Bench Press Cues RSS

If I ever see anyone's feet moving or shifting while benching, it's a HUGE red flag   That's telling me that there is a disconnect with the tightness and drive they're creating!   If you're creating tension and pushing horizontally across the bench pad, there is no way you'd have the ability to move your foot or your entire position would collapse.   If you have the ability to move your foot, you're likely not creating near enough push with your legs, or your hips are putting weight on the pad   An important thing to note is that your...

Where the majority of lifters run into trouble is off the chest. A lot happens here that changes the course of your liftA few common faults are losing tightness at the very bottom and dump touching the bar, or trying to poorly and improperly time leg driveTightness at chest level is everything. If you sacrifice your positioning or control then you're likely going to make a costly error!If that bar path isn't spot on then you're going to run into issue or miss entirelyWhat I recommend is for lifters to practice pausing ALL bench pressing in their training. This is something...

How you get the bar from point A to point B is a very detailed step in the bench press! Especially as you work up in weight. A common mistake is simply pressing upwards to get the bar off the rackThe key component here is that we don't allow our shoulders to come out of position. This easily happens from unracking without a hand off or chasing the bar with a handoffThink of the unrack as a tricep extension out of the rack. The important element being that you're tight to the bar while it's still in the rack. This...

Ok, 100 lbs isn't guaranteed! But these two cues certainly helped me go from a 730 lb bench in April, to an 820 lb bench in September, and handling more in training!The first being an adjustment in set up. Since you become restricted by the bench shirt, I found it extremely advantageous to take a top down approachWhat I mean by that is after I'm fully set, to actually crawl my shoulders down towards my hips after the fact. So I'm setting my shoulders last which is the opposite of what I teach to raw lifters.This helped me work around...

Lowering the bar very slowly in the bench press is necessarily a huge issue. I'd rather an athlete stay under control of a bar rather than sacrifice control for speedHowever, lowering super slowly isn't necessarily optimal either. It creates more time under tension with the bar, and can lead to unnecessary burnoutIf you're someone who lowers the bar extremely slow, how can we pick up the pace?Create more control and engagement through the back!I share a few drills, exercises, and techniques to help with this✅ We specialize in helping our lifters simplify their lifting. See continuous progress and remain injury...