Powerlifting Bench Press
Trains the Triceps.
- Equipment
- A barbell, a rack and either a flat bench or an adjustable bench
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Push
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Set a barbell in a rack over a flat bench with the safety pins just below chest height.
- Lie back and set a strong arch: shoulder blades pulled together and down, upper back tight on the bench, feet planted and pulling toward you.
- Take an overhand grip wider than a standard press, but within whatever your competition rules allow.
- Unrack the bar and hold it over your lower chest with straight arms.
- Lower to the chest under control and pause there until it is motionless.
- Press back up to straight arms without the hips leaving the bench.
Common mistakes
- Letting the hips leave the bench to press. The arch is set through the upper back and the legs drive into the floor; the backside stays down, which is both a rule and the thing that keeps the arch honest.
- Skipping the pause. A competition press is motionless on the chest before it moves, and training it without the pause trains a lift you cannot repeat under a judge.
- Arching from the lower back rather than the upper. The upper back on the bench and the shoulder blades tight is what shortens the bar's path; a lumbar-driven arch just lifts the hips.
- Training it without pins or a spotter. The specific failure mode of a bench press is a bar on the chest with no way to sit up, and a paused competition press spends longer there than any other version.