There are many reasons why people want to improve their bench press. Some lifters do it to strengthen their muscles, develop a bigger chest, or just to be able to brag to their friends.
But it isn’t important why you want to improve your bench press. The most important thing is that you want to do it. If you’re out of ideas about how to start, then follow the tips below and you’ll be able to see how your bench pressing results get better and better.
1. Improve Your Bench Press Form
By making sure that you complete bench presses properly, you’ll not only avoid injuries but also be able to improve your bench press faster than while doing it incorrectly. The primary things you should remember while bench pressing:
- You shouldn’t raise your butt while lifting as it might injure your back.
- Keep your entire feet on the ground to keep yourself stable.
- Bench with straight wrists; if you do it in any other way, it can cause a feeling of irritation or pain in your wrists.
If you’re able to complete bench presses correctly, you’ll be able to move over the shortest distance, so it’ll result in making it easier to lift. Moreover, a proper form improves the transfer of force, which is important when you want to learn to use your full strength.
2. Bench Press More Often
To be able to bench press a heavier weight, you need to perform bench presses more often. The easiest way to do so is to have two or even three days per week on which you could bench press.
While you might think that doing bench presses so often can decrease your results because there will be fewer days for you to rest, the truth is that it isn’t quite right. This is because you’ll need to perform only bench presses, not a full chest workout, so it won’t take as much time to recover as completing your full chest routine.
So, your chest will have plenty of time to recover as well as get used to performing bench presses without making you feel so much pain and tiredness. After doing it for a longer period of time, you’ll start feeling that it’s getting too easy. When you begin feeling like that, it means that you should start lifting heavier weights.
3. Lift Heavier Weights and Complete Fewer Reps
Instead of completing many reps with medium weights, start doing five reps with heavy weights. The reason behind this advice is simple. If you want to increase your bench press, you need to get used to lifting heavier and heavier weights.
Just make sure that you do the exercise properly as some people aren’t able to complete a full range of motion after increasing the weights they use. Also, don’t rush with using heavier weights, take as much time as you need to gradually get used to heavier weights.
If you can’t increase your bench press for longer than two months, then you might be overtraining, lacking some nutrients, having at least one weak spot, or experiencing any other problem.
4. Rest Longer Between Sets
To be able to use even heavier weights, increase the amount of time you rest between sets. Most athletes recommend increasing the amount of time you rest up to 3-5 minutes.
By having more time to rest, your muscles will get plenty of time to almost fully recover and make it easier to lift the same amount of weight as while doing it on the first set.
5. Make Sure That You Don’t Have Weak Spots
If some parts of your chest, shoulders, or triceps are too weak, then it might be the reason why you can’t increase your bench press. This is because these are the muscles that get the most work while doing bench presses.
If you feel terrible pain or irritation in any of these muscles without even bench pressing a lot, then it means that you should give more attention to these areas by performing more different exercises, increasing sets and reps, and just giving more time to strengthen these muscles.
