaining muscle to increasing in specific exercises. Someone is only interested in the volume of muscles, someone constantly presses, someone pulls, and someone is preparing to participate in triathlon. Whatever the athlete's goal, good performance is only achieved through patience, discipline, and hard work.

Different pressing techniques also serve different purposes. Let's break them down. To make it clearer, in our case we will talk about bench press with a wide grip on a horizontal bench. And consider the main thing that interests absolutely everyone involved: how to improve the bench press.

For muscle growth

For a detailed study of the pectoral muscles, you need to press the barbell so that it falls on the upper part of the chest. With this technique, the muscles are stretched as much as possible and, when contracted, receive the necessary amount of load.

The technique for performing the exercise is described in detail in the article “bench press”, so we will not dwell on it here.

When working on the mass, the exercise should be performed in 3-4 sets of 6-8 times. Choose the weight so that the last repetition is given with great difficulty. If you feel that after the eighth, you are able to perform another repetition, increase the load so that you return to six repetitions again.

It makes no sense to press at times in this way - this is not a lifter's technique.

Work according to the sensations - you can do more - hang a couple more kg, but do not increase the weight due to violation of technique!

For maximum weight lifting

This is the second goal for which you can press the bar. Someone needs to show results in competitions, someone works for themselves. Naturally, the training program for strength in each case will be different.

The bench press technique in powerlifting is very different from the bodybuilding options that most involved in gym. We will analyze this a little later. And now we will discuss strategies for increasing weights, and precautions.

We go to the maximum: bench press at a time

How to increase your bench press results: First of all, you need to exercise regularly, experiment and be prepared for defeat. You will also need a competent program to increase strength. By defeat, I mean "didn't shake" or "pulled a muscle." Such moments should not unsettle you.

When athletes prepare for strength competitions, they do not focus on working out the muscles. They work for strength - and this is the main principle. It is important - how many kg you squeezed out, and not what kind of biceps you have. The mass of the body will follow the force. Maybe there will not be such a relief and definition of muscles as in bodybuilders, but still you will stand out from the crowd.

Press technique for one time

To finally raise Weight Limit you need to regularly, at least twice a week, do the bench press.

In powerlifting, the bench press is done from a position called a bridge. This position must be clearly worked out in order to feel stable and confident in it.

How to get into the starting position for the bench press:

1. We lay down on the bench. But! Don't put your feet on the floor, put them together on the other end of the bench.
2. Bend your stomach up to stretch before the press, holding on to a barbell or neck, the fulcrum is the heels and your shoulder blades. By the way, the shoulder blades need to be reduced as much as possible.
3. Now we lower the pelvis onto the bench, after that we put our legs on the floor and rest on our heels.
4. This is the starting position.

You can, of course, make everything easier and immediately bend from a prone position, but then the bridge will not be so round.

The essence of the bridge is the distance that the bar travels is less than in the straight position of the body. And the bar touches the body faster, which greatly facilitates the bench press procedure. without bridge big weight will be harder to take. Sometimes a bench press is performed with a pause.

The exercise can be performed with or without equipment. On this moment the largest bench press in equipment, which is listed in the book of records, is 486 kg, and without - 335 (by the way, it belongs to a Russian athlete and was made in 2015). To this day, these are the most significant weights ever lifted on this planet (officially, at least).

At first, getting into the “bridge” will be unusual, but over time you will get used to it. If you are just doing it for yourself, you don’t need a bridge, calmly lie down on the bench with your back, bring your shoulder blades together, maintain a slight deflection in the lower back and put your feet on the floor.

Please note that if the surface of the bench is slippery, the shoulder blades will move apart. The same thing will happen if you train in poor quality clothing.

When you are not preparing for a competition, but simply working on strength, you also need to consistently work out at least 2 times a week to increase the bench press.

You need to bend until you are comfortable. Your task is not to get on the bridge, but just to make it work pectoral muscles not shoulders and triceps. Then you can reap more.

What can help you gain weight?

First of all, you should understand that when you train for strength, your task is to make the maximum number of muscle groups work for the result. When massing, you purposefully load separate group muscles so that it grows as much as possible.

Golden rule number 1 - pump the whole body

In addition to the bench, do others basic exercises. That is, be sure to pump the rest of the body, and not just the chest. The coordinated work of a large array of muscles will help you lift more weight than one swung muscle group.

It happens that squats cause discomfort in the lower back, but the deadlift is fine. Then you can replace squats with leg presses. It is too a good option which causes muscle mass to grow.

