The bench press story began in 1899 with a powerful man and wrestler named George Hackenschmidt.
Also known as the “Russian Lion”, Hackenschmidt is best known for inventing new exercises to help him prepare for wrestling matches.
One of these exercises involved entering a position known as the “gladiator bridge,” then grasping the iron bar and pressing it against his chest.
He modified the exercise slightly so that he was lying flat on his back instead of his neck (ouch), then proceeded to squeeze 362 pounds – a record that lasted for 18 years.
Sooner or later, someone decides to lie on a bench with an iron bar hanging on top pins, and viola, the modern bench press machine is born.
What most people refer to as bench press is technically Bench press flatThere are also many variations worth learning which include dumbbells, reclining seats, and machines.
Most people also think that the bench press only trains your chest. While it is an excellent chest workout, the truth is that when done correctly, it trains nearly every muscle in your body except for your legs, calves, and glutes.
Press bench benefits
The bench press is one of the best exercises for building nearly every major muscle in your upper body, if you do it right.
Specifically, the bench press machine is developing. . .
- Pectoralis major and minor
- Triceps
- Deltoid
- Latissimus dorsi
- swing
- Forearms
The stronger you are, the more you need to rely on other muscle groups to help stabilize your body, and the more you become a full-body workout.
How to properly lift the bench
To perform this exercise properly, you’ll need a dedicated bench press station (most of them) or a padded seat and rack squat. Here’s what a bench press station looks like:
Step 1: setup
First, lie on the seat and adjust your body so that your eyes are below the bar.
Next, lift your chest up and squeeze your shoulder blades together. A good sign for that is to consider pulling your shoulder blades into your back pockets, as follows:
Hold the tape with your hands a little wider than shoulder width apart, about 22 to 28 inches, depending on your machine.
Anchor your feet shoulder-width apart on the floor, arch your back slightly, and separate the tape by locking your elbows to push the tape off the hooks.
With your arms closed, move the tape horizontally until it is directly above your shoulders.
The second step: get off
Keeping your elbows folded and in place, lower the tape to the bottom of your chest, above your nipples. The tape should move in a straight line down, not toward your face or belly button.
As soon as the tape hits your chest (TouchedUnconverted, you’re ready to go up.
Step 3: go up
Keeping your shoulder blades down and compressed, your elbows folded, your lower back slightly arched, your backside on the bench, and your feet on the floor, push the bar to remove it from your chest.
The bar should go up with a slightly sloping path, moving toward your shoulders, and finishing where you started: With the bar directly above your shoulders, it’s naturally more balanced.
Bench Press Tips
Tip 1: Keep your elbows at a 50-60 degree angle
You want your elbows to remain at an angle of 50 to 60 degrees relative to your torso throughout the entire movement. This protects your shoulders from injury and is a steady, firm position to press on.
Second tip: keep your feet firmly on the ground
An easy way to do this is to push your knees out to the sides and push your heels to the floor while pushing the bar away from your chest. A common mistake is letting your knees swing inward or elevating your feet during the last few reps, which reduces tension in your upper body and makes it difficult to finish your set.
Tip 3: Don’t strain your wrists
Place the tape on the bottom of your hands, close to your wrists than your fingers, and press it as hard as you can. Your wrists should be bent enough to allow the penis to rest at the base of your palm, but don’t fold back at a 90-degree angle, like this:
Tip 4: Use a full grip (wrap your thumb around the tape)
Do not use a “thumbless” or “suicide” grip (as it’s aptly called) where your thumb rests next to your index fingers instead of wrapping around the bar. The reason for this is clear: When you get heavy, it’s surprisingly easy for the iron to slip off your hands and crash onto your chest, or worse, down your throat.
Tip 5: Arch your back properly
You don’t want your back to be flat against the seat and you don’t want it arched to the point that your butt floats on top of it. Instead, you want to maintain the natural arch that occurs when you push your chest out and your legs apart.
Seat press variations
Figure 1: Close-Grip Barrel Grip Exercise
When you tighten your grip on the bar, you are putting a little more load on the triceps and a little less on your chest.
The near-handle grip press is just a regular push-up exercise performed with your hands shoulder width apart, or about 2 to 3 inches closer than your regular grip. Other than a grip adjustment, the recline must be performed exactly the same way as the bench press exercise.
Figure 2: The dumbbell press exercise
The dumbbell press is similar to the bench press, except that you press one dumbbell in each hand instead of the barbell.
The two main benefits of dumbbell bench press are that it allows you to increase the range of motion beyond the standard bench press and use whatever wrist position feels most comfortable for you.
Figure 3: Seat Lift Exercise
The incline bench press works exactly the same way the bench press workout, except that you lie on an incline bench instead of a flat bench.
When doing an oblique bench press, the seat tilt angle should be 30 to 45 degrees. The basic setting and movement of the oblique bench press is exactly the same as you learned it in a regular bench press, with a slight exception: the bar must pass next to the chin and touch just below the collarbones to allow for a vertical bar path.
Figure 4: Barbell counter-grip push-up
In terms of that, the Rear Seat Crushing Device resembles a grip and tilt handle Confirms The top of your chest muscle.
To do the reverse seat press, flip your fist on the bar (with your palm facing you). Hold the tape so that it crosses your palm diagonally, from the base of your index finger to the opposite edge of your wrist.
Figure 5: Bench Press rejection
The bench press machine is very popular among some people but I’m not a fan of it. Thanks to its low range of motion, it is less effective than inclined and flat presses.
A common argument for making an incline press is to work on the lower part of the main chest, but there isn’t a lot of evidence that you need to specifically train the “lower” portion of the chest muscles (which was actually trained during a flat bench press).
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