Bench Press Tips and Tricks of the Trade

Little Bench Press Tips and Tactics You May or May Not Know

Does this look like one of the greatest bench pressers in history? Mike MacDonald, shown in the featured image, was one of the most remarkable raw bench pressers ever to lie down on a bench. Official powerlifting history credits MacDonald with dozens of world bench press records. Old strength-history accounts credit him with enormous raw benches across multiple bodyweight classes. Here he is shown with his cambered “MacDonald Bar.”

Mike loved dumbbell bench pressing, but dumbbells past 150 pounds were rare and awkward. His solution was the bent bar that would duplicate the dumbbell “pre-stretch.” Mike’s bar was the right idea engineered wrong: modern versions are usually more gradual, gently sloped, and less abrupt on the shoulders.

I have been training partners with three men that bench pressed 600 pounds raw. I created a 600-pound raw bench presser and have trained with a dozen 500-pound-plus bench press maestros. I have interviewed, and continue to interview, top bench pressers about their training on a routine and regular basis. Over the years, I have accumulated a big bag of bench press training trivia, bits and pieces, different habits, and unusual tactics used by powerhouse raw bench press masters.

At J.P. Brice’s urging, I quickly came up with ten bullet points about the bench press that might be news to regular trainees. Here are some “chocolate covered factoids,” to borrow Norman Mailer’s bon mot, about bench pressing. Some may be news to you.

Bench Press Tip #1 - Why Arch?

Why do elite bench pressers go to the time, trouble, and aggravation required to establish an exaggerated spinal arch while they push bench reps? Two reasons: an arch shortens the rep stroke and an arch can make the flat bench press behave more like a decline bench press.

Highly stylized bench pressers, particularly in the lighter weight classes, will obtain an extreme arch and combine it with a wide grip to dramatically shorten the rep stroke. Over time, a bencher becomes better at arching. In my world, a powerful arch can make a meaningful difference. Still, the exact increase is individual. Structure, grip width, federation rules, shoulder health, bench setup, and technical skill all matter.

The arch is a powerlifting tool, not a mandatory bodybuilding tool and not an excuse to contort recklessly. The purpose is to create tightness, shorten the stroke, improve shoulder position, and make the lifter more stable under big poundage.

Bench Press Tip #2 - Leg Position and Leg Drive

Many bench pressers will get up on their tippy toes while benching. This can create a more extreme arch, which is the object. Other super technicians, like Ken Fantano, will set the feet forward of the knees and keep the feet flat.

When the barbell needs to come off the chest, when eccentric becomes concentric, be it touch-and-go or pause, the bencher sends a jolt through the body. The jolt starts in the feet. The glutes, legs, lats, torso and arms are already maximally flexed. The bencher jams his feet into the floor, sending a jolt from the feet through the legs and glutes and into the torso. The jolt arrives at the chest and helps explode the barbell off the chest.

It all happens in a violent microsecond. Leg drive is one of the highest forms of the bench press art. It is also one of the most sophisticated techniques, and it must be learned without letting the hips leave the bench or the body lose position.

Bench Press Tip #3 - The Arc

Elite benchers recognize that, unlike the squat and deadlift, where the strongest muscles are often dominant near the end of the rep stroke, in the bench press the relatively weaker triceps must finish the lift.

In the bench press, the upper and lower pecs and front delts, with a nice assist from the triceps, initiate the concentric. At the end of the bench press rep stroke, it is all triceps. How do we aid the relatively weak triceps as they seek to lock out a hard rep?

The bencher touches low on the chest and pushes up and back, arcing the bar. This allows the forearm / upper-arm angle to open more easily. The “J path” lets the triceps motor-pathway up and back, lessening triceps strain and developing momentum heading into the final six inches of a bench press, the region where triceps flameout often occurs.

Bench Press Tip #4 - The Coiled Eccentric

It is hip in many bench press circles to “crash the negative,” allowing the bench press bar to drop to the chest rather than resisting the rep during the negative, the lowering of the barbell to the chest.

Why would a strength athlete throw away the muscle-building, strength-infusing benefits associated with the resisted negative?

There is an art and science to creating the perfect negative rep in the bench press. The goal is to put the brakes on the barbell as it approaches the rising, arched chest. Tension is increased in direct proportion to the barbell’s approach to the chest touch point, the highest arched point on the chest.