Practice shows that by doing just one bench press from workout to workout, significant progress cannot be achieved. Muscles get tired and stop responding to the load.

So when the bench press program isn't limited to just pressing, the chest, triceps, and shoulders rest while you train other muscles. And this is very important.

Plus, heavy exercises (like the squat or leg press) boost testosterone production, which will directly affect your strength.

Rule 2 - let the muscles rest

Overwork negatively affects the results of training. If you feel that you haven't fully recovered from the previous session, it's better to reduce the intensity of your workout and give yourself time to rest.

Overworked muscles lose 10-15% of their strength. For example, if you bench press 100 kg for 3 times, you will, in a state of overtraining, shake 85–90 for the same 3.

It is believed that the power press should be done once a week. But you have to focus on your body. Someone presses not 2 times a week, but 3. Someone only 1 time. Each person has their own training regimen.

Rule 3 - a convenient schedule and a good program

Choose the best training regimen for you. It should be in harmony with your lifestyle and daily routine. Competent trainers based on the characteristics of the life rhythm of clients.

Your bench press program should include a basic strength complex and, in fact, preparatory exercises for bench press. In order to increase your strength indicators, so that there really is an improvement, and not a regression of your muscles, you need to competently train both the whole body and specifically the working muscles (chest, triceps and shoulder).

Sometimes in the programs the bench press is done either 8–10 times, or three to five times. Once a week so, the second so.

Chest exercises include dumbbell raises, dips, pullovers, and more.

Once a month and a half, it is desirable to make changes to the program.

Rule 4 - Don't try to max out at once

In normal mode, do 5 repetitions, well, or at least 3. The maximum weight at one time is a competitive moment, and for strength training it is better and safer to do several repetitions.

By lifting the maximum weight, you run the risk of pulling something or otherwise injuring yourself. After all, when you press the weight lying down 5 times or even 3 - this is one thing. But you don’t know your one-time maximum, you can easily fail to guess and get serious damage to muscles or joints.

Indeed, in your case it is more important to understand how to increase weight, albeit gradually, but reliably. And do not squeeze out, no matter how much at a time, risking your health. You are not in competition.

If you really want to, once a month you can arrange test drives for yourself in increments of 5–2.5 kg and with insurance. But before that, warm up very well.

Rule 5 - eat well and sleep well

There are no comments here. Enough has been said about nutrition and sleep. Let's talk about a plateau or that state when the weight does not increase.

Overcoming the plateau

What to do when there is no bench press? He may not go long. In the end, either you give up, or the muscle will ache from overload.

• Alternatively, you can forget about the press for a couple of weeks and do other exercises, for example, perform training complex on the chest on an inclined bench and uneven bars. And then, back to the bench press.
• You can also increase the weights in other exercises that improve your bench. As mentioned above, the maximum result is obtained by the complex work of the muscles of the whole body.
• Change your bench press routine periodically. Then the muscles do not have time to get used to or overwork, and one day you will lift the biggest weight for yourself.

That is, for a while, in general, stop wondering how to increase the bench press. Just train, pay attention to other exercises and do not leave the gym.

• There is another approach - do not stop reaping. You can temporarily reduce the working weight. This will give some rollback, but in the end, after returning to your schedule and old weights, you will be able to surpass the result obtained earlier.
• Try moving to 10 reps with less weight. You need to be able to do these 10 times not with ease, but through labor. Gradually increase the weight in this mode. And then go back to low-repetition training.

The essence of the above is that the bench program should be varied. When the results stop, you need to temporarily change the training vector. To finally break through the bench press, to overcome your barriers, you need to work hard and patiently. Try different options. One will work just for you.

By the way, the option of achieving some natural physiological maximum is not ruled out. This can be said if you have been doing it for a long time and have already achieved significant results. Think about whether you really need to increase the weight? How often do you get injured lately? Maybe this is the same physiological barrier, after which your body will begin to “break down”? If you do not compete, you absolutely do not need to go for records at any cost.

After all, weight gain always has two sides, one of which is pride in the result, and the other is stress for the body. Balance is important here.

So, be careful: warm up well and train smart!

Progress in the bench press is a key factor in the effectiveness of training for almost all beginner lifters. You always want to press more than others and brag about the fact that in just a couple of months of training, you have shrugged an impressive weight. However, within the framework of this article, we will not consider the correctness or incorrectness of such an approach, but we will analyze the most relevant question for beginners - how many times a week should you bench press?

