How much can you bench bro? That’s the most recurrent question being asked in a gym on international chest day. The bench press (or chest press), the strength exercise for the alpha male. From bodybuilders to powerlifters, the bench press is the exercise that is in every workout program. If you want to master the bench press, you better keep reading. 

Benching the bodyweight is every man’s dream. But it is so hard to do. Bench pressing your body weight takes slow and steady progression, but it’s a goal anyone can achieve.

The barbell bench press is a compound upper body exercise mainly focused on testing the strength of chest, shoulders and triceps. 

For powerlifters, it is known as one of the “big three” lifts which includes the squat, deadlift, and bench press.

If strength training is your goal, you should do the bench press with the barbell and leave the dumbbells away for the moment. So let’s get to work. 

The bench press set up 

Place the barbell not too high as you won’t be able to take it off the rack and replace it easily, you don’t want to feel like you are pushing your shoulders forward to unrack the bar as this will create more instability and it increases chances of shoulder injuries like impingements. 

When lying down, place yourself with your eyes directly under the barbell. If you go too far back you will hit the rack during the bench press, if you are too far forward you will not be able to unrack without a spotter, so keep that in mind especially if you train alone. 

How to grip during bench press

Now, let’s talk about grip. Your hands are the first point of contact with the weights, so it is important how and where you place them.

A simple rule of thumb I use is this, the wider you place your hands on the bar the more chest muscles you will engage and less the triceps. If you place your hands very close to the middle of the bar you will engage more your triceps and less the chest.

So when setting up for the lift, find the right position where you can generate the most strength from both the chest muscles and the triceps muscles. 

Also, make sure your grip is strong and consistent throughout the entire lift. Don’t let the bar move around in your hands as this can throw off your balance and compromise your strength.

To prevent that, grip the bar not only with your fingers and hands, but with your full forearm. Simply get your knuckles in line with your wrists when gripping the bar. 

Where to place your feet during the bench press

The next thing you want to focus on is your foot position. Make sure your feet are planted firmly on the ground, about shoulder-width apart. How far back should you place them?

It depends on your goal. If you are a powerlifter go as far back as you can so you reduce the range of motion and you can move more weight. If you are a bodybuilder you should increase range of motion so you can place your foot at 90 degree angle at the knee. I prefer to go somewhere in the middle. 

Drive your feet into the ground and push your body up towards the bar as you lift. This will help you create more stiffness and stabilise your entire body.

As you begin to lift the bar off the rack, make sure to keep your elbows tucked in close to your sides while descending. This will help you engage your chest muscles more effectively and lift more weight.

Now, once you lower the bar down to your chest, make sure to keep your elbows at a 45-degree angle while you push the barbell back up. This will help you engage your chest and triceps muscles more effectively, allowing you to move the weight faster. 

And finally, when you’re lifting the bar back up, focus on driving your feet into the ground and using your chest muscles to push the bar up. This will help you generate more power and lift more weight. That is called leg drive. 

Lockout during bench press

If you bench press and you can’t lock your elbows out, you really haven’t finished your rep. 

The last 20% of the lift is really important not only because that rep didn’t really happen, but also because it is really dangerous trying to re-rack the weight without a spotter. 

Not everyone is built to perform the traditional barbell bench press, so several variations have been created to ensure people can train this crucial movement pattern in a safe and comfortable way.

If you suffer from lockout issues you better take care of it using different barbell variations. 

Here you have a video with 10 different bench press assistance exercises that can help you to solve this issue

Struggling with stability and strength while bench pressing? 

If you bench press and the weight feels all over the place, you are not alone.

If you bench press twice a week and you still struggle to get to 70% of your body weight, you are not alone.

The simple truth is that the bench press is hard, and if not done correctly can cause a lot of damage. 

The dropping or crushing of weights on the chest can crack ribs and has even caused suffocation.

Repetitive incorrect form during bench press can cause rotator cuff injuries, I am sure you have heard of that. And in some extreme cases it has also caused back pain and you will see why. 

Let’s take a look at some quite scary numbers, among powerlifters 18% to 46% of the injuries during training are happening during bench press (that’s almost half of the injuries) and the most of the reasons provided are excessive overload or overuse.  

Let that sink for a moment, you have a 50% chance to get injured during a bench press. 

Let’s also look at some other figures, only 50% to 60% of male can bench their own body weight and that would put them just under intermediate levels. 

We as men tend to be very hard on ourself and we feel the pressure of THE question: How much do you bench bro? That makes you feel miles away from your goal and not only that. 

Once you answer you have possibly to prove that number no matter what and here is where things can go wrong. 

To keep you safe I am going to show you the most common “BRO” bench press mistakes that can cause serious injuries and how to avoid that to happen

Thumbless grip on bench press

This style of bench press grip has broken more ribs than Connor Mcgregor did. 

The only reason I see people love using this grip is because it looks cool. There is no real benefit on bench pressing like that. 

The hand cannot be fully squeezed, so the forearm cannot stabilise at its best and so the triceps cannot fire fully. It makes absolutely no sense to me. 

If that is you, try to make this change.

Grab the barbell using the lifeline of your hands and squeeze hard from the last three fingers. Once you get set to lift the weight off the rack this grip will create more torque making your wrists more stable. Move your hands slightly forward and this will turn on your forearm creating more transferable strength to your full arm. Now your triceps can fire at full capacity as your full arm is engaged. That means you lift more weight and you don’t get hurt.

Shoulders instability during bench press

When you bench press your shoulders are the base of the lift, the foundation of the movement. If your shoulders move out of position, so will the weight. And if that happens with repetition, it will cause some problems. 

One of the most common sites of injury during the bench press is the rotator cuff, a system of four muscles and the tendons that surround our main shoulder joint. Their function is to move the shoulders and stabilise the joint but the rotator cuff tendons are unfortunately the weak link in our shoulder and without appropriate build up and control, they can get inflamed or tear.

To stabilise your shoulders squeeze your blades together, think about hugging the bench with your shoulders, and pin them down. 

Now you need to learn how to move your arms without moving your shoulders from that position. Yes, that’s right, your shoulders stay as they are and they don’t move. You don’t want to press your shoulders forward to lift the weight. The bench press is almost an arms exercise and that is what people don’t get quiet right. 

When your shoulders are stable you can control the weight and move it where and when you can generate the most strength, that means you lift more weight and you don’t get hurt. 

Dancing feet during bench press

When I go to commercial gyms, I often see people shaking and lifting their legs while pushing the barbell back up. It looks like one of these shaman dances you see on the internet. 

What I also see is a lot of guys lifting the back and bottom up to generate more power during the lift.

Your upper body is working so hard to keep everything strong and stable that the last thing we need is something moving on the lower part. 

Your feet need to be planted on the ground and back so you can keep your legs tight and stable. Your legs are part of your strength building chain, something that boxers know very well. To get the most of them you need to learn how to use leg drive during the bench press. 

If you have heard of leg drive and you don’t know how to use it, take a look at this video here and watch a step by step guide on bench press.

Bench press conclusion

I have been injured a number of times doing the bench press and I understand how frustrating it can be to not be able to bench press heavy, and when the pain takes over, you actually feel hopeless. 

Spend a great deal of time on perfecting the technique, work on your grip, learn how to move your arms whilst keeping your shoulder pin back and down, practise the leg drive.

All these details will help you get to goal numbers. I hope you can now get the most of your bench press and if there is something that i have possibly missed, have a look at our bench press playlist