Ok guys, buckle in…this is going to be a bit of a long and heady post but it is one that I really want you to pay close attention to. Our primary focus is, as the title suggests, on Bench Presses but in detailing the problems with Bench Press form and the form of common place lifts in general there is a larger issue I hope to point out — the complicated scientific nature of lifting.

Well I have seen what counts for music, movies and reporting these days and Mehdi is a fitness guru so I guess we can consider these clowns scientists.

I can hear you already groaning that I am going to try to jury rig a phony bologna pop science lesson into lifting to bolster its credibility and seriousness, but I promise you I am not. Unlike nonsense pop scientists like Neil De Grasse Tyson, Bill Nye, Giorgio Tsoukalos and all the doctors and researches pharma companies and wealthy businessmen are paying right now we are going to get into the real hard science of motion as laid out by Issac Newton and how it relates to the bench press, to lifts in general and finally to an underpinning understanding of what is going on at the heart of Bodybuilding.

So let’s start at the beginning: What is a Bench Press and why is it that roughly 80% of the people in gyms fuck it up?

Simply put, a bench press is a weight training exercise where the trainee presses weight upward while

Don’t be fooled into thinking it is simple. Forget what you know and let’s learn something

lying on a weight training bench engaging the pectoralis major, the anterior deltoids and the triceps along with the supporting stabilizer muscles. So, as for part B of this question, why it is so commonly messed up….well that is easily answered. Lifts like the squat or deadlift or military press — we need to learn them. And so, before feeling comfortable in a gym doing them we watch videos, read articles and even consult trainers or friends who lift. We know we don’t know how to Squat properly the first day we walk into the gym. How could we? And so we begin what turns out to be a lift long process of constantly tweaking and adjusting the form of that lift. It is different with the bench press.

Since we were children we have been doing certain lifts…most

Where most people’s form training on the bench press started and ended

notably curls, pushups and bench presses. They are intuitively understandable. Maybe we laid on our back and just pressed a basketball up and down. Maybe we pressed our little sisters to show off. Maybe we actually had some weights or some bands or did it in gym class or whatever, but you know we did it…we all did. You lay on your back. Hold someone over your chest with your hands roughly at shoulder length and press that thing up then once up we bring it back down to our chest. All this we learned before we even knew what it was or that people did it professionally. So let’s delve into the bench press and see if we can understand the science behind what is going on when we preform this lift, the goals we have for performing it and how we can tweak our form to better attain those goals.

The bench press, like most all lifts, is a product of force. What is force? Force is Mass times Acceleration which is calculated in Newtons named for its inventor. Keep Newton in mind. That mother fucker had to quarantine during a real pandemic and instead of just getting fat and drunk he sat around and invented calculus so maybe he was kinda bright and we should see what he has to say. One Newton of force is the force that it takes to accelerate a single kilogram of mass in a linear motion at a rate of 1m/sec^2.  The force of gravity will move an object (which is close to the earth) towards the earth at a rate of 9.8m/sec^2–This is the speed the bar would come crashing down to your chest if you just let go.

Now that we have covered acceleration lets look at mass. The mass is the weight of the bar in your hand. So if you have 330 on the bar (I round for sake of easy math) the mass component is 150kg and so the bar is exerting a force onto your body through your hands of 150kg x 9.8m/sec2 otherwise known as a force of 1470N. So, in order to push the bar off your chest from the starting position of a bench press you are going to need to generate < 1470N.

So what we have at the starting position of the bench press (and don’t worry we will get into form and how to get into the starting position shortly) is a bar (or possibly dumbbells) applying downward linear force through your hands, wrists, elbows, triceps, pectorals and delts in different ratios depending on how well we hold the bar and get into proper form. It is in the contraction of the muscles that you then generate the force to press against the downward force pulling the weight towards the earth such that you can press it up to the top position of the lift.

You can not really change anything about your joints….can’t make elbows stronger….but what you can do is increase your contractile force … what we wind up calling strength…which has the added benefit of building the muscle harder, larger, defined and more aesthetically pleasing.

What we will need to do is have three things working in congress together. First there is shoulder flexion which has to do with the distance of the bar in front of the shoulder joint. The further in front of the joint the bar is the harder it is to lift for your front delts and also your pectoral muscles.

