In every gym you visit, you always see a lot of guys hovering around the bench press. The bench press lets you know where you belong in the gym: if your a strong guy, weak guy, or just an average guy. The more you lift, the more friends you have at the gym and the bigger the audience is watching you. To have a monster bench press you not only need to work on your chest, you also need to make sure your form is correct.
Top 5 Easy Ways to Increase your Bench Press:
1. Flat Bench Press: This is where your strength is measured and tells you what your one-rep maximum pressing weight should be. On the bench press you need to make sure you are lying flat, your feet flat on the floor, and your hands slightly more than shoulder width apart (there is usually a line on the bar where you rest your pinkies). When performing a rep, make sure to keep your back flat and your glutes tight. When lowering the bar to your chest, you need to inhale. Once the bar touches your chest, you need to explode up exhaling. When you're performing a rep, you need only a slight arch in your back when lowering the bar down, then once it hits your chest, press your back against the bench and explode up. There are many variations of bench pressing; you can use narrow grip, wide grip, and also make sure to get some incline and decline benching in.
2. Dumbbell Press: You need to use dumbbells in your routines to make sure to work the accessory muscles involved in your bench press that aren't normally worked using just a barbell. When doing these, lie on the bench and hold the dumbbells with an overhand grip. When coming down, inhale while lowering them to chest level, then push exhaling and bring them together at the top. I prefer to do these on the incline bench after the flat bench press.
3. Cable Flys: You perform this on the machine and you can choose either the top setting, bottom setting, or the middle setting. You need to go forward with the cables in your hands with one leg slightly in front of the other one and your elbows slightly bent. Pull the cables in front of you until your hands touch while exhaling. Return to slightly in front of your shoulders, making sure not to let the cables jerk your arms back too far. This is a great chest exercise that will really get your chest burning. You can also perform this with dumbbells on a flat bench, incline, or decline bench.
4. Parallel Bar Dips: Some gyms have the right machine for this and some don't; you just have to find something that has two bars going out about shoulder width apart. Inhale while you bend your elbows until they form a ninety degree angle. Then push up to starting position. This exercise will really help explode your triceps, which will come in handy when trying to increase your bench press. You'll want to work on your triceps at the same time as bench because they are a big part of having a big bench press. You can check out my previous blog for the five best triceps exercises.
5. Push-ups: Last but not least, the regular push-up will always help with your bench press, and this exercise can be performed anywhere at anytime. All you have to do is lie with your arms shoulder width apart and your feet together. Bend your elbows and bring your torso toward the floor touching your nose to the floor then exhale pushing your way back up. You can make this exercise more challenging by adding a weight plate on your back or getting a friend to sit on you while doing it. Also you can move your hands more inward to focus on your triceps or further out to work on your outer chest.
Try these exercises to increase your bench press easily. Remember, nothing will come easy or quick so you have to work on it. You need adequate protein each and every day to help your chest develop and repair and also enough sleep each and every night. To increase the amount of weight you bench press, you need to do heavier weight for fewer reps. You can do about six to eight reps per set to get maximum strength.
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