Bench Press Mastery By: Finley Mcgehee

https://www.muscleandstrength.com/exercises/barbell-bench-press.html

The bench press is looked at as the king lift in the gym. Whenever someone says how much do you lift, they are referring to the bench, most of the time. Benching is the key determination for upper body strength.

It is a chest exercise that also trains your triceps and a little shoulder. When people are doing it wrong, they will feel it just in their arms avoiding the purpose of the exercise. Benching takes a lot of time to perfect the form.

There are very many techniques to help prevent injuries. A lot of the time, people have a wide grip, which can cause shoulder and wrist injuries. People also go too narrow, mainly causing elbow issues and tricep pain. Once you correct this part by finding a grip that feels right for you, you're halfway there.

Example of Bad form below.

It's very misunderstood that just because your arms are in the right place does not mean they're right. What should we do with our legs? In order to optimize this lift, we need to engage our legs to give us more support pushing through are body.

When you use leg drive, you put your feet closer to you, arch your back, and push through into the ground, giving you more support and allowing you to push more weight up. This also decreases the chance of getting injured from the support you are putting through your entire body. 

Example of good form below.

There's a common misconception that arching your back a little is going to injure you. Well, that is a myth. When you arch your back, it engages your lats and back, giving you more power to push up the bar, decreasing the chance of injury.

I learned some of this from personal trainers, friends and some research I had done some information coming from body building and coaching tips these have helped me master my form and avoid injuries.

Next time you are hitting your chest, make sure you try the bench press and imply these tips; this could dramatically change your preference for what exercises you might do. Once you correctly fix your form, the bench is one of the most optimal exercises for strength training.

You can even implement these things in an incline or decline bench, which allows you to train all three parts of the chest: the lower, upper, and middle. These things will allow you to build a strong and defined chest while getting stronger and preventing injuries.

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