How To Increase Your Bench Press Max
Increasing your bench press max can be difficult if your not performing the bench press with proper technique. To avoid making common bench press mistakes, I recommend that you practice your form with lighter weight and build up to your max gradually. This way when you start to focus on increasing your bench press max, your form will not suffer.
Here are some tips to help increase your max bench press:
Work up to your Max: Your max bench press should not be attempted as your first set. Pump out a few sets at lower weight while adding weight each time. Your 4th or 5th sets should be your max bench press attempts.
Chest Up, Shoulders Back: If you have proper bench press technique this will come natural. By increasing the size of your chest you decrease the distance the bar has to travel. Keeping your shoulders back(shoulder blades pinched together) will give you a more stable and solid base and help avoid shoulder injuries.
Squeeze your Glutes: By squeezing your glutes while performing the bench press you increase your stability and power. Just don’t lift your glutes off the bench. Give it a try, it works.
Rest Between Sets: Take breaks of 3-5 minutes between your heavy weight sets.
Switch it Up: Integrate other various chest exercises into your workouts. Incline Bench Press is a great variation among many chest exercises.
Keep adding weight: This is one of the most important tips. For every set you should be adding weight. Do not get into a comfort zone with your current bench press weight. You will never gain muscle or increase your max this way. If you are intimidated with adding more weight get help from a spotter.
I’ll leave you with some words of wisdom from Ronnie Coleman.
“Everybody wants to be a bodybuilder but nobody wants to lift no heavy ass weights.”
More Bench Press Articles:
Relevant Links:
Random Posts
One Comment »
Leave a comment!
 |
Nice tips, and I love the pic of Arnold