Be a Bench Press Champ

Do you want to learn how to easily bench press more? Well, you’re in luck, because in this post, I’ll be going over 4 bench pressing techniques that are underused. And if you take advantage of them, you can instantly lift more weight than before.

So let’s dive straight into the first technique…

Train strategically

You see, the bench press uses much more than just your chest. Your chest, triceps, shoulder, lats, and back are involved in the exercise. So to progress quickly on the bench, make sure you’re training your other muscles that are also used on the bench. When it comes to arms day, don’t load up the curling bar. Instead, you should do dips and general tricep exercises. Then train the rest of your arm muscles. Because when you walk into the gym, you’re fresh and ready to go. And that’s when you should prioritize certain muscles. When you do back day, make sure to train your lats first, this way you would have gotten the most out of your back day.

Training smart and strategically is something that’s missed by a lot of gym goers. Instead, what they do is load up as many plates as possible and lift with bad form.

Eat well the night before your chest day

You see, people often think that the day before they lift, it won’t affect their performance in the gym. This is a huge mistake and one that I’ve made. Don’t drink the night before is the most obvious thing to do. But there’s a lot more to it. You see, if you eat sugary and fatty foods the night before, you’ll notice it the next day. You’ll feel like crap and really tired. This will hinder your progress on the bench.

Make sure you’re eating plenty of complex carbohydrates like oats to help fuel your muscles. The next day, don’t go straight to the gym after you wake up. Instead, have a good breakfast and give it a few hours before you lift. This way, you’re giving you’re body time to wake up and keep fueling those muscles. I personally found this to be an extremely effective way for me to lift more and for longer in the gym.

Use your thumb when holding the bar

Maybe this is obvious to you or maybe it’s not. Either way, it blows my mind how many people I see not engaging their thumb when benching. Instead, they just use the palm of their hand and wrap their fingers around the bar, completely forgetting about their thumb.

Here’s the deal, when I first found out that engaging your thumb with the bar will increase your lift, I thought it was complete and utter rubbish. However, the next chest session I gave it a try and I instantly lifted more weight. When you’re not engaging your thumb, I call it the death grip, because you’re literally killing your benching gains.

After you’ve engaged your thumb on the bar, you want to squeeze the bar as hard as you can. Why? Because you’ll be recruiting more muscle fibres. Try this if you don’t believe me… squeeze your bicep without closing your fist. Now, I want you to squeeze your bicep whilst closing your fist. With your fist closed, you would have made a stronger bicep. The same applies to your bench press. Squeeze the bar to recruit more muscle fibres to increase power.

Use your feet properly

It completely blows my mind when I see people lift their feet off the ground when benching. What goes through my mind is, what the hell are you thinking? If you want to bench properly, keep your feet on the ground. Yes, you can lift your heels or your toes up, but make sure you keep your feet on the ground. When you lift them up, you lose a lot of power and control. This is something that’s overlooked but can massively impact your bench.

Conclusion

So those were 4 bench pressing techniques that are underused. When I started implementing these techniques, I instantly increased my bench. You can find more bench pressing techniques at BodyBuildingNuts.com.

Bio: My name’s John and I’m a gym enthusiast. I enjoy researching about exercising, nutrition, and overall health.