How to increase your bench press?

Author: Timko Ilya - master of the whole project and fitness trainer.
2012-11-23

Many, or rather almost everyone, eventually starts complaining that their bench press isn't improving. Let's break down the most common reasons for stagnation in this exercise.

Reasons for Stagnation

1. Too Many Chest Exercises

The chest muscles are the primary working muscles during the bench press. If you don't allow them to recover, their strength won't grow. Consequently, results in the bench press won't improve either.

Many people do 4 to 5 exercises per week for their chest, training it two or even three times a week. This is too much. My experience shows that the maximum number of chest exercises should be 3 per week. Often, two is quite enough.

2. Insufficient Lower Body Exercises

The reality is that results in the bench press are very sensitive to the athlete's body weight. Increasing your body weight will inevitably lead to an increase in your bench press. With the right approach, every 5 kg of body weight gives +10 to 15 kg in the bench press.

Therefore, it is very important to train your legs, glutes, and back. Because muscle mass growth greatly depends on these muscle groups. As funny as it may sound: If you want to bench a lot, train your legs!

3. Pressing to Failure in Every Workout

Don't try to make each set a maximum number of repetitions. This is a sure path to overtraining and incomplete muscle recovery. Plan your heavy and light bench workouts so that you don’t do more than 2 consecutive light or heavy sessions.

For example, this week, bench for 10 repetitions with the maximum possible weight. And next week, bench for 3 to 4 repetitions. But with a weight that leaves you with one more repetition in reserve. Read more about this in the articles How to adjust the number of repetitions throughout a training program and Principles of changing weights of equipment.

Methods to Increase Bench Press

1. Negative Reps

Negative reps involve taking a weight that's 10% to 20% more than your maximum and slowly lowering it to your chest. The slower, the better. Naturally, assistants will lift the barbell for you.

I advise against doing more than 3 repetitions per set this way. Also, you don't need to do too many sets. Usually, this exercise is done immediately after the main bench press, with 1 to 2 sets of 1 to 2 repetitions.

2. Elevated Push-Ups

This is a variation of push-ups from the floor. The difference is that your hands and feet are on platforms. This allows you to go lower than if you were just doing push-ups from the floor. This exercise mimics the bench press as if you could lower the barbell even further than your chest. If you want this exercise to help you the most in your bench press, you should place your hands shoulder-width apart as in the bench press and do push-ups with a heavier weight for 6 to 10 repetitions. This way, you can significantly strengthen the initial phase of the press (removing the bar from your chest).

3. Paused Press on Chest

This technique also helps strengthen the initial phase of the press. Here, I mean a pause of not one second (as in competition) but a longer one (2 to 5 seconds). Naturally, this exercise should be done with a weight that is 15% to 20% less than your working weight, and it should be performed for 1 to 4 repetitions. This approach will better develop not only the explosive qualities of the muscles but also their strength.

4. Take a Break from the Bench Press Sometimes

You cannot perform a single exercise without a break for a long time (around a year). This leads to muscle habituation and increasingly weaker responses to loads. I recommend taking 2 to 3 months a year off from the bench press. This doesn’t mean you can’t work your chest at all. Replace this exercise with similar ones.

For example, try:

By the way, this applies to all exercises, not just the bench press.

It turned out to be a lengthy article. But I tried to condense it as much as possible. If you liked it, share it with your friends and subscribe for updates. Good luck!