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Outside of powerlifting, the technical aspects of bench pressing seems to get less attention than the squat and deadlift. While the bench press can be quite nuanced, I think this exercise encourages slightly more reckless training behaviours – due to the reasons we discussed in part 1 of this bench pressing guide.

Bench pressing is possibly more accessible than the other big lifts. However, in my experience of teaching clients to bench press for powerlifting and more general goals, there are still many facets of bench pressing that are not common knowledge. I will attempt to cover as many of them as I can here.

As with all of the lifting guides I’ve made, they’re long posts. Be sure to bookmark it so you can come back to the specific questions when you need to.

Bench Pressing Like a Powerlifter – to Arch or Not to Arch?

The powerlifting bench press is a controversial topic. It requires arching your back into quite a pronounced position.

However, some people dislike this technique for the following reasons:

1. They feel that this technique constitutes cheating due to reduced range of motion;
2. They believed that bench pressing in this fashion may cause back injury.

Here are my thoughts on the bench pressing arch:

1. Arching is not cheating within the scope of powerlifting, but it may not be optimal for your goals.
2. In my experience, it’s not that common to hear of back injuries in bench press compared to, say, shoulder injuries. This review of powerlifting injuries found much higher incidence of upper body injuries in bench pressing and makes little to no mention of back injury in bench pressing.
3. There is a middle ground between bench pressing with no arch and bench pressing with a full-on powerlifter arch.

Every lifter will have different preferences regarding the amount of arch in their bench press, but for what it’s worth I prefer this mild arch.

I feel like this mild arch gives me some of the benefits of the powerlifting-style bench press without contorting me too much or cutting my range down – although I do have long arms. If you have more normal proportions, you might find that even a mild arch decreases your range significantly.

When bench pressing with a mild arch, you can still create space under your back to pin your shoulder blades down, therefore reducing excessive shoulder movement during the lift. You can still create enough tension in your lower back and lower body so that you remain rigid as the weight bears down on you. These points mean you can focus all your effort into the bar, without feeling like you’re bench pressing on a bouncy castle. You can check this video for an example of excessive shoulder movement on bench press.

Once you’ve decided whether to bench with an arch or not, it’s time to get started.

Warming Up for Bench Pressing

I have created a video with a series of exercises that I find useful for preparing for the bench press.

The general part of this warmup should slightly raise the heart rate, mobilise the majority of the body’s joints and prepare the main muscle groups for bench pressing. This progresses into specific warm-up work with the bar, getting gradually closer to your working weight.

Here is an example of how this might progress if you were warming up to perform 4 sets of 6 with a bench press weight of 80kg:

1. General Preparation work
2. Empty bar (20kg) bench press x5
3. 45kg press x 3
4. 55kg press x3
5. 65kg press x1
6. 75kg press x1
7. First working set at 80kg

I don’t have a set process for this, but you should increase the weight by 5-15kg each set, with the increments (and reps) reducing as you get closer to your working set. This provides plenty of sets to warm-up, practice, and get acclimated to the weight you’ll be using for today. If you go straight from the empty bar to 80kg, the weight will feel like such a shock to the system that you will likely spend the first few reps getting used to it. This type of rushed warmup often results in a sub-par first set.

Setting Up the Rack

When setting up the rack, you should have the several aims in mind:

• You should only have to perform a small arm straightening motion to unrack the bar. You should be able to unrack the bar without changing your set up position (which we will discuss below).
• You should only have to move the bar a small distance from the rack to resting over the shoulders in order to start the first rep.
• When pressing the bar up there should be no danger of the bar hitting the underside of the rack.

The way to achieve all these points is to set up so that, when laying down, your eyes are just under the bar when it is in the rack. This video should give some useful frames of reference for setting this up.

Choosing Your Grip For the Bench Press

Start out at just outside shoulder-width, and see if you can keep your shoulders on the bench when you’re at the bottom of the rep. If your shoulders lift off when the bar touches your chest, and you can’t squeeze them back no matter how hard you try, then you might need a wider grip. Check out this video for reference.

Once you have a grip where you’re able to keep the shoulders down, you can then experiment further based on comfort and sensation (i.e. do you feel the chest more, or the triceps more? What do you want to feel more?).

A Step-by-Step Guide to Bench Pressing

Now that we have warmed up, set up the rack, and chosen our hand position, it’s time to perform a set of bench pressing. I have created a video that shows this whole process as I like to perform it. Bear in mind that it may not be exactly the same way a professional powerlifter bench presses, but it will tick the right boxes in terms of safety, comfort and control.

Here is a written breakdown of each point:

1. Lay back on the bench and choose your hand position.
2. Get tight through the upper back by pulling yourself up (a bit like an inverted row), squeeze your shoulder blades together.
3. Tilt yourself back so your ribcage flares and the top of your shoulders hit the bench first on the way down. If you’re comfortable and stable like this, you can move on to step 5.
4. If you’re OK with how it feels on the hips and lower back, you can create an even bigger/tighter arch by bridging your hips up, then tilting them back so that your tailbone hits the bench first.
5. Set your foot position so that you can drive your heels into the floor. Again, you should prioritise comfort here but you can increase your tension by keeping the feet as close to your body as possible before the heels start to lift.
6. Unrack the bar, and move it into position over the shoulders. If the rack is set up right, this should be a pretty small movement.
7. Take a moment here to set your breathing, just as you would at the top of a squat. Fully engage your lats as if you were trying to bend the bar, and take one final deep breath and brace.
8. Bring the bar down to your chest with the same intent as if you were pulling it down. Whether you pause or not will depend on your programme, but the bar should make a clear, noticeable contact with your ribcage/chest.
9. Push against the bar to start the upward part of the lift. Imagine that you are actually pushing yourself back and down, rather than pushing the bar up.
10. When the bar is locked out over the chest, repeat from stage 7. That means resetting your breathing, re-engaging your upper back, and performing the next rep.
11. Repeat this cycle until you have completed the required number of reps. Once the last rep is locked out, let the bar slide back into the rack. Mission accomplished!

Where Should the Bar “Land”?

When bench pressing, the place where the bar lands on your chest will have big implications for how you press the bar away. Ideally, the bar will sit directly over your shoulders when the bar is locked out, and directly over your elbow when the bar is at it’s lowest. If the bar is not over your elbow, you will find yourself at a major disadvantage.

That means as you lower the bar, it should be travelling forwards (over the elbow) and backwards (over the shoulder), in addition to up and down. The video below shows this arc.

Should I Pause When Bench Pressing?

In powerlifting competition, there has to be a significant pause when the bar touches the chest. Powerlifters will wait in this position until they are told to press. Some people have brought this technique into their own training.

Personally I like pausing with the bar on my chest. The lack of momentum or bouncing means I have to work much harder during the bottom phase of the bench press. However, as I mentioned in part 1, I might use an unpaused bench press for the following reasons:

• Reduced time under tension (potentially causing less fatigue);
• The ability to go heavier, which combined with less time at the bottom, might cause the triceps to work harder;
• A bit of variety in a training programme.

The most important thing is that, whatever you choose, you remain consistent for that block of training for the sake of tracking your weight, sets, reps and so on. Don’t pause one week and then bounce the bar off your chest the week after.

Summary

This post has covered the bench press in a lot of detail. Be sure to bookmark it as a reference for the next time you want to try bench pressing. If you have more questions about bench pressing, get in touch with me on my Instagram.