Then we have horizontal shoulder flexion which has to do with the width of the grip. The wider your grip the greater the lateral distance between your hand and shoulder. The wider the grip the more force is disbursed through the pectorals (which is why close grip bench presses are used for triceps growth).

Speaking of triceps, triceps are the muscles that extend your elbows. The make up roughly 66% of your entire arm strength as they contain 3 muscle heads whereas the biceps only contain two. This is why, by the way, workout programs put roughly 30% more work into tricep development than bicep development — it helps maintain symmetry on the two sides of the arm. Because of the lateral nature of the force during the bench press the triceps aid the pectoral muscles in generating the necessary force for the lift. This is why many of my programs will have pre-exhaustion of the triceps before the bench presses….leaving them weakened by the workout and less able to help the pectorals encouraging a much more focused pectoral workout and subsequent strengthening and growth. Every want to try it out, go take a dumbbell and do about 100 seated triceps extensions and then immediately get on a bench and try to bench about 50% of your normal working set and see just how fired up your pecs get.

So with all that information, lets get to actually doing the benchpress. You want to lay down on your bench and set the hooks to the right height. The height is determined by your arm length. The key point here is that you should be able to unhook the weight from the bar with two inches or less movement.

Now pull together your scapulae as if you are trying to pinch a pencil between your shoulder blades which will push the chest up and reduce the range of motion putting you in a safer position for your shoulders and rotator cuffs. Remember your rotators and your shoulder joints can not be made stronger, only weaker.

The next is body tightness and getting your arch. With your shoulder blades together you tighten your body. Every part of your body should be tight as a fucking drum. You  may not be about to break a world record in bench press but every single lift should be treated as if you are. As for your arch, yes you should have an arch in your back. Now look, we have all seen it right….videos and likely at the gym….those extreme arches. Many people, myself included, have at one point wondered if these double jointed freaks of nature are onto something that I should be learning how to do….no, they aren’t….they are just fucking ridiculous and lifters in our position can’t afford to be arching our back ridiculous. So fuck them and lets just leave that there. How much of an arch should you have? Enough to fit your hand in snugly. That’s all.

How do we get our arch? When your shoulders are in position the bar should be over your face between your forehead and your mouth. Once you have your shoulders locked in, body tight and have the bar in the right place put your feet on the floor flat and as far towards your butt as you can without sacrificing the flat foot, grab the parallels of the rack and push out, plant your hips hard into the bench, drive those feet into the ground….imagine concrete…push your chest up and form your back arch. At this point we are finally ready to unrack the weight.

Your grip should be just outside shoulder width….it is generally accepted that 1.5-2x shoulder width is strongest and most comfortable. Next get your hands around the bar….make your own decision about suicide grip….and squeeze. You should be squeezing that fucking bar harder than anything you have ever squeezed. The fucking knurling should be digging into your hands. Try to actually squeeze hard enough to break the steel. This hard squeeze and contraction of the hand muscles doesn’t just have a stabilizing effect….which is important….but also sets off a chain reaction of the muscles through your forearm and up through your arm and upper body also being tensed and tight. Just before unracking take a deep breath into your stomach. Next you press the bar just off the pins and move it just about over your throat. Before you lower the bar to the starting position make sure your wrists are not rolling back. You are finally ready now to get the bar into starting position.

Lower the bar in a very slow and controlled manner while “pulling the bar apart.” You want to do this slow and controlled. It should take around 2-3 seconds to lower the bar. When the bar touches your chest it should be right around a spot between nipple and bottom of sternum. Practice to find where you find it most comfortable. NEVER TAKE THE TENSION OFF….that’s what your rest is for. Every single bling of a fucking eye needs to be in a tight and controlled motion. It is not just the quick lift that you are doing….you are bringing a level of intentional behavior to your body that should eventually become a mindset. This is where you mind-body connection comes into play. At this point the rest of the world, all your problems, your annoying neighbors, your job, all of your racing thoughts, even the music in your headphones should be gone…..you need to bring that level of focus to everything here if you want the full benefit of lifting and since you are already in stupid looking shorts you might as well get the most of it right….? Oh and by the way…DO NOT FUCKING FLARE YOUR ELBOWS. Your triceps should be pushed against your lats — or at least as close as you can — not ultra tuck and no flare.

