Many lifters suppose the bench press is all concerning the pecs. However the pecs aren’t what you must set earlier than you unrack the bar. Your ft, legs, higher again, grip, and brace must be locked in. If a kind of is off, the bar path will get off observe, vitality leaks, and ugly reps occur.
Nobody’s bench will look the identical as a result of limb size, mobility, and coaching targets affect the setup. That’s regular. What doesn’t change are the rules, secure ft, tight higher again, stacked joints, and a managed unrack. The guidelines under focuses on these particulars that each sturdy bench press shares. Right here, with the assistance of coach Matt Wenning, a former all-time world document holder in powerlifting who has benched 611 pound uncooked and maintained a 500-plus-pound bench press for over 26 consecutive years. We are going to each stroll you thru a seven-step guidelines earlier than you decrease the bar to your chest.
The Final Bench Press Setup Guidelines
I perceive we’re all in a rush and wish to get to the good things sooner. However stopping, pausing, and going via these setup steps will preserve your press secure and robust.
Step 1: Physique Place
Earlier than you grip the bar and even take into consideration urgent, you must personal your place on the bench. A robust bench press begins with the way you place your physique, which supplies you a constant start line in your grip, arch, and unrack.
- Slide onto the bench so your eyes are instantly beneath or barely behind the bar
- Hold your head, higher again, and glutes in touch with the bench
Inside cue: Retract your shoulder blades laborious into the bench and take into consideration pulling them down towards your again pockets.
Exterior cue: Set your eyes instantly beneath the bar within the rack.
The Wenning Tip: The hot button is getting your eyes beneath the barbell. Get that proper earlier than you grip it.
Step 2: Foot Place and Foot Drive
The legs are a major basis of the bench press. A secure decrease physique permits power to switch from the ground, via the torso, and into the bar whereas counterbalancing the higher physique. Wenning treats leg drive as a technical ability — foot place and strain ought to be deliberate, constant, and locked in earlier than the unrack.
- Plant your ft firmly on the ground—flat or on the balls of the ft, relying on consolation and mobility.
- Place your ft barely exterior hip width to enhance stability. Wenning explains there’s some extent to this base. “This wider base improves stability, permits extra constant leg drive, and makes it simpler to keep up rigidity all through the press.”
- Drive your ft laborious into the ground with out lifting the glutes, however Wenning warns you to not go loopy. “Pull your ft again so far as your mobility permits — this creates rigidity via the legs whereas inhibiting extreme hip rise.”
Inside cue: Push via your ft.
Exterior cue: Drive the ground away.
The Wenning Tip: In case your ft slide or your hips come off the bench, the rep is compromised. Cease the set, rerack the bar, and rebuild full-body rigidity earlier than urgent once more.
Step 3: Rooting and Decrease-Physique Stress
To press large, you must flip your decrease physique right into a secure anchor. Rooting your ft and creating rigidity via your legs and hips retains your torso strong and your bar path clear. This lower-body rigidity is your counterbalance, permitting power to journey from the ground, via your torso, and into the bar.
- Screw your ft into the ground by creating slight exterior rotation on the hips
- Hold regular strain via the foot
- Squeeze your glutes to lock your pelvis in place
Inside cue: Glutes tight, legs loaded. Exterior cue: Unfold the ground along with your ft.
The Wenning Tip: In case your knees collapse or your hips shift whereas urgent, you misplaced your root. Reset and rebuild rigidity earlier than the subsequent rep.
Step 4: Grip Width and Hand Place
Your grip units the tone. Get it incorrect and your elbows flare, wrists hyperextend, and the shoulders take successful. Get it proper, and the bar strikes extra easily and safely. A agency grip turns in your forearms, lats, and higher again, creating full-body rigidity earlier than the press.
- Take a fair grip on the bar; use the knurling or rings to match either side
- Set your palms simply exterior shoulder width, however alter based mostly on consolation
- Place the bar low within the palm, not up within the fingers
- Fingers and wrists in step with your elbows
Inside cue: Crush the bar in your palms.
Exterior cue: Bend the bar in half.
The Wenning Tip: In case your wrists bend again as quickly as you unrack, cease, rerack, and reset earlier than you press. Consider the grip like a punch—straight wrists, stacked joints, and full thumb contact. A thumbless grip is a weaker, much less secure place for heavy benching.
