The bench press is one of the first exercises that most guys learn when they begin strength training and is hands down the most popular lift performed in most gyms. Have you ever been to the gym on a Monday and tried to get on the bench? Not happening.
The problem is: I rarely see it performed correctly.
The barbell bench press is done as an upper body lift, which targets the pectoralis muscles, but when it is performed correctly, becomes a whole body lift that teaches leg drive, total-body tension, and stabilizes the shoulder girdle. However, when performed incorrectly, it can cause serious muscle imbalances that lead to chronic shoulder pain. Needless to say this will hinder most daily activity.
In this article you will learn how to bench press with good technique to ensure safety and that you are getting the most possible benefit from this awesome lift. I will cover everything from the proper setup, to the complete execution, to various positions to suit your needs.
Bench Press With Proper Form: The Setup
Getting Under the Bar
As with any lift, proper starting position is imperative in performing the exercise correctly and the bench press is no different. When you lie on the bench, make sure your butt, upper back, and head are all in good contact with the pad. Line up your eyes with the bar and make sure your neck is positioned neutrally to prevent injury.
Foot Position
There are several ‘acceptable’ foot positions, all of which require your feet to be firmly planted on the floor. You are going to have to play around to see which works best for your anatomy, but here are the two that I teach the most.
Under no circumstance should you keep your feet up in the air or on the bench as I often see. This causes you to not only prevent you from using leg drive, but you also lose most of your stability. These are both necessary to execute the lift properly and allow you to progressively lift more weight.
With some of my shorter clients or those who lack the hip mobility to keep their feet flat on the floor, I place a couple boards or plates under their feet, which affords them a stable surface to press off of.
Hand Position and Gripping the Bar
Just like foot position, your grip position is highly individual and depends on various factors such as your individual anatomy, injury history, shoulder/wrist mobility and goals.
I recommend most people take a moderate or neutral bench grip for general fitness. The wider grip is generally used by powerlifters in competitions, but I find that for most people this grip chews up the shoulder a bit more.
Wherever you choose to grip the bar, you also want to make sure that your wrists are in a neutral position rather than hyperextended back, as this places great stress on your wrist. You can also lift more and produce more power by utilizing this positioning.
It is also very important to keep the bar as close and tight to the thumb/pad of your hand as possible. This will make it much easier to keep your wrist from hyperextending as well. The knuckles of your other 4 fingers should be behind the bar, not under it.
Get Tight!
This is perhaps one of the most important steps as it can make or break the entire lift. It is also the step that I see most people neglect. Getting tight and ready to press will help you prevent injury, stabilize your shoulders, and help you get more out of the lift. Here is what to do:
- Pull your shoulder blades together (and down if you tend to shrug). You can do this before you even grab the bar.
- Literally act as if you are trying to rip the bar apart. This will further activate your lats and back muscles.
- Engage your core, glutes and quads by squeezing these muscles. Remember, this is a full-body exercise!
It is a good idea to practice these steps with an empty bar until you get the hang of it. You will instantly add pounds to your bench if you haven’t been utilizing these techniques!
Unracking the Bar
It is always best to get a hand off as this will allow you to stay tight while unracking the bar, but if you don’t have a training partner or someone to help, there is a technique to doing this on your own.
To maintain tension you want to pull the bar off the rack using your back and lat muscles rather than pressing up and over the hooks. This allows you to keep your shoulders back and your shoulder blades tight together.
I’ve created this video to demonstrate the proper way to unrack the bar. The visual should make it easier to see exactly what technique you should use.
Most of the time when you have to ‘press’ the bar over the hooks, the shoulders also come forward, which makes it very hard to get back into position.
Bench Press With Proper Form: Ready to Bench
Proper Breathing
To remain stable throughout the press, it is important to utilize breathing to your advantage. Before you lower the bar, make sure that you take a big breath in and hold it. This can be done either before you unrack the bar or just after you unrack the bar before you begin to lower. This helps you create full-body tension as you bring the bar down to your chest.
There are also a couple of different ways to exhale and which one you use depends on your goals and experience. One way is to breathe out at the very top of each rep when the bar is stable, which allows you to take in another big breath before you lower the bar again. You can also slowly exhale through pursed lips as you press the bar up. If you are able and a little more advanced, I recommend holding your breath for several reps at a time.
Always remember to reset your breath at the top, never at the bottom of a rep!
Stay Tight and Pull the Bar to Your Chest
To stay tight through the whole movement you want to make sure that you continuously maintain activation of your lats, back muscles, abdominals, butt and quads. Keeping your abs, butt and quads tight is the easy part. Just squeeze them.
To maintain tightness on your lats and back, you want to visualize bending the bar apart and pulling it towards your chest. When you actively ‘bend’ the bar your elbows naturally stay in tight to the body, which is exactly what you want.
Do not let your elbows flare out to 90 degrees or perpendicular to your body. This is a quick way to shoulder impingement and bad shoulders. It also puts a great deal of stress right on the elbow joint. You want your elbows to remain tight at about a 45 degree angle. To control this, keep your lat muscles tight by squeezing under your armpits.
