Many lifters suppose the bench press is all in regards to the pecs. However the pecs aren’t what you might want to set earlier than you unrack the bar. Your toes, legs, higher again, grip, and brace must be locked in. If a kind of is off, the bar path will get off observe, vitality leaks, and ugly reps occur.
Nobody’s bench will look the identical as a result of limb size, mobility, and coaching targets affect the setup. That’s regular. What doesn’t change are the ideas, steady toes, tight higher again, stacked joints, and a managed unrack. The guidelines beneath focuses on these particulars that each robust bench press shares. Right here, with the assistance of coach Matt Wenning, a former all-time world file holder in powerlifting who has benched 611 pound uncooked and maintained a 500-plus-pound bench press for over 26 consecutive years. We are going to each stroll you thru a seven-step guidelines earlier than you decrease the bar to your chest.
The Final Bench Press Setup Guidelines
I perceive we’re all in a rush and need to get to the good things sooner. However stopping, pausing, and going by these setup steps will maintain your press protected and powerful.
Step 1: Physique Place
Earlier than you grip the bar and even take into consideration urgent, you might want to personal your place on the bench. A powerful bench press begins with the way you place your physique, which supplies you a constant place to begin to your grip, arch, and unrack.
- Slide onto the bench so your eyes are immediately beneath or barely behind the bar
- Hold your head, higher again, and glutes in touch with the bench
Inside cue: Retract your shoulder blades arduous into the bench and take into consideration pulling them down towards your again pockets.
Exterior cue: Set your eyes immediately beneath the bar within the rack.
The Wenning Tip: The secret is getting your eyes beneath the barbell. Get that proper earlier than you grip it.
Step 2: Foot Place and Foot Drive
The legs are a main basis of the bench press. A steady decrease physique permits drive to switch from the ground, by the torso, and into the bar whereas counterbalancing the higher physique. Wenning treats leg drive as a technical talent — foot place and stress needs to be deliberate, constant, and locked in earlier than the unrack.
- Plant your toes firmly on the ground—flat or on the balls of the toes, relying on consolation and mobility.
- Place your toes barely outdoors hip width to enhance stability. Wenning explains there’s some extent to this base. “This wider base improves stability, permits extra constant leg drive, and makes it simpler to keep up pressure all through the press.”
- Drive your toes arduous into the ground with out lifting the glutes, however Wenning warns you to not go loopy. “Pull your toes again so far as your mobility permits — this creates pressure by the legs whereas inhibiting extreme hip rise.”
Inside cue: Push by your toes.
Exterior cue: Drive the ground away.
The Wenning Tip: In case your toes slide or your hips come off the bench, the rep is compromised. Cease the set, rerack the bar, and rebuild full-body pressure earlier than urgent once more.
Step 3: Rooting and Decrease-Physique Pressure
To press massive, you might want to flip your decrease physique right into a steady anchor. Rooting your toes and creating pressure by your legs and hips retains your torso stable and your bar path clear. This lower-body pressure is your counterbalance, permitting drive to journey from the ground, by your torso, and into the bar.
- Screw your toes into the ground by creating slight exterior rotation on the hips
- Hold regular stress by the foot
- Squeeze your glutes to lock your pelvis in place
Inside cue: Glutes tight, legs loaded. Exterior cue: Unfold the ground together with your toes.
The Wenning Tip: In case your knees collapse or your hips shift whereas urgent, you misplaced your root. Reset and rebuild pressure earlier than the following rep.
Step 4: Grip Width and Hand Place
Your grip units the tone. Get it unsuitable and your elbows flare, wrists hyperextend, and the shoulders take a success. Get it proper, and the bar strikes extra easily and safely. A agency grip turns in your forearms, lats, and higher again, creating full-body pressure earlier than the press.
- Take a fair grip on the bar; use the knurling or rings to match either side
- Set your arms simply outdoors shoulder width, however regulate based mostly on consolation
- Place the bar low within the palm, not up within the fingers
- Arms and wrists consistent with your elbows
Inside cue: Crush the bar in your arms.
Exterior cue: Bend the bar in half.
The Wenning Tip: In case your wrists bend again as quickly as you unrack, cease, rerack, and reset earlier than you press. Consider the grip like a punch—straight wrists, stacked joints, and full thumb contact. A thumbless grip is a weaker, much less steady place for heavy benching.