Step 5: Scapular Place and Higher-Again Stress
Making a secure base along with your higher again earlier than you begin helps preserve the bar path on observe and shortens the vary of movement with out compromising rep high quality.
- Pull your shoulder blades down and again earlier than unracking
- Let your chest rise naturally from scapular rigidity
- Consider your higher again as the first contact level with the bench
Inside cue: Pin your shoulder blades into your again pockets.
Exterior cue: Crush the bench along with your higher again.
The Wenning Tip: In case your shoulders roll ahead because the bar touches your chest, you’ve misplaced rigidity. Reset the rep.
Step 6: Breathe and Brace
With out a correct breath and brace, the rib cage flares, the arch collapses, and power leaks earlier than the press even begins. Creating sturdy intra-abdominal strain stabilizes the backbone and retains your urgent mechanics constant from unrack to lockout.
- Take a deep 360-degree diaphragmatic breath
- Develop your stomach, sides, and decrease again
- Brace your core as if getting ready to take a punch
Inside cue: Fill the stomach with air.
Exterior cue: Push your abs into your belt.
The Wenning Tip: Benching with a belt may be efficient for a lot of lifters. Driving the abs into the belt will increase intra-abdominal strain, improves torso stability, and helps switch leg drive into the press with out shedding place.
Step 7: The Unrack
When you press the bar out of the hooks or lose upper-back rigidity in the course of the handoff, you’re already at an obstacle—a clear, unracked set-up positions you for a powerful press.
- Hold your arms straight.
- Pull the bar out of the rack—suppose pullover, not push.
- Information the bar right into a stacked place over your shoulders.
Inside cue: Arms lengthy, shoulders tight.
Exterior cue: Pull the bar out of the rack.
The Wenning Tip: When you really feel your shoulders shift or your elbows bend in the course of the unrack, cease and reset. A sloppy unrack locations the shoulders in a compromised place and will increase the chance of harm earlier than the rep even begins. A clear, unracked setup retains the joints stacked, the lats engaged, and the press secure and repeatable.
The Inexperienced Mild Guidelines
Earlier than beginning, take one deep breath and run this ultimate system examine. It takes a second or two, however it ensures you begin from a place of power.
- Ft rooted and driving into the ground
- Legs tight, knees pushed out
- Glutes engaged, hips on the bench
- Shoulder blades pinned, higher again locked in
- Grip tight and even, wrists stacked over elbows
- Brace strong, ribs down
- Bar stacked over shoulders
When every thing’s locked in, decrease the bar and drive it with energy. If not, the fixes are outlined under — reset, refine, and press the suitable method.
Frequent Setup Errors
Frequent bench press setup errors stem from poor place and a scarcity of rigidity. Fixing these earlier than you unrack will do extra in your press than most accent work.
- Foot and Decrease Physique Place
Many lifters bench with their ft out of place, ignore them totally, or worse, place them on the bench — all of which eradicate leg drive and compromise full-body stability.
Repair: Plant each ft the place you may preserve contact with the ground with some heel strain. Assume “laborious legs, quiet hips” as you drive your ft backward via the ground to create full‑physique rigidity whereas protecting your glutes on the bench. - Not Setting Your Higher Again
Mendacity flat and unfastened with the shoulder blades unfold reasonably than retracted and depressed is a non-starter. This unfastened place disrupts bar path consistency and shifts extreme stress onto the anterior shoulders.
Repair: Earlier than you lie down, seize the bar and “pull” your self beneath it, then pinch your shoulder blades collectively and down towards your again pockets. Doing so creates a mild-to-moderate thoracic arch and a secure base to press from. - Grip, Wrist, and Elbow Place
Gripping too huge, letting the bar sit up within the fingers, or benching with flared elbows are traditional errors that beat up the shoulders and wrists.
Repair: Use a constant grip width (e.g., index on ring or center on ring) so the forearm is vertical. Place the bar low within the palm, near the heel of the hand, then wrap the thumb and crush the bar so the wrist stacks straight over the forearm as an alternative of hyperextending. - Rack And Unrack
Being set too far down the bench so you need to “bench” the bar out of the hooks is one other widespread setup downside. It’s a double whammy. You’re losing vitality and placing your anterior shoulder in danger.
Repair: Set the J‑hooks so the bar is simply excessive sufficient that you simply solely want a small elbow extension to clear them. Place your self so the bar is roughly over eye degree; unrack by pulling the bar out utilizing your lats, not by urgent it up and ahead out of the hooks.