Powerlifting - The Bench Press

In the first of three articles looking at the powerlifts - we are going to examine in detail the bench press and how to increase your poundages in this popular lift. Master this most powerful of upper body lifts and your bodybuilding progress will rocket.

A bench press, in it’s true competition form, can be best fully described as follows:

The lifter lays on the bench face up. Feet must be flat on the floor and throughout the lift the position of the lifters torso and legs should not change. Arching of the back is allowed so long as the arching takes place before the lift and during the course of the lift does not alter. Arching can perform an assistive function in that it draws the scapulae together, shortening the distance through which the bar must be pushed. The lifter takes an overhand grip on the bar that is slightly wider than shoulder width. Width of grip is optional and offers different benefits. A wide grip reduces the distance the bar has to travel and gives a greater stretch in the pectorals. A narrow grip involves the triceps more (only a benefit in those with strong triceps!) and some believe helps to generate more force out of the bottom position. There are rules on how wide the grip is allowed to be and an excessively wide grip will be failed.

Once set on a lifting position, the lifter can unrack the bar from above their head themselves, or have it lifted out for them by the spotters. Once the bar is released by the spotters the judges will instruct the lifter to commence the lift. From here the lifter lowers it to the lower chest. At this point the bar must rest on the lifter’s chest for an obvious pause or the lift will be failed. The bar must not sink further into the lifters chest after the pause. The lifter must then press the bar back up until the elbows lock out and hold it there until taken by the spotters. On the press up the extension of the arms must be even. The bar must also not fall back towards the chest at any time else the lift will be failed.

The Stretch Reflex

- this is an important term for powerlifters although not all of them are aware of it. When a muscle is stretched close to its maximum, it contracts forcefully - this is called the stretch reflex. For instance in the bench press, when the bar is lowered to the chest and then pressed out without a pause (i.e. not in competition) the initial burst of strength at the bottom of the lift comes from the strength reflex of both the pectoral and latissimus muscles.

In competition the stretch reflex is virtually negated by the pause that is required at the bottom of a bench press. The most successful bench pressers are those that learn to preserve the stretch reflex by keeping the muscles taught even during the pause. However, to compensate for the lack of stretch reflex that most lifters suffer in competition benching, a good training method is to set up a bench press in a power rack, with the racks set so that the bar stops just above the chest. From here press the weight to full extension, then lower, pause and repeat. By effectively benching without the negative part of the repetition you are lifting from a dead stop. This will develop dynamic strength in your pectoral muscle fibres and help to ‘teach’ the fibres to create explosive force after the pause in competition.

Another way to compensate for the lack of stretch reflex in competition is the ever more frequent use of bench shirts. These are extremely tight fitting, tough fabric shirts that force the lifters shoulders forward, and when the bar is lowered to the chest creates such a stretch in the material that the fabric has its own kind of stretch reflex that creates an initial momentum to get the bar off the lifters chest. The only problem with these shirts, besides that they are difficult to put on, is that many are getting so tight now that the users find it difficult to lower the bar to their chest and/or keep a long enough pause.

Negative Reps

A useful method of increasing strength on the bench press is to include negative reps in the training program. The muscles are capable of lifting more weight on the eccentric part of an exercise than on the concentric part. In bench pressing this means that a person can lower more weight to their chest than they can press from their chest to lockout. To help build overall strength in the lift, load the bar with more than you can press and have one or two spotters lift it out of the rack for you, then allow you to carefully, slowly lower the bar to your chest. They then pull the weight back up and repeat. Generally four repetitions is the most that you would want to do in a set of this exercise. Negative reps should only be used occasionally to shock the muscles into a little bit of growth.

Other training methods

Some of the more outlandish training methods that can be used to aid the bench press include the use of chains laid over each end of the bar or bungees wrapped around the bar and fixed to the rack to provide increasing resistance with height from the chest (this aids with lockout strength). More usual methods generally mean the use of ancilliary exercises for the chest, shoulders and triceps to improve overall upper body strength. Many lifters find triceps to be a weak point, hence they have difficulty locking the weight out. Others find that the shoulders cause them to fail a few inches above the chest. Identifying weak areas is the first place to start when trying to increase bench press strength. Once the weak point is established then perhaps an extra training day a week could be applied to that weak area (e.g. an extra day of training the shoulders).

A Typical Specialist Training Program For Increasing Bench Press

Perform Bench Press for the following number of sets and reps over a 12 week period

10 sets of 10 reps for two weeks
9 sets of 9 reps for two weeks
8 sets of 8 reps for two weeks
7 sets of 7 reps for two weeks
6 sets of 6 reps for two weeks
5 sets of 5 reps for two weeks

As the reps go down, increase the weights. Peform the workout once or twice a week depending on other training (e.g. squat and deadlift) and recovery abilities. If concentrating on bench press, do the workout twice if your body can handle it, if doing all three lifts only train bench once a week. Incorporate this bench sequence with the ancillary exercises as below.

Bench Press See Above
Incline Press 3 x 12
DB Flyes 3 x 12
Front DB Raises 3 x 8
Side DB Raises 3 x 8
Tricep Pressdowns 4 x 12-6

Once the twelve week program has finished, take a week off to allow the body to recover then start again. Some powerlifters prefer to train heavy all the time, rarely going over five reps, but this kind of rotation is the most successful method for most.

Weak Point Training

Shoulders - if shoulders are a weak point then drop the shoulder training from the bench day routine and have a seperate day for training shoulders. Include front barbell presses for anterior (front) and lateral (side) deltoids, front raises, side raises, and upright rows.

Triceps - if triceps are the weak point, then create an extra training day for this muscle group, whether on their own or with biceps or even shoulders or back. Do lying extensions (skull crushers), seated dumbbell extensions, close grip bench press and tricep cable pressdowns with a bar or rope.

June 17th, 2007