The ever-popular bench press has built its fame over the previous few many years as a rite of passage, a trial by fire, and a founding member of the powerlifting “big three.” This exercise is all that, and more. The bench press is so popular that it even has its own day of the week — “International bench day” has develop into synonymous with Monday in lots of gyms.

The bench press is a go-to exercise whenever you’re seeking to increase the dimensions and strength of your chest, shoulders, and triceps. The steadiness of the bench and the fixed range of motion of the barbell lets you use more weight. And moving more weight means constructing more size and strength.

Credit: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock

Should you’re in search of a standalone bench-focused workout to extend strength and muscle in your upper body, you may have come to the best place. Let’s dive in below.

Best Bench Press Workout For Muscle and Strength

To realize absolute strength, you will need to concentrate on moving heavier weights, working around 85-90% of your one-repetition maximum. (1) The cluster set technique gives you all you’ll be able to handle on this regard — performing multiple “mini-sets” of low repetitions with heavy weights to build up significant volume. This helps set the table for more muscle because a stronger muscle has the potential for more size. After the heavy work, two different supersets think about exercises that efficiently increase your chest size and strength.

The Size and Strength Routine

Perform this workout once weekly as a part of your upper/lower body split. To progress with the primary exercise, start at three complete cluster sets, do 4 the following week, after which five. If you’re in a position to do five cluster sets, add weight. The opposite three bench exercises start on the lower end of the rep range and add one repetition each week. When you may have reached the upper range, increase the load by five to 10 kilos and begin the method again.

Bench Press Cluster Set

The flat barbell bench press must be a staple in your routine and your go-to for more size and strength every time you ought to move probably the most weight. This benching variation focuses equally in your upper and lower chest for higher overall muscle development.

Do it: Lay supine on the flat bench, arch your lower back barely, and plant your feet on the ground. Pull your shoulder blades together to boost stability and upper back strength. Grab the bar and squeeze your hands hard to flex your arm and grip muscles maximally before unracking the load. Lower the bar to your sternum/base of your chest. Press the load up, keep your back tight and your shoulder blades pulled together.

Sets and Reps: 3-5 x (4×2) — Perform 4 mini-sets of two reps, repeated a complete of three to 5 times.

Rest time: Rest 10 seconds between each mini-set. Rest three minutes after each full set.

Close-Grip Bench Press

The close-grip bench press has your hands set shoulder-width apart and shift the load to your triceps and inner chest. (2) You could not find a way to lift as much weight, but you’ll be training your chest and triceps from a distinct angle for improved muscle development.

Do it: Arrange as you’ll for the flat bench press, but position your hands inside shoulder-width together with your elbows tucked into your body. Pull the bar out of the rack and get tight. Pull keep your elbows near your ribs while lowering the bar to your chest. Once you may have reached your required depth, press back up until lockout.

Sets and Reps: 3-4 x 4-6

Rest time: No rest before moving to the following exercise.

Seated Band Pull-Apart

After two pressing exercises, you’ll get a break with this easy pulling exercise to strengthen your upper back and sustain the health of your shoulders. This seated band pull-apart will increase your upper back engagement (due to the soundness of being seated) without you leaving the bench.

Do it: Sit upright, holding a looped band at shoulder height together with your hands shoulder-width apart. Pull the band apart, keeping your arms nearly straight. Keep your shoulders down and your chest up. Pull until your shoulder blades are together and your arms are prolonged to either side of your body. Return to the starting position and repeat.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 15-25

Rest time: Rest two minutes before repeating previous exercise.

Single-Arm Dumbbell Bench Press

This single-arm (unilateral) exercise won’t permit you to go as heavy as you can with the barbell bench press, but there continues to be loads to love about this pressing variation. First, you’ll address any imbalances between sides of your body, leading to raised muscle development and improved joint health. Second, you’ll have more freedom of movement, since the dumbbell bench press lets you adjust your grip and arm angle to search out a pressing path that’s comfortable in your wrist, elbow, and shoulder joints.

Do it:  Place one dumbbell in your knee while sitting on a flat bench. Lean back and drive the dumbbell toward your shoulder using your knee, while pressing the dumbbell up. Lower the dumbbell, keeping your elbow at roughly 45-degrees out of your body. Press the dumbbells as much as lockout and repeat. 

Sets and Reps: 3-4 x 8-12 reps per arm.

