A few years ago, my bench was in a really bad place. I’ve never been a great bencher, but that juncture in my lifting career was exceptionally woeful. I think my best bench to that point was 370 pounds, but it was nowhere close to that during this extremely dark period. I was really frustrated because I have decent levers (thick torso, shorter arms) to be a good bencher but it never truly manifested itself in the weight I was able to lift. So, one day I’m working out in the gym and I think I was struggling to do some close-grip bench presses with like 250 for 3 to 5 reps. Honestly, I was embarrassed to be doing this little of weight at the time because my build (especially my arms) always said I could do way more. “Bro, how much can you bench?” was (and still is) the common refrain. Nevertheless, as I was doing my close-grip bench presses, I somehow started bringing the weight lower on my chest and pushing the weight back in an arc toward the rack. It INSTANTLY felt easier. I was a little bit in disbelief. Thankfully, there was another educated lifter in the gym at the time and I mentioned it to him. He was like, “Oh yeah, that’s the bar path you are supposed to use with the bench press. Greg Nuckols recently wrote an article about it.” Accordingly, I went and found the article and lo and behold, I ended up benching 400 pounds a couple months later.
So, why did I tell you this story? Because an incorrect bar path on the bench press is a highly common mistake that I see with lifters in the weight room. They do not press the bar back towards their face during the ascent of the lift and subsequently, do not increase their bench numbers. This was the story of my bench life until I miraculously stumbled upon it in a workout and it was confirmed to me by Greg Nuckols astute writings. But, why do not a lot of people talk about this bench press cue? My personal opinion is that the focus is on the shortest range of motion and NOT the strongest range of motion. With the bench press, you would assume that the least amount of distance the bar has to travel (i.e. vertically in a straight line) would be the strongest. That’s why powerlifters are told to arch hard so that they can reach their sternum to the bar and really cut down on the ROM. However, this school of thought has holes in it. Number one, there is the issue of gravity pulling vertically down on the bar. Horizontal movement, on the other hand, is unaffected, so the lift becomes more efficient when the bar path includes this direction of travel. The number two reason why the shortest ROM on the bench press is not the best is because it doesn’t take into account the stress demands (i.e. shoulder flexion – think front raise and shoulder horizontal flexion – think pec fly) the pecs and shoulder undergo pressing the weight back up. When the bar touches the nipple line/lower sternum on the descent, the initial push off the chest should be more horizontal than vertical because once the sticking point arises, the bar will be nearer to the shoulders and enough force can be produced to overcome this potential barrier due to less total flexion demands. As a result, more weight can (hopefully) be added to the bar because the movement will have become more technically efficient at all stages of the lift.
If you want to get an idea of who uses this bench form to a “T,” I would definitely use Dan Green as an example. He brings the bar really low to his chest/stomach area, lets it sink in, and then horizontally explodes the bar before locking it out (vertically) over his upper chest and shoulder area. You can check out his bench press here.
Overall, thanks for reading! I really hope this bench press cue helps you as much as it helped me. Keep working at it and please let me know if you have any questions or comments. Take care and as always…SETTLE DOWN, SLACKERS!!!