7 Tips To Build A Bigger Chest With The Bench Press

The Bench Press is one of the best exercises to build your chest, bar none. And you can lift more poundage per workout than with other isolation exercises–so you’ll build strength and size with this exercise.

This article assumes you know the basics of how to bench…

But to get the best results, aka to build a massive chest you can rest your beer can on, you need to know these 9 tips…

Tip #1: Plant Your Feet And Puff Out Your Chest

Lie down on the bench and plant your feet like you mean it. Then force your chest out to the max. To achieve this you want to grab the uprights of the bench as you’re laying down and perform a pullover of sorts so there is an arch in your lower back.

Squeeze your shoulder blades together as hard as you can. Imagine you’re pinching a quarter together with them. And simultaneously push your shoulders down towards your feet.

Tip #2: Hold Your Breath and Brace Yourself For Tension

Take a deep breath and brace yourself like you’re about to take a punch to the gut. This insures that you’re keeping your whole body tight and forcing your muscles to have maximal tension. Also the intraabdominal pressure will give you more strength and protect your back. Plus, it’s useless to try to breath when there’s a loaded barbell sitting on your chest.

Tip #3: Pull the Bar Down With Your Lats

Flex your pecs hard at the start of the movement and focus on pulling the bar down to your sternum with your LATS. This will ensure you’re keeping your shoulder blades together and making your pecs do the majority of the work.

Tip #4: Try To Meet The Bar With Your Chest

Keep puffing your chest out and imagine you are trying to touch the bar, meet it halfway with your chest as you’re pulling it down with your lats. Continue pulling down until the bar touches your chest. Pause for a moment in this position

Tip #5: Do NOT Relax, Stay Tight and Blast Off

Keep the tension in your body, stay tight, and get ready to push. What you do is squeeze the bar off your chest, trying to move it as fast as you can while retaining full-body tension for maximum strength. Push the bar like you’re doing a decline press down towards your feet to protect your shoulders. Imagine you are pushing yourself away from the bar, you’ll know you’re doing it right when you feel your upper back is tight

Tip #6: Use Max Tension Techniques At Your Sticking Point

When the rep gets hard and you’re hitting your sticking point, here’s what you do:

1. Grip the bar as hard as you can
2. At the same time, Flex your Abs and glutes and grunt
3. Imagine you’re sending energy from your core, your stomach into your arms

And GRIND it, keep pushing away from the bar, keeping maximum tension.

Tip #7: Before Your Next Rep, Re-check Your Form

Before you go for your next rep, recheck to make sure:

• Your feet are still planted
• Your shoulder blades are still pinched together
• Take a breath and then hold it again to get your intra-bdominal pressure up again…

If you lose anyone of these things, re-rack the bar and get yourself into proper position again before your next rep. Proper form is more important than doing all your reps at once.

There you go, there are 7 tips to make sure you build a monster chest with the Bench Press. Put em to work today and watch your chest grow!