How to add 10kg to your bench in 20 minutes.

By popular demand. I have mentioned briefly on occasion to some mates about how to fix your bench and get the most out of it but it seems they all want the full story.

Ill dissect the bench down, analyzing each part individually from when you first touch the bar to when you rack it.

1.0  SETUP

The most important part of the bench happens before you even touch the bar. I cant stress enough how important setting up properly is.

1.1  ARCH + UPPER-BACK

The arch. You probably already do it, but you also probably do it wrong. What you want to do firstly, is lay on the bench and start to develop a rigid arch and squeeze your shoulder blades together. This is imperative. Make sure your arching as hard as you can and as much bodyweight is resting on your upper-back (traps) as possible.

Now there should be distinct gap between your ass and upper-back. For a test, somebody should be able to pass their hand cleanly through the gap made by the arch and the bench.This is step one in getting tight. Remember to keep those shoulder blades squeezed together as hard as possible.

1.1.1  BENEFITS OF ARCHING

Arching lifts your whole chest up, this in effect reduces the ROM needed for the bar to travel. So the bars path is shortened, that's the first advantage. Next, arching as aforementioned raises your chest, this engages the lower portion of  your pectorals (similar to a decline bench) which are actually the strongest part of your pec. Thirdly, arching reinforces whole-body tightness. I cannot emphasis how important keeping tight is.

1.1.2  BENEFITS OF THE UPPER-BACK

Your upper-back is the platform on which your will press off. Make sure you get as much weight as you can resting on your traps and into the bench. This will create a solid base. This is vital. Secondly, squeezing your shoulder blades together pull your whole arms back, further reducing the ROM of your arm. The hardest part is keeping your shoulder-blades (scapula's) squeezed together. By resting as much bodyweight on them as possible, you can keep them from moving, but this takes practice.

1.2 LEGS

Legs your thinking. What relevance do they have to the bench press? A lot. Make sure your legs are on the ground to begin with. Also make sure you can push into the ground with them, if you find you cannot, force your feet back towards your head with the heels raised and toes on the ground and think about wrapping your legs around the bench and squeezing your ass. This will tighten your lower-body by keeping it firmly grounded into the bench and provide the necessary foundation for leg-drive to occur. But more on that later.

2.0  UNRACKING

Such a simple thing, but here's how to do it properly. So assuming you have done all the above, and you are properly set up and now, grab the bar ready to unrack. Take a comfortable grip, "ring finger on the ring" is a good gauge on where you want to have your hands. Whatever  is comfortable. Remember your shoulder-blades are squeezed together, unracking like you normally would is going to make them come apart because your arms are fully stretched grabbing the bar. The key is so unrack with your lats. Squeeze your fucking lats and pull it out of the pins so its directly above your head. Try your absolute hardest not to lose tension in your upper-back, it takes practice that's all.

3.0  DESCENT

The descent is very important, at this point all you want to be focusing on is not losing  the tightness you have created so far.

3.1  SQUEEZING THE BAR!

Very, very important. Squeeze the fucking bar! I mean, literally squeeze your palms together as hard as physically possible. Not only that, think about pulling the bar apart, so your hands are squeezing the shit out of the bar and simultaneously trying to pull the bar apart. Why all the squeezing? Well, as you sit reading this, clench your hands and squeeze your fists as hard as possible. What happens to your whole body? Everything contracts. Same analogy with the bench. By squeezing you are FURTHER reinforcing the tightening of your entire body. By pulling the bar apart, you are engaging your triceps more.

3.2  WRIST ALIGNMENT AND TUCKING

As you now descend, your wrists must be IN-LINE with your hands and your forearm should be perpendicular to the ground. This will allow for the best power-transfer through the bones. Its also safer. Next is tucking the elbow. DO NOT flare them out beside you as you descend because you run the risk of your hyper-extending your rotator cuff and severely injuring yourself. Instead, tuck your elbows in beside your ribs as you come down. As you descend, do not go in a straight line. Lower the bar to about your sternum or even lower. Why? Because this is where you have the best leverages. AS SOON as you feel the bar touch your shirt or skin, FUCKING PRESS like your life depends on it.

4.0  PRESSING

The next most important part of the bench is actually the press. There is alot to cover here.

4.1  MENTAL PROCESSES
What I mean here is what you are thinking. When pressing you should not be thinking about pushing the bar away from you, but rather, pushing your self into the bench (and through the floor). Of course, this is physically impossible, but it gives you the right frame of mind needed to press as hard as you can.

4.2  BREATHING

Breathing is not as important on the bench as it is on the squat and deadlift but it can help if done right. What your going for is the Valsalva Maneuver, which is pretty much taking a huge gulp of breath and holding it in your stomach, while pushing your abs . This creates IAP (Intra-Abdominal Pressure). This technique has a much more pronounced effect in the squat and deadlift (where is pretty much invaluable) but it can still help you keep your mid-section tight and your abs flexed. 

 4.3  LEG DRIVE

I mentioned this briefly before but this is also important. With your legs already in the positioned I mentioned in 1.2, think about pushing you feet into the ground. This will add stability to your lift and provide more power.

4.4  PRESSING WITH SUPER-COMPENSATORY ACCELERATION

What does super-compensatory acceleration mean? It means pressing the bar by overcompensating for acceleration. In other words - AS FAST AS YOU FUCKING CAN. Why so fast? Because Force = Mass x Acceleration. What we are looking for here is maximal force output, this can only be achieved by pressing as fast as you possibly can. This is very important.

4.5  PRESSING IN A "J" FASHION
Remember when I said to tuck and lower the bar to at least your sternum? Yep, well now we must press in a fashion that will exploit this position to our advantage. The key is to press in a backwards diagonal movement, then straight up. So pretty much  a "j", if you can imagine that. The diagonal angle backwards you press in will reflect how low you brought the bar down initially. People with longer arms will find it harder to tuck and therefore will not lower the bar as low as someone with short arms.

So that's about it. Finish the lift like a hero or go for reps whatever. It's alot to remember but keep doing mental checks in your brain at every stage of the lift and eventually it will become innate. So incorporate all this in your bench technique and expect to add anywhere from 5-10kg to your bench in about half an hour tops. I had a mate take his 3RM of 92.5kg to 105kg just by tweaking his technique as elucidated by this write-up.  Neemz.