Coiled tension is amplified as the barbell is paused on the chest or launched upward touch-and-go style. The perfect coiled negative makes the concentric leap off the chest on its arced path to lockout.

Controlled does not mean slow-motion for the sake of slow-motion. It means tight, deliberate, and positionally perfect.

Bench Press Tip #5 - Differing Grip Widths

As Iron Guru Hugh “Huge” Cassidy, the first superheavyweight world powerlifting champion, once noted, the best assistance exercise for any lift is the exercise that most closely resembles that lift.

Ergo, the best assistance exercise for the competition-grip, paused bench press would be:

• competition-grip bench presses done touch-and-go style for overload
• more flat benching, both touch-and-go and paused, with differing grip widths
• flat dumbbell bench presses

Then, and only then, do you get to incline barbell and dumbbell presses. Dumbbell flyes are not a good primary bench press assistance exercise. Yes, they strengthen the pecs, but the technique is too different. Do not be deluded: if your bench press is stuck and you want to get it moving, the solution is not automatically adding sets of pec deck or Hammer Strength machine incline presses.

Changing grip width changes the lift. Narrower grips can increase triceps and anterior shoulder demands. Wider grips can shift more work toward the pecs and shoulder horizontal adductors. The serious bencher should use grip width deliberately, not randomly.

Bench Press Tip #6 - Assistance Exercises

Arm work is extremely beneficial for bench pressing. Strengthening the triceps is best done with narrow-grip bench presses, weighted dips, and single-dumbbell triceps extensions.

Big lats act as braking muscles during the bench press negative, and big lats act as the push platform during the concentric. Heavy sets of five reps in the barbell row are best done using the same grip width as the bench press. Strap up and build a big barbell row to aid the bench press.

The overhead front press, 45-degree incline press or behind-the-neck press are favored by many elite benchers and are usually done two to three days after bench pressing. Ed Coan swore by the press-behind-the-neck, and old strength-culture accounts credit him with immense poundage in that movement.

That does not mean every bencher needs to press behind the neck. Behind-neck pressing is optional. It requires the right shoulder structure, thoracic position, mobility, and pain-free control. Most top bench pressers will hit the bench press and triceps on day one and shoulders and biceps on day two, two to three days later.

Bench Press Tip #7 - Volume and Frequency Pendulum

What is the bench press goal? No one trains to stay the same. Create a bench press goal and be realistic.

If you weigh 180 pounds and your current bench press capacity is 225 pounds for one rep, 210 for three, and 195 for five, there is no way you are going to push to 300 for one while staying at 180 pounds and holding the same body-fat percentage. If the goal is to push the bench press upward, this needs to be synchronized with an appropriate nutritional regimen.

Conversely, if the goal is to attain maximum leanness, you would be at cross-purposes trying to push strength upward in the face of ever-declining calories.

Elite bench pressers will have periods of higher chest / shoulder / arm training volume while moderating the intensity and training lighter, faster, and more often. Volume phases are contrasted with periods of bar-bending power training. The pendulum swings between volume and intensity. The mistake is clinging to one side forever.

Bench Press Tip #8 - Eat Your Way Through Sticking Points

There is nothing more old school than this immortal Cassidy cliché: eat your way through sticking points.

After a body-shattering power-training session, my training partners would descend as a unit on a nearby buffet. It was our normal routine to train hard and long and then immediately afterward stuff our faces on steam-table food. This was followed by a bleary, half-awake car ride home. Upon arriving, we would collapse into a catatonic stupor as we power-napped.

It is politically incorrect to sanction this extreme training and gluttonous behavior followed by a selfish sleep trance. However, for growing massive muscles, creating power and strength, and forcing the body to the next level of physique and performance, this combination — blast the muscle, feed the muscle, rest the muscle — was, and remains, powerful.

The modern takeaway is not “eat like a fool.” The takeaway is this: a serious strength phase needs serious food and serious recovery. If you are trying to drive your bench press upward while under-eating and under-sleeping, do not be surprised when the bar refuses to move.

Bench Press Tip #9 - Vary Rep Speeds

Purposefully varying the speed used to push a bench press and the rep speed used to lower a negative offers tremendous muscle-growth and strengthening possibilities. Most beginner and intermediate athletes give little thought to the speed with which they push a weight while benching.

