Barbell Bench Press Workout

Muscles Worked: Pectorals – A great workout for building mass, strength & power in the Chest Muscles.

Spotter Required: Yes (if you don’t have a spotter try benching in a power rack for safety)

Minimum Equipment required: Standard bench press with standard weights

The Best Equipment to Use: Olympic bench press with Olympic weights and a power rack if you don’t have a spotter.

Warming up: The barbell bench press is a compound exercise that will use a lot of energy. I recommend performing this exercise first in your chest workout, this of course means you will have to warm-up the chest muscles first. To warm-up perform at least 5 warm-up sets with around 30-60 seconds rest in between, for example:

Warm-up set 1: The bar only, for about 10-12 reps
Warm-up set 2: 60% of the weight you normally bench for 8 reps
Warm-up set 3: 75% of the weight you normally bench for 5 reps
Warm-up set 4: 85% of the weight you normally bench for 3 reps
Warm-up set 5: 95% of the weight you normally bench for 1 rep

How often should I perform this exercise: Barbell bench press is a great compound movement and should be performed with every chest workout to maintain overall strength, power and size of the chest muscles.

When should I perform this exercise: Barbell bench press uses a lot of energy, you won’t find any other chest workout uses the same energy, so make sure you perform the barbell bench press at the start of your chest workout, or at the very least the second exercise in your chest workout.

How to do the exercise: Laying on a flat bench with your feet firmly on the floor, arch your upper back so that your shoulder blades & lower back are on the bench and the middle of your back is off the bench, the best way to get your shoulder blades on the bench press is to stick your chest out.

The reason for doing this is to fully active the chest muscles and give your back a stable base on the bench, arching your upper back also helps avoid injury to your shoulders / rotator cuffs and gives you the most power for bench pressing. Finally the barbell does not have to move as far from the start to the end position, which means you will be able to handle more weight.

If you have been bench pressing with your back flat on the bench I’m sorry to say you have been doing it wrong! I’m not ashamed to admit I did it wrong for years, but thankfully through studying hundreds of articles, books etc I know how to perform the barbell bench with proper form.

Okay, holding the barbell with an overhand grip with a width so that when you are at the bottom of the movement (barbell touching your chest) your arms are at a 90 degree angle.

Begin to lift the barbell off the rack holding the barbell over your mid/lower chest, break at the elbows and begin to lower the bar towards your mid/lower chest, ensuring that your elbows remain under the barbell at all times and also making sure that your wrists don’t bend, as soon as your wrists bend you lose power from your chest and the weight becomes dangerous. Lower the barbell until it touches your chest and immediately lift the weight back to the start position without locking your elbows at the top.

Mentality: Form is of upmost importance with any exercise and especially compound movements such as the barbell bench press, because so many muscles are involved you have a greater chance of injury. Make sure you keep strict form throughout the movement and if you being to tire you can always lockout at the top position for 1-2 seconds, take a breath and carry on.

If you find that your wrist bends or you cannot lower the weight to your chest within the first few reps of the set then the weight is too heavy. If this happens more towards the end of your set don’t be alarmed, this is just fatigue setting in.

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