Bench Press Essentials

By Scott Milne

Long time no see Cygen Nation. In the coming weeks, IFBB Pro Bodybuilding, and Cygen Athlete Scott Milne will be posting blog entries here, giving you tips on how to properly perform certain essential exercises in the gym, to get the best muscle building bang for your buck. So sit back and enjoy the ride as Scott Milne turns you into a full fledged beast!

Without ever meeting you, I can guarantee that the bench press was either the first or second exercise you ever performed in the gym (you did curls 4 days a week didn’t you?). It’s the exercise that everyone likes to brag about to their friends (how much ya’ bench?). But in building a well developed chest, bigger weights don’t always translate into better results. What’s more important in the grand scheme are things like form, time under tension, which angle(s) you hit the muscle from, and adhering to specific cues that are going to make the muscle grow bigger, and not just stronger. Here’s a list of some tips I like to use to make sure I’m able to stimulate the most growth possible when hitting the bench press.

We’ll start with the Flat Barbell Bench Press:

• When grabbing the bar, you want to put your hands at a width that allows your elbows to be at a 90 degree angle when you are at the bottom portion of the movement. Grab it too wide, and the tension is shifted to the shoulders, grab it too narrow and the tension is shifted to the triceps. The wider your upper body, the wider grip you’ll need.

• I like to use a false grip (thumb open, under the bar), which helps keep my wrists locked, but for safety reasons, I recommend that beginners use a full grip (thumb wrapped around the bar).

• Before unracking the bar, ensure that your scapula (shoulder blades) are retracted and pulled back into the bench. This will engage your lats, and allow you to have a more stable base when lying on the bench.

• Once you’ve unracked the weight, make sure to move it out over your chest where you intend to bring it down. Too many beginners bring the bar straight down from the rack, and this results in moving the bar on a diagonal plane, which makes the subsequent reps more difficult.

• Bring the bar down to the mid chest at a slow, controlled tempo (about 2-3 seconds down). Many people bring the bar down to the lower pec, or upper abdominals and “bounce” the bar. This is great for inflating your ego, but it takes tension off the pecs.

• To bring the bar back up, initiate the movement by squeezing the pecs, and contract hard at the top of the movement.

• Lastly, don’t lock the elbows out at the top. By stopping the movement just before lock-out, this keeps the tension on the pecs, and better stimulates growth to the muscle, which is what we’re shooting for.

Here are some videos to demonstrate:



The second video is a different angle of me performing the Incline Bench Press. Most of the cues are the same, but there are a few variations:

• Bring the bar down closer to the top of your chest. This will better isolate the upper portion of the pec, which is the purpose of pressing from an incline in the first place.

• Unlike the flat bench, there is no need to bring the bar all the way down to touch the chest, especially if you have shoulder issues. Because of the angle of the bench, bringing the bar all the way down can put the shoulder into a compromising position.

• Press the feet firmly into the floor, and try to limit the amount of arch in your lower back. Many people will end up with a severe arch during an incline press to try and muscle up more weight, which makes the movement more like a flat bench press.



I hope these tips have been helpful for you, and I encourage you to give them a try the next time you plan to hit the bench press.

If you've got any questions on the tips or the videos, post them here, or on our Cygen Facebook page.

Till Next Time,

Scott Milne