Bench Press Techniques

Bench Press Techniques For Men

The Bench Press Techniques in this article is geared more toward the guys than the ladies. I will explain how to increase your muscle size and strength by increasing the weights on your bench press through…

Progressive Overload
Tempo Training and
Negatives.

Bench Press Techniques 1 – Progressive Overload

This technique involves the slight increase of either reps or weight. Lets say you are bench pressing 150 pounds for 8 reps. The next week you will want to bench 150 pounds for 10 reps. And the week after that, bench 150 pounds for 12 reps.

Once you hit 12 reps, increase the weight by 10 to 20 pounds so that you can only bench a max of 8 reps. Keep restarting this cycle of increasing reps followed by an increase in the weight. Remember, always increase the reps before you increase the weight.

Bench Press Techniques 2 – Tempo Training

Another one of the bench press techniques which will increase your gains is tempo. The tempo of the rep will play a big role for increasing muscle strength. Keep in mind… the more you increase your strength, the bigger your muscles will be.

To start, you want the concentric movement (pushing of the barbell up) to be explosive. Normally this will take about one second to complete the movement of the barbell from the starting position near the chest to the fully extended position. When doing the tempo training of the bench press techniques, it doesn’t really matter if it takes longer or shorter then one second to complete this movement as long as you make this movement as explosive as you possibly can while using good form.

Next is the eccentric movement (the lowering of the barbell). You want this movement to be slow and controlled. A good time for lowering of the barbell is three seconds. At the end of this rep, take about a one second pause before repeating the rep again.

Reviewing the times…

One second to raise the bar (explosive)
Three seconds to lower the bar (slow & controlled) and
About one second pause at the bottom of the rep before repeating.

Bench Press Techniques 3 – Negatives

The last of these bench press techniques is called negatives. You will need a training partner for this technique.

Load up the barbell with as much weight as you can do for a one rep max. Lift the barbell off the rack with the help of your training partner. Lower the barbell as slowly as you can. This eccentric movement can take anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds to lower, depending on your physical abilities.

Once at the bottom of the rep, have your training partner help you bring the barbell up to the beginning position and repeat this movement. You should not be exerting that much strength to raise the barbell upwards. Instead, put all your energy into slowly lowering the barbell.