Goals as the basis for building training

To answer main question article, you must, first of all, decide on your goals in the gym. Namely, what do you want to achieve? It can be strength in several exercises, strength in any one exercise (for example, the bench press), endurance, gaining muscle mass, or simply maintaining yourself in a normal physical form. Your training schedule will depend on what goal you set for yourself. The universal answer to the question - "how often do bench press?" - does not exist. It all depends on what you want to end up with.

Consider for example 2 the most common goals - weight gain and strength growth.

Goal: a set of muscle mass (pumping muscles, relief, etc.)

For the purpose of muscle growth and muscle gain, it makes no sense to bench press the bar more than 1 time per week. This is due to the fact that on each training day we pump certain muscle groups, so more frequent bench presses during the week will lead to damage in pumping some other muscle group.

In bodybuilding training, we only bench press on chest day. That is, our goal is not to develop performance in one or more exercises, but to load the target working muscles. And the bench press in this case acts only as a means of providing this load.

Goal: increase strength in a specific exercise

This goal is set, as a rule, by athletes who want to closely engage in powerlifting, bench press, or simply want to press a lot without competing. In this case, the training will be significantly different from bodybuilding, since it will not be based on pumping each specific muscle group, and increasing performance in one or more exercises.

With this goal, the bench press can be performed 2 times a week. In this case, one of the workouts should be heavy (low reps, maximum working weight, one-time maximum training), and the other should be light (many repetitions, many approaches). Thus, training will be carried out specifically for the bench press, both in a heavy power manner and in a volumetric multi-rep.

The main mistakes athletes make when training bench press strength are too many heavy bench press workouts, which seriously deplete nervous system and lead to long-term stagnation in performance. The optimal technique is the one given above, which is based on a combination of heavy strength and volume multi-repetition training.

Article Conclusions

Thus, optimal frequency performing the bench press is 1-2 times a week (depending on the goals of the workout). More frequent training has no advantage in terms of either strength gains or mass gains, and can lead to overtraining and stagnation.

10 tips to increase weights and results in the bench press. Find out what training, nutrition, and recovery recommendations to follow.

The bench press is often considered a universal measure of an athlete's strength. This is not true, and anyone who is more or less productive in the gym will confirm this. However, this is one of the best exercises for developing strength and gaining muscle mass in the torso. Below are 10 tips to improve your bench press performance. Most importantly, they will help you avoid a plateau - after all, the lack of progress within a few months will unsettle anyone. But using the tips below, you can overcome stagnation and add a few pounds to your record.

10 tips to increase your bench press results:

1.Extra train triceps

About 80% of the time athletes fail to make progress on the bench press is due to weak triceps. You need to train your triceps hard with basic exercises like close-grip bench press or french press with a bar. Don't waste time working block simulators, work with heavy barbells and dumbbells.

2. Shock Your Pecs

It is easy to train according to the knurled pattern. Ask yourself: am I getting out of my comfort zone in training? Most people don't. Yes, they train hard, but they don't give it their all. So pick up your pace, turn up the intensity. Change your rest between sets. Do supersets. Do 30 pushups after each set. Do you understand what's the point?

3. Don't Overtrain

Many people think that the more they train, the bigger they will get. This myth is especially common among beginners. The quality of all your reps, sets and exercises is much more important than their number. Train chest muscles 1 or 2 times a week, more often does not make sense, unless, of course, you are striving to set a world record in the bench press.

4. Pay more attention to recovery

This is directly related to the previous advice, without this mass gain is impossible. Your muscles grow as you rest and recover, so getting enough sleep is essential to progress. Get at least 8 hours of sleep and get enough rest between workouts.

5. Bench Press Negative Reps Are Your Helper

The negative phase of the amplitude is when you lower the bar down. You can make negatives using huge weights (up to 150% of your one-time maximum). Your task is to slowly lower the bar to your chest, two spotters will lift it for you.Negative reps- underestimated, and with its help you can achieve an impressive breakthrough in strength.

6. Don't Train Chest and Triceps in the Same Workout

If you want to build really strong triceps, you need to train it when you are full of energy, and not after a long bench workout.

7. Nutrition is the basis of gaining muscle mass

If your goal is to get bigger and stronger, you must have an appetite like Ronnie Coleman, 8-time Mr. Olympia winner. You need to make 7 meals daily. Each of them should be rich in protein from different sources and complex carbohydrates. Without this, there will be no increase in the result in the bench press. You can't count on progress if you don't consume the required number of calories per day.

