I gotta lot of love for people that wanna get started but don’t know how to. So Imma give y’all some basics for bench press.
Bench Press, for me, is one of the most important upper body muscle builders because not only you’re gonna work your chest, but you’re also working your triceps, your shoulders, and your back. Imma walk you through some of the basics and guide you through how to get started properly so that you don’t get injured or develop bad habits.
Warm up & Stretch
We’ll start out with a warm-up and a stretch. Shout out to Mark Bell because I actually got this stretch from him. People look at me weird when I do it because it seems odd, but it feels great.
So let’s get started. Make sure your hands are even by using the references on your bar. And also, make sure that your elbows are locked in so that you protect your shoulders. It’ll feel awkward at first, but you’ll get used to it, and, most importantly, you’ll avoid having to deal with pain in the long run.
So start out with a few reps. Then, pull one elbow to the ground and push up with the other elbow to get that nice stretch. Stay there 5-10 seconds on each side, and go back and forth as much as you feel like you need it to get properly stretched.
Then finish it off with a few reps. Do this with no weight on the bar but still be explosive on the reps. Regardless of if there’s weight or not, I want you to practice the same way because you will play the way that you practice.
Now Let’s Get Into It
You wanna have your feet planted on the ground nice and stable. Often you see people without their feet appropriately placed, and they struggle to find balance and stability.
You don’t wanna do that. You wanna have your feet placed nice and stable. Also, if you have a hard time keeping your butt flat on the bench, make your feet wider. That will naturally keep your butt down.
If you want to, feel like you dig your shoulders into the bench. Now, with your hands at an exact distance (use the bar references to make sure you’re alright), go all the way down and touch your chest nice and easy, then explode up.
Don’t go crazy, wanting to go fast up and down. Actually, going down slowly is better for your muscles than going down quickly because you’re resisting gravity. Then, explode up.
Bench Press is your meat and potatoes for your upper body and front chest. But, you gotta do it right from the beginning because you can easily get injured doing it.
Strive to develop good technique and get comfortable first, then you can increase the weight as you get stronger. Don’t worry if you start out with no weight on the bar. You’ll still feel the work regardless after a few reps.
Start out with some decent weight for you. For reference, decent weight is something heavy enough for you not to be able to go all the way up to 15 reps, but also light enough so that you aren’t stuck at 2 or 3 reps.
It should feel challenging but also comfortable. My recommendation is to do lots of 8 set reps with this weight. This will build muscle endurance and density, and will also help you hone in in your technique to make sure you’re doing things properly before lifting heavier.
Note For Beginners
If you’re just getting started and want to build some quality muscle, focus on your technique first. You can worry about lifting heavier tomorrow. But just like when you get started with boxing, you want to build a good foundation first. Once you do, you can take things from there.
I see trainers all the time training beginners or people who are out of shape doing advanced things. I see it all the time! This isn’t ideal because if you don’t have a solid foundation, most likely, you have shitty form, and shitty form leads to bad habits, which then leads to long-term injury.
For beginners, and even for advanced lifters, the basics are always the best. If you want to build some solid muscle and overall strength, you’re golden with just the flat bench, the incline bench dips, and push-ups.
Anything outside of that you can worry about once you’ve gotten comfortable and once you’ve made sure you have good form. Doing so before would be rushing into it, and that almost always isn’t a good thing.
What are your short term fitness goals? Let me know in the comments!