Now we are going to look for a soft pause. As the bar touches our chest (for all reps) we want a momentary, timeless pause where you maintain muscle tension in chest, shoulder and tris and then drive through with the lateral force to push the barbell to the top position all the way up until JUST before locking out. There is a lot of debate about whether or not to lock out. I believe it is a bad idea for the following reasons. Locking out is bad because it puts stress on joints and tendons. YOU CANT MAKE THOSE GUYS STRONGER. Locking out is bad because to takes stress off the muscle which is kind of counter productive for why you are fucking bench pressing in the first place. Finally, locking out is bad because it ends the time under tension and we want to maximize time under tension to stimulate hypertrophy which is the name of the game we are in.

The drive of the bar should be an aggressive one. You are pushing that bar up while as tight as can be and displacing the force through your body and feet into the bench and ground respectively. Find an efficient bar path where the weight goes as lateral as possible from point at to point b and track it back and forth until you can do it in your sleep.

Every single rep should be done with absolutely 100% of your strength. If you find the bar is moving too fast when you do that, congratulations it is time to add weight. As you start to press the weight you want to squeeze your glutes hard and try to drive your heels through the floor which will push your chest a little higher.

Repeat for prescribed number of reps at the prescribed RPE and congratulations you have done a set of bench presses.

So here is a very good question you guys might have: Why the fuck am I telling you all this shit and why didn’t I just go through the form? Do I want you to be thinking about all of these miniscule form points, about Newtonian physics, about when to squeeze your glutes? The answer is no….I do not want you to think this through every single time. I want you to subsume it, make it part of your fucking soul, so that you do this, you know this just as much as you know how to tie your shoelaces.

This is just for the most simple of lifts. We could write a whole goddamn book on the squat and I am sure a bunch of people have. So what is the point? Is it that bodybuilding is more complicated than it looks? Yes, I guess a little but there is something more.

We mentioned earlier this idea of intentionality in our lift. Your body needs to be tight, muscles contracted and your focus and mind-body connection so locked in that every tiny move is intentional. This is the true gift of bodybuilding. Yes the strength is great and the aesthetics are amazing and the camaraderie (no winking, but still) is fantastic…the increase in confidence, the different way we walk — yes, all of it is great. But it is how we enter the world that is most important here..more important than lifting, more important than strength…..more important than muscles.

When you are at the gym you should be locked into intention. You never leave anything behind because just the act of taking a lock and putting it on your locker is an intentional act with a multitude of steps and science behind it. Sip of water? Tighten your core and sip through the pain…and 3 and 4 and 5 and

Weightlifting is a lonely sport for the strong of mind and body.

6 and finish sip. Putting on shoes, showering, your gorilla walk around the gym……HYPER FUCKING INTENTION at all times in the gym. Like anything else there it will be hard at first, then easier then second nature and when it is second nature it is time to “add weight.” This is to say it is time to bring that level of intention to work, to interpersonal relations. You can’t do it now, I can’t do it now. We also can’t deadlift 350 for reps right now…but with training it will happen.

In the process of training your body you are training your mind and in the process of training your mind you are training your body. The ultimate goal is to have 100% mind body connection. To have a fully intentional grip on all of your body through  your mind. You may never get there, but like perennial Team WB Fitness favorite Mike Tyson says, “I’m a dreamer. I have to dream and reach for the stars, and if I miss a star then I grab a handful of clouds.” It is much better to aim at the stars and wind up with a handful of clouds than to stay aiming within more realistic parameters and never really knowing where the end is.

In the final analysis we can only say this….each and every movement we make is incredibly complicated, bodybuilding is the absolute merging of body and mind and understanding that and locking into an intentional mindset in such a way that we can learn to control ourselves as well as the world around us is the goal above all other goals. You may never achieve total oneness with body and mind, but the handful of clouds you grab might be a lot more than you ever thought you would — and it comes with a totally rockin’ body.

In the end, the way that a bench press is messed up is when we underestimate its power, lack a full understanding of its purpose and mechanics and loose our focus. This is also how we mess up most things in life. Fix your lifting, fix your mind, fix your body and make your life work right. Don’t make life like a bench press where you just assume you know what you are doing and get into it without really focusing….live with intention.

Gentleman, 4 more days until we start.

Get ready, this shit’s gonna be lit fam.