8. Take a week off

Sometimes all you need is a break. Even professional bodybuilders allow themselves 7-10 days of complete rest per year. Your muscles are overworked, and this does not allow them to grow further. You can completely forget about training for a week, or you can do 3 light workouts for the whole body.

9. Use sports nutrition

Sports supplements – The best way quickly provide the body with the necessary nutrients. This is extremely important for the bench press. Should accept immediately after waking up, after exercise and before bed.

10. Work on technique

You will be surprised how many experienced athletes adhere to wrong technique. Many people think that the bench press is technically a simple exercise, but if you initially get used to doing it wrong, there will be no progress. The most common mistakes are: incorrect positioning of the hands on the bar, tearing the pelvis off the bench or legs off the floor, lowering the barbell to the wrong point and open grip.

Anti-McRobert: Think! in Russian. How to train in cycles Faleev Alexey Valentinovich

Commandment two. Squat and bench press are done twice a week. Deadlift is done once a week.

Commandment two. Squat and bench press are done twice a week. Deadlift is done once a week.

This important rule will help you avoid overtraining. Of course, it is strange, but it is a fact that most athletes who really train in full force often exercise too much and too often. As a result, the quality of training stubbornly does not translate into the amount of muscle. Let's talk about how to avoid this.

As I said, squat and bench press, although they are done twice a week, but the workouts should not repeat one another. The load, strong at the beginning of the week, when you are still fresh and rested after the weekend, should be sharply reduced by the end of the week, when you are already tired and you just need to warm up better.

Therefore, the first time a week the bench press and squat are made “heavy”, and the second time “light”.

We will assume that a "hard" workout is a workout aimed at increasing results and performed at the limit of possibilities, and an "easy" workout is the second workout of the week - a workout for technique, a warm-up. The main task in the "light" training is to work out the initial explosive effort, so this training must be carried out in a speed-strength mode.

The deadlift is done only once, since the muscles that are involved in it are the largest in the body, and they recover more slowly.

The sequence of exercises in training is the same as in competitions. This is logical, because if you compete, such a familiar sequence will allow you to save a lot of energy and correctly calculate your strengths, for example, at least you will already know that you can’t give all your best on squats, because there is still a powerful load on back in the form of a deadlift.

Therefore, if you strictly adhere to the first rule and do only one exercise per workout, then a good training schedule would be five workouts per week:

- Tuesday: "Heavy" bench press.

- Wednesday: "Heavy" deadlift.

- Thursday: "Light" technique squat.

- Friday: "Easy" bench press on the technique.

With this schedule, your muscles will tense in the same sequence as in the competition and will have sufficient rest in the second half of the week. It was in this way that I began to progress rapidly.

If you do not have the opportunity to train five days a week, then you will have to work with two basic exercises in one workout.

But even in this case, you should avoid doing two "heavy" exercises in one day. In this case, it would be logical to combine “light” exercises and do them in one day:

– Monday: “heavy” squat.

-Tuesday: "heavy" bench press.

-Wednesday: "heavy" deadlift.

-Friday: "light" squat on the technique, "light" bench press on the technique.

If you can train only 3 times a week, then the training schedule will have to be done like this:

- Monday: "heavy" squat.

– Wednesday: “heavy” bench press, “light” squat on technique.

- Friday: "heavy" deadlift, "light" bench press on equipment.

If you train two days a week, then I think it's better to break it down like this:

– Tuesday: “heavy” squat, “heavy” bench press

– Thursday: “heavy” deadlift, “light” bench press

In principle, if you want, do all the basic exercises on the same day and train only once a week. This will also give a result, but much weaker than if you trained more often. To train once a week, if it makes sense, then only for those who recover for a very long time, i.e. heavyweights. But, in my opinion, even for them it is more preferable to train 4 times a week and do only one exercise at each workout.

I want to draw Special attention those who are just starting to go to the gym.

A beginner should not immediately introduce deadlift into his complex.

You need at least one month to fully train on squats before approaching the deadlift. By working with squats, you strengthen not only your legs, but also your back. At least a month on squats is a necessary step prior to being included in a deadlift program.

Therefore, the first month you can train according to the following scheme:

- Monday: "heavy" squat.

- Wednesday: "heavy" bench press.

- Friday: "light" squat on the technique, "light" bench press on the technique.

And only a month after classes according to such a simplified scheme, you can move on to any of the above programs.

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