Board Press
Trains the Triceps.
- Equipment
- A barbell, a rack, boards and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Have a partner hold a stack of boards on your chest, or strap them in place.
- Set up on a flat bench as for a normal bench press, with the safety pins set.
- Take an overhand grip a little wider than your shoulders and unrack the bar.
- Lower until the bar rests on the boards, and pause there.
- Press back up from the dead stop without bouncing off the boards.
- Rack the bar before the boards are removed.
Common mistakes
- Bouncing off the boards. The pause is the exercise — the boards remove the bottom of the range so the press starts from a standstill at whatever height they set.
- Choosing a board height at random. The stack decides which part of the lockout is being trained; a one-board press and a three-board press are different exercises.
- Loading it by how easy it feels. A shortened range allows more weight, and the shoulder and elbow are carrying that weight through the range that remains.
- Doing it without a plan for what it fixes. It exists to load a sticking point above the chest, and as a general chest exercise a full-range press covers more.