Always control the bar all the way down to your chest to ensure you are training proper mobility. Depending on your anatomy, the bar should end up somewhere between your sternum and your nipples. You want your forearms to be perpendicular to the ground at the bottom to allow for the best leverage when you begin to press.
Note: It is also very important to keep your head on the bench during the whole movement to protect your cervical spine. Often, those with poor shoulder mobility and weak neck muscles pop their head off the bench as they press. Avoid doing this and lower the weight to ensure proper form until you get it right.
Drive the Bar Up with Your Whole Body
Right before the bar touches your chest, start to drive back up using your whole body by transferring force through the ground. Just as you begin to push, dig your feet into the ground by pushing hard through your heels and driving your toes into the front of your shoe. You will instantly feel your quads, glutes and stomach tense up, providing you with more force as you press.
Keep pressing until you reach full lockout but remember to keep your shoulderblades tucked behind you and stop pressing before your shoulders come forward.
Eye Focus
You want to maintain eye focus at one point on the ceiling right above where you are pressing. Basically, you are watching where you want to push the bar to. This will allow you to stay focused and tight. Watching the bar as you press will throw off your stability because it is a moving object.
Now You’re Ready To Bench With Proper Form
I hope these technique tips not only help you push through some plateaus, but keep you injury free for many years down the road. Once you learn to press the right way, you can keep adding weight to the bar and set some new PRs!
Since everyone has different anatomy, there will be many variations in technique. Ask questions below and I will help you decide which is best for you!
Steve, great article as always. brought me back to the basics. I would like to see you do an article just like this one for a dumbbell press. Do you have an opinion about using the “supine” grip i think its called? Where at the top of your lift the pinkies are pointing inwards? Thank you for keeping up your site.
Thanks, Jay! I don’t recommend pressing with a supinated grip, especially for those with cranky shoulders as you may irritate the front of the joint in the bottom position. It may put undue stress on the elbows as well if loaded up to heavy.
If you are training for strength and size, stick to the regular grip.
With dumbbells, you can also press neutral (palms facing in) or somewhere between regular and neutral which provides a better path for your shoulders.
What about a press that rotates between the two positions? (Supine to regular) I tend to switch off between this and other variations as I feel like it helps (I’ve heard people mention “muscle confusion” but whatever it is it seems to help me bulk up).
Thoughts?
How do I determine the proper weight to press?
Hi Lori. Start light and keep working on technique until it feels right and progress to more weight! 🙂
Great article but this line didn’t make sense: “the bar should end up somewhere between your sternum and your nipples.” Do you mean the lower tip (xiphoid process) of the sternum?
Correct!
Great Article! However, how do you reduce wrist tension if using a Smith Machine, that requires the bar to be rotated?
I don’t recommend using a smith machine as it changes the natural path of the bar and will cause improper mechanics in the shoulders as well as the other joints such as your wrists.
Excellent article…I’ve been lifting for years and try to focus as much as possible on proper form, but for a long time I made the mistake of letting my elbows flare out close to 90 degrees. I thought that the proper tightening of my shoulders and lats was sufficient, but as suggested in the article I developed chronic DCO (osteolysis) in both collarbones and some amount of impingement / bursitis as well. To this day I can’t reach back behind my head without pain in my shoulders. I wish I’d come across something this straightforward and clear back when I started lifting, very well done.
I wish I knew about the elbow flair too. I’ve torn my labrum while benching unfortunately. I was able to rehab it and it’s fine now, but benching can be a very dangerous exercise when not done correctly. Thanks for leaving a comment, Jack and participating.
GREAT article. As a female, bench is one of those intimidating lifts, but you’ve explained it far better than I’ve ever been taught! Thank you for putting it all in such accessible terms!
Hey Carol, I’m glad it helped! Definitely let us know when you start benching and hit some personal bests!! I would love to hear about your progress 🙂
LOVE this! Awesome pics-I’m definitely sharing with my clients. Thank you 🙂
Happy to hear you enjoyed the article Catherine and thanks for sharing.
How far should I bring down the bar? I see some guys bringing it all the way down to the point it touches their chest.
The bar should touch your chest for a barbell bench press.
Another awesome Built Lean article – thanks Stephen! I’ve been lifting for many many moons, and I see quite a few errors I am prone to making. As a short female (5ft) I love the advice on using plates to place ones feet at a proper height off the ground. In the past I just put my feet up on the bench.
I do have a question for you – do you have an opinion on using a pysio ball as a bench? I don’t have a bench right now (long story) so I have been using a aerobic step (which is putting me a little too close to the ground) but I am pondering other options.
Argh, Physio ball 🙂
What is your opinion on arching your back as you press upwards. There are a lot of videos of “power lifters” who arch their backs as much as possible while pressing. As a college athlete, I was always told to have your back flat on the bench or SLIGHTLY arched throughout the lift. Thanks
Great question, Rick. Both a flat back or arched back can be effective, but the key is that if you arch your back, you don’t arch your back as you lift, you start with it arched, then end with it arched. For most people, I think a slight arch makes the most sense as it’s easier on the low back and allows for the core to be easily engaged. When I say a slight arch I mean the arch does not increase throughout the lift. If you want to learn a powerlifting bench press form, I recommend getting a session with a power lifter.