Are you doing it correctly?

The bench press is a common free weight exercise used mostly by the male population at gyms and is one of the commonly avoided exercises by the female population – so why should you bench press?

What muscles does the bench press work?

Despite the bench press looking like it only works the upper body, it is in fact a full body lift. It mainly works the upper body muscles however to bench press with good technique the abdominal, buttock and leg muscles should all be engaged to provide a stable base of support for the lift.

The bench press helps to increase strength in

• Pectoralis muscles (chest)
• Anterior deltoids (front of shoulder)
• Latissimus dorsi (upper back muscles)
• Triceps brachii (back of the arms)

The shoulder blades are a very small base of support for your arms (they have the same essential role as the pelvis for the legs). It is a ball and socket joint with a shallow socket on the shoulder blade and big ball at the top of your arm bone. As a result, more work has to be done to ensure strength in the muscles surrounding the shoulder joint. Combining the bench press with shoulder stability exercises will help to maintain a healthy shoulder joint.

3 benefits of the bench press

• Builds power for better sports performance – upper body strength for many sports including rugby, basketball, baseball and tennis
• Improves upper body bone density – as we age our bones degenerate however resistance exercises can slow down the onset of osteoporosis
• Gets rid of your ‘tuck shop’ arms – the bench press helps to tone your arms muscles

Bench Press Technique

Key Points:

• Set your shoulders
• Tuck your elbows
• Grip the bar relative to your mechanics (to achieve alignment in picture at step 2) – this may mean widening or bringing in your grip and adjusting where the bar lowers to on your chest (around nipple height)
• The bar path is NOT straight down and up
• Get tight! Squeeze your butt cheeks and legs pressing down into floor

Common Errors:

• Failure to set shoulder blades
• Failure to get tight
• Flaring elbows

Queues: Hold pencil between shoulder blades and tuck it into your back pocket

Control down and EXPLODE up

How can physiotherapy help you?

Physiotherapy can help educate you on how to perform a good bench press despite your age, level of fitness or gender. We can also help to:

• Improve strength
• Improve fitness
• Ensure correct technique is being used in your day to day fitness regime to avoid injury

Contact Inspired Physiotherapy on 9674 5596