Step 5: Scapular Place and Higher-Again Pressure
Making a steady base together with your higher again earlier than you begin helps maintain the bar path on observe and shortens the vary of movement with out compromising rep high quality.
- Pull your shoulder blades down and again earlier than unracking
- Let your chest rise naturally from scapular pressure
- Consider your higher again as the first contact level with the bench
Inside cue: Pin your shoulder blades into your again pockets.
Exterior cue: Crush the bench together with your higher again.
The Wenning Tip: In case your shoulders roll ahead because the bar touches your chest, you’ve misplaced pressure. Reset the rep.
Step 6: Breathe and Brace
With no correct breath and brace, the rib cage flares, the arch collapses, and energy leaks earlier than the press even begins. Creating robust intra-abdominal stress stabilizes the backbone and retains your urgent mechanics constant from unrack to lockout.
- Take a deep 360-degree diaphragmatic breath
- Broaden your stomach, sides, and decrease again
- Brace your core as if making ready to take a punch
Inside cue: Fill the stomach with air.
Exterior cue: Push your abs into your belt.
The Wenning Tip: Benching with a belt may be efficient for a lot of lifters. Driving the abs into the belt will increase intra-abdominal stress, improves torso stability, and helps switch leg drive into the press with out shedding place.
Step 7: The Unrack
Should you press the bar out of the hooks or lose upper-back pressure throughout the handoff, you’re already at a drawback—a clear, unracked set-up positions you for a powerful press.
- Hold your arms straight.
- Pull the bar out of the rack—suppose pullover, not push.
- Information the bar right into a stacked place over your shoulders.
Inside cue: Arms lengthy, shoulders tight.
Exterior cue: Pull the bar out of the rack.
The Wenning Tip: Should you really feel your shoulders shift or your elbows bend throughout the unrack, cease and reset. A sloppy unrack locations the shoulders in a compromised place and will increase the chance of damage earlier than the rep even begins. A clear, unracked setup retains the joints stacked, the lats engaged, and the press protected and repeatable.
The Inexperienced Gentle Guidelines
Earlier than beginning, take one deep breath and run this ultimate system verify. It takes a second or two, but it surely ensures you begin from a place of energy.
- Ft rooted and driving into the ground
- Legs tight, knees pushed out
- Glutes engaged, hips on the bench
- Shoulder blades pinned, higher again locked in
- Grip tight and even, wrists stacked over elbows
- Brace stable, ribs down
- Bar stacked over shoulders
When every thing’s locked in, decrease the bar and drive it with energy. If not, the fixes are outlined beneath — reset, refine, and press the appropriate manner.
Frequent Setup Errors
Frequent bench press setup errors stem from poor place and a scarcity of pressure. Fixing these earlier than you unrack will do extra to your press than most accent work.
- Foot and Decrease Physique Place
Many lifters bench with their toes out of place, ignore them totally, or worse, place them on the bench — all of which remove leg drive and compromise full-body stability.
Repair: Plant each toes the place you may maintain contact with the ground with some heel stress. Suppose “arduous legs, quiet hips” as you drive your toes backward by the ground to create full‑physique pressure whereas protecting your glutes on the bench. - Not Setting Your Higher Again
Mendacity flat and free with the shoulder blades unfold quite than retracted and depressed is a non-starter. This free place disrupts bar path consistency and shifts extreme stress onto the anterior shoulders.
Repair: Earlier than you lie down, seize the bar and “pull” your self beneath it, then pinch your shoulder blades collectively and down towards your again pockets. Doing so creates a mild-to-moderate thoracic arch and a steady base to press from. - Grip, Wrist, and Elbow Place
Gripping too large, letting the bar sit up within the fingers, or benching with flared elbows are basic errors that beat up the shoulders and wrists.
Repair: Use a constant grip width (e.g., index on ring or center on ring) so the forearm is vertical. Place the bar low within the palm, near the heel of the hand, then wrap the thumb and crush the bar so the wrist stacks straight over the forearm as a substitute of hyperextending. - Rack And Unrack
Being set too far down the bench so it’s a must to “bench” the bar out of the hooks is one other frequent setup drawback. It’s a double whammy. You’re losing vitality and placing your anterior shoulder in danger.
Repair: Set the J‑hooks so the bar is simply excessive sufficient that you simply solely want a small elbow extension to clear them. Place your self so the bar is roughly over eye degree; unrack by pulling the bar out utilizing your lats, not by urgent it up and ahead out of the hooks.
