How To Bench Press

While the bench press is often overused by a beginner to the world of weightlifting and fitness, it no doubt has earned its place in beginner, intermediate, and advanced routines. Because the bench press is often one of the first exercises a beginner performs, many bad habits and bad form may develop. Fixing your bench press form leads to better gains, more weight being put up, and less chance for injury. Without further adieu, here is how to perform your basic beginner bench press.

1) Lie flat on the bench, making sure that you are balanced. You Don't want to fall of the bench in the middle of a press (=

2) Your feet should stay on the floor at all times and not move. Do not lift your feet in the air or put them on the bench. Your knees should be bent around 90 degrees, and your feet should be on opposite sides of the bench, with your legs spread at around 30 degrees to either side. An extremely wide stance will generally be uncomfortable, an very close stance will not allow for proper stability and can encourage the lifting your butt off the bench, which should not happen. Find a comfortable stance and foot width, and maintain it throughout the press.

3) Your ass should stay in contact with the bench at all times, and should be contracted during all repetitions to help maintain a stable base.

4) Tuck your shoulder blades underneath your body and pinch them together and down. This will raise the ribcage and stabilize the shoulder girdle. Maintain this tightness in your upper back and traps during all repetitions. This will also create a natural arch in the lower back, and will create a stable platform for your upper back muscles to press from. This is called "shoulder joint retraction" and will make your rotator cuff very happy (and healthy) when benching.

5) Without allowing your shoulders to roll forward and upward, losing tightness, reach up with each hand and grab it equally distant from the center of the bar. Use the smooth rings as a reference point. Your pinkies should be within an inch or 2 of the smooth ring. Wrap your thumbs around the bar and allow the bar to rest along the base of the hand, rather than near the knuckles, which will cause unnecessary stress to the wrists

6) Unrack the bar and move it so that the bar is directly over your lower chest area. Do not unrack the bar and immediately lower it to your chest from the rack in a diagonal line.

7) From a stopped position with the bar directly above your lower chest area, take a deep breath, maintain tightness in the back and "pull" the bar to your chest in a controlled fashion. Your elbows should not flare or tuck too much. Ideally, your upper arm bones will form an angle that isabout 40-60 degrees from your torso. If your elbows flare out wide to the sides (90 degree angle) then you hit your pecs incredibly hard at the risk of your rotator cuff's health. If your elbows tuck into your body (20-30 degree angle) then you will place too much emphasis on your triceps and delts, and not enough on your pecs.

8) Try to touch the bar to your shirt. If you do this correctly it is almost sure that you will use the full ROM of the exercise without bouncing the bar off your chest.

9) Press steadily and evenly to complete lockout without hyperextending your elbows or lifting your shoulders from the bench.

10) Repeat for as many reps as required by your routine

11) On the final repetition of the set, make sure you do not press directly toward the rack. The last rep should be identical to the first. Once you lockout the final repetition directly above your lower chest, then allow the bar to fall back toward the rack.