Tips for International Bench Press Day tomorrow!

One thing that is ubiquitous in gym culture is that Monday is international bench press day. I’m not sure how or why this occurs, but each Monday, every twice-a-week jamoke is pumping their pectorals with the go-to upper body compound movement.

With that coming up tomorrow, I figured it would be appropriate to discuss the bench press. This topic has been analyzed and written about to death, but I just wanted to share a few quick tips that might lead to a better chest day tomorrow.

Going back about six months ago, I was diagnosed with ACJoint Osteolysis- essentially a wearing down of the AC joint resulting from repeated lifting of maximal loads and not enough rest time in between. So, after a few months off, I needed to rethink my entire routine, being more cognizant of movements that compromised my shoulder mobility or otherwise impinged my rotator cuff/AC joint.

It’s no secret that the bench press isn’t the most shoulder-friendly exercise. However, there are steps you can take to make it a hell of a lot easier on your joints. The first fundamental rule to constantly be mindful of is scapular retraction.  Your scapula- shoulderblade- has more to do with bench pressing than most people realize. It has more to do with most exercises actually, but that’s for another week.

When you lay down on the bench, your ass needs to be firmly on the pad, and your shoulders need to be dug in.  When lowering the bar to your chest, you want to think about your shoulderblades pinching together. I find that I am more comfortable and able to retract better if I incorporate a slight arch. You should be letting them retract as you lower the bar, then spreading them back out as you push up. Situations where you are lowering the weight to your chest and not moving your shoulderblades at all (they are, in fact, trapped under your body) lead to shoulder impingement and potential injury.

This actually leads in nicely to the second tip of the week, which is: use your lats. Every article I’ve ever read on benching says how huge lats are the best foundation for a huge bench, etc, etc… but never actually went over how to get the damn things to activate during a push movement.  Now that you’re concentrating on retracting your scapulae, it’s a lot easier to think about recruiting your lats to stabilize your bench and help explode at the bottom. This is not easy. A trick I use that has worked very well is- when you unrack your bar, don’t just let it fall to your chest. You want to PULL the bar towards your chest instead. You should think of your lats as a spring- as you lower the bar, you’re keeping them tight until the bottom where you’re releasing all of that energy. Pulling the bar towards your chest and thinking about scapular retraction will help to also recruit your lats into the bench press movement.

There are a million other factors to think about when benching. How wide of a grip? What do I do with my feet? Elbows? On and on and on. For now, I think these two quick tips, incorporated into your routine, can lead to a healthier bench.  They can also be incorporated into pushups as well!