Elite bench pressers have a default approach: a slightly slowed, controlled negative followed by an explosive concentric, also called compensatory acceleration.

There are three rep speeds to choose from before the commencement of every set:

• purposefully slowed
• regular or normal
• explosive

Use a purposefully slowed push phase to dig a deeper muscular inroad using less poundage and greater control. Use regular speed when the goal is clean training volume. Use explosive speed when the goal is force, power and speed off the chest. Rep-speed variability can also be used when handling dumbbells and doing bench assistance exercises.

Bench Press Tip #10 - Programming

The classical twice-a-week power routine is simple: squat and bench press, plus arms, on day one. Two to three days later, deadlift and perform heavy overhead front presses, behind-neck presses, or incline presses, plus more arm work.

A four-day power split might look like this:

• Day 1: squat plus leg assistance exercises
• Day 2: bench press plus bench assistance exercises
• Day 3: off
• Day 4: deadlift plus back assistance exercises
• Day 5: overhead pressing or incline pressing plus arms
• Days 6 and 7: off

Take overhead pressing seriously. The flat bench press can be enhanced by improvements in the overhead press or the 45-degree incline press. Dumbbells are perfectly acceptable. Triceps and biceps are trained weekly. Switch out assistance exercises to keep things fresh. Pendulum swing back and forth between intensity and volume approaches.

Equipment Notes for Bench Press Training

Bench press training does not require a complicated setup, but it does require dependable basics: a strong bench, a proper barbell, secure plates, a safe floor, and enough setup discipline to train hard without chaos.

Lifters and facilities can compare weight benches, Olympic weightlifting bars, weight plates, and interlocking rubber gym tiles.

A bench-focused setup might include a bar such as the Body-Solid Chrome Olympic Power Bar, loading such as IRON COMPANY Urethane Olympic Plates with Grips, and a dedicated bench such as the Legend Fitness 3150 Flat Olympic Bench Press with Weight Plate Storage.

For training areas where benching, squatting and pulling all happen in the same room, IRON COMPANY Interlocking Rubber Weight Room Tiles can support a safer, more durable free-weight environment. The equipment does not build the bench press. The lifter, the plan, the technique, the food, the rest, and the willingness to attack sticking points build the bench press.

Safety Note for Heavy Bench Pressing

Heavy bench pressing deserves respect. Use a proper bench, secure plates, collars when appropriate, and competent spotters or safeties when the load or effort demands it. Do not bench heavy alone without a safe way to miss.

Extreme arching, wide grips, leg drive, behind-neck pressing, heavy dips, long pauses, controlled eccentrics and high-volume bench assistance work should be scaled to the lifter’s structure, shoulder history, elbow health, wrist position, training age and recovery.

Stop or scale back for sharp shoulder, pec, elbow, wrist, neck or back pain; numbness; dizziness; loss of control; repeated technical collapse; or any rep that becomes a different lift than the one being trained.

This article preserves Marty Gallagher’s RAW bench press coaching experience and old-school strength perspective. It is not individualized medical, rehabilitation or programming advice.

Related Bench Press Reading

For more Marty Gallagher bench press guidance, read Bench Press Mistakes and Fixes, Bench Press Strength Masters, and Barbell Bench Press 101: Tactical Tips.

RAW with Marty Gallagher, J.P. Brice, and Jim Steel Podcast.

About the Author: Marty Gallagher

As an athlete Marty Gallagher is a national and world champion in Olympic lifting and powerlifting. He was a world champion team coach in 1991 and coached Black's Gym to five national team titles. He's also coached some of the strongest men on the planet including Kirk Karwoski when he completed his world record 1,003 lb. squat. Today he teaches the US Secret Service and Tier 1 Spec Ops on how to maximize their strength in minimal time. As a writer since 1978 he’s written for Powerlifting USA, Milo, Flex Magazine, Muscle & Fitness, Prime Fitness, Washington Post, Dragon Door and now IRON COMPANY. He’s also the author of multiple books including Purposeful Primitive, Strong Medicine, Ed Coan’s book Coan, The Man, the Myth, the Method and numerous others. Read the Marty Gallagher biography here.