This Bench Press Fix is a Game-Changer
/Are you making this mistake on your bench press? Let’s fix it simply and quickly.
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Your Shoulders are DESTROYING Your Bench Press: Stop Doing THIS...
/Using your shoulders incorrectly in the bench press? Let's fix it quickly to add pounds to your bench.
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How to Bench Press: The Setup | STOP Doing This!
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The topic of setting up for and unracking the bench press is not a particularly exciting one, but it’s important, and today’s lifting error is one we see all too often - in both new and experienced lifters:
Quit being sloppy and undisciplined when setting up to bench.
Before You Unrack the Bar
When setting up to bench (i.e., before you lift the barbell off the hooks) everything that can be set up - everything that can be tight and correctly positioned - should be. You don’t want to be finishing this process (let alone starting this process) after you unrack the bar.
If you’re adjusting your grip, retracting your shoulder blades for the first time, setting your arch, driving with your legs, and/or adjusting your feet after you unrack the bar, you’re being preposterously inefficient. Also, as the bar gets heavier and heavier, it gets harder to do those things after you’ve unracked the bar (and are thus supporting a heavy weight over your shoulders), so do it before you unrack the bar.
The Top-Down Approach
Once you’re lying on the bench, here’s a quick checklist to run through before unracking the bar. It’s a top-down list, so you don’t need to remember it verbatim - simply remind yourself to start with your hands and work you way down to your feet (a bottom-up approach can work here as well):
1: Grip
The grip is slightly pronated, the bar is supported in the base of your palm, and you’re squeezing the bar tightly.
2: Shoulders
Your shoulders are pulled back and down.
3: Chest/Arch
You arch is up, i.e., your chest is up, and this position is supported by . . .
4: Legs
You are driving up the bench (i.e., toward your head) with your legs.
5: Stance
Your stance is roughly that of your squat stance (wider is fine). Admittedly, you hopefully already set your stance when you sat down on the bench.
Get all this taken care of before you unrack the bar, and you’ll have a better, stronger, and more efficient bench press (we’ll also cover the setup for the squat and press in articles that are coming up soon).
As always, we hope this helps you get stronger and live better.
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Diamond Grip for the Press and Bench Press
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(A Blast from the Past article originally posted on 02/11/22)
When learning to press or bench press, getting the correct grip can be tricky at first. A very common error is to take a grip that carries the bar back in the fingers (Figure 1).
Figure 1: This is no good.
Let’s fix this.
When we press or bench press, we’d like the barbell to be supported directly over the bones of the forearms, and to do this, we pronate our grip so that the bar sits on the heel of the palm. This provides for excellent force transfer between our arms and hands and the bar, whereas holding the bar back in the fingers with wrists in full extension creates a very weak and flimsy position.
Pronating your grip (Figure 2) simply means that you’re going to rotate your thumbs down toward your feet, and after that, you squeeze the bar tightly with your fingers (“crush the bar” is a good cue).
Figure 2: This . . . is much better.
With this said, new lifters sometimes screw up the pronation step, either rotating their hands the wrong way or spinning their hands on top of the bar (in the press). If this is you, take the “diamond grip” approach as shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3: The Diamond Grip approach
Step 1
Place your palms on the bar - palms will face the wall (not the floor) with thumbs below the bar and in contact with each other.
Step 2
Rotate your hands so that your index fingers are now in contact with each other (above the bar). The gap between your hands will make a diamond if you’ve done this correctly.
Step 3
Slide your hands away from each other until you reach the correct grip width - narrow for the press (about shoulder width) and about a hand-width wider than that for the bench press.
Step 4
Squeeze the bar tightly with your fingers.
Make a diamond with your hands and then slide your hands outward - it’s that simple.
We hope this helps you get stronger and live better!
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