Bench Press & the Biggest Mistake You’re Making
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You’re missing out on something big when it comes to your bench press, so let’s identify it and fix it real quick.
The Error
You’re set up to bench - you’ve got your stance at roughly squat width, you're driving with your legs for stability and to support your arch, you’ve got the barbell positioned in the base of the palms over the bones of your forearms, and you’ve established a stationary focal point on the ceiling.
What could you possibly be missing?
Shoulder retraction.
Why It’s Important
The bar is balanced over your shoulders, so you want as strong, stable, and safe of a platform as possible from which to bench. With this in mind, you want your shoulders pulled back into retraction. Specifically, you want them pulled back and down (i.e., toward your butt), but if you’re driving hard with your legs to support your arch while simultaneously lifting your chest, you’re already taking care of the down aspect.
You pull them back to create a wider base of support on the bench, i.e., so it’s not just the middle of your back in contact with the bench. You also pull them back to help reduce any chance of impingement when benching.
Note the height of the barbell (compared to the exit sign in the background) when mike sets up poorly (left) vs when he correctly retracts his shoulders (right).
Additionally, you pull them back to slightly reduce the range of motion on the bench press. This isn’t cheating, by the way; instead, it’s reinforcing a stable and correct range of motion as compared to the unstable and incorrect range of motion created by protracted shoulders.
Locking out the bench press on protracted shoulders is like locking out your squat standing up on your toes. Sure, it’s a longer range of motion, but it’s not stable, and it’s also idiotic. Benching with retracted shoulders is analogous to squatting with your feet firmly anchored to the floor.
What to Do
When setting up to bench, cue yourself to pull your shoulders back. Try to keep them pulled back when unracking the bar, but if they slip out of position slightly, make sure to re-retract them before starting your first rep.
When locking out a rep at the top, keep your shoulders pulled back. If you notice the outsides of your shoulders “jumping” up off the bench slightly when you finish a rep (watch yourself on video), cue yourself to “finish deliberately” or “lock out with control” as opposed to locking out aggressively.
You can also cue yourself to “lock it out with short arms” or try to lock out the bench press with the barbell as close to your chest as possible. This drives home the idea that, although your elbows are obviously straight at lockout, your shoulders should be pulled back so that the bar isn’t any further away from your chest than necessary.
Pull your shoulders back, keep them back, and as always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
-Phil
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