Rest time: Rest 60 to 90 seconds before moving to the following exercise. 

Dumbbell Chest Flye

The dumbbell chest flye is as near a chest isolation exercise because it gets. This exercise takes the triceps out of the movement and stretches the pecs for a more extensive range of motion, which provides you higher muscle-building potential. (3)

do it: Lie supine on a flat bench with a dumbbell in each hand. Begin with each arms locked out above your chest. Create a slight bend in your elbows and keep this bend throughout the movement. Lower your arms out to your sides in step with your shoulders. If you feel a stretch within the pecs, reverse the motion and squeeze the chest muscles to return to the highest position.

Sets and Reps: 3 x 8-15

Rest time: Rest 60-90 seconds before repeating the previous exercise.

Chest Anatomy

The chest is a big superficial fan-like muscle, and the 2 chest muscles are the pectoralis major and the pec minor. It has two attachment points — the clavicular head on the upper chest and the sternal head attachment on the mid-to-lower chest. The pec major is in your anterior (front) ribcage, while the pectoralis minor is a small muscle underneath the pec major.

Credit: Ihor Bulyhin / Shutterstock

The pec major’s clavicular head originates, as expected, in your clavicle’s (collarbone) anterior or front surface. The pec major’s sternal head originates on the sternum’s anterior surface. Each muscle heads insert on the humerus (upper arm) and are involved in most upper body movements. The 2 primary chest functions that the training above focuses on are:

• Shoulder flexion — Raising your arms up by pushing or lifting in front of your body.
• Horizontal adduction — Bringing your hands (and joints) together in front of your pecs, as you do during a chest flye, bench press, or push-up.

Besides creating a giant and muscular chest, the pecs are the first “hugging” muscle. Pec size and strength help tackle, grab, and fend off opponents within the sporting arena, in addition to throw and swing harder and faster in case you play sports like football, baseball, or tennis. 

Warm-Up for Your Bench Workout

Have you ever ever seen someone walk off the road under the barbell and begin pressing away to their heart’s content? Don’t be that person, they’re asking for injuries and poor performance. Although not warming up may not an enormous issue on rare occasions, over time, it could result in a decrease in performance and increased injury risk.

It’s higher to take the time to warm-up and get the blood moving through your working muscles, while get your shoulder and elbow joints ready for motion.

Because your upper back and rotator cuffs are involved within the bench press, you’ll want to perform any upper back movement that’s effective for engaging your scapula and rotators — face pulls with external rotation or band pull-parts.

After that, a number of light ramp-up sets on the bench press (low rep, light weight sets getting progressively heavier), focusing hard on engaging your chest muscles, can have you able to roll.

Should you resolve to take more time for a radical warm-up, take this upper-body prep for a spin. There are a few upper back-focused exercises here because your lats and upper back stabilize your chest during benching. You’ll have to get your back ready for chest day to totally protect and prepare your shoulders and rotator cuff.

• Face Pull with External Rotation: Secure a resistance band to a stable object at eye-level. Take an overhand grip and step back until your arms are prolonged straight ahead. Drive your elbows back in step with your shoulders while pulling your hands to the highest of your head. In the height contraction, your thumbs should point behind you and your palms must be near your ears. Return to the arms-extended position. Perform two sets of 15 reps.
• Scapular Push-up: Begin in a push-up position, together with your hands and toes on the bottom and your body straight. Keep your arms stiff and locked as you pinch your shoulder blades together while reaching your chest toward the bottom. Drive your hands “through the bottom” as you extend your shoulder blades down and push your chest away out of your hands. Perform two sets of 10 reps.
• Rear Delt Fly: Take a pair of sunshine dumbbells in each hand, or stand in the midst of a lightweight resistance band and hold each end. Bend forward on the waist, nearly parallel to the bottom, and let your arms hang toward the bottom with a slight bend in your arms. Drive your arms up in step with your shoulders. Don’t allow your arm angle to alter throughout the exercise. Pause briefly before returning to the stretched position. Perform two sets of 12 reps.
• Spiderman With Rotation: Begin in a push-up position, together with your hands and toes on the bottom and your body straight. Step forward together with your left leg, aiming to get your foot near the pinky of your left hand if mobility allows. Keep your right leg straight. Without bending your right arm, lift your left arm to the ceiling, turning your upper body to permit a full rotation. When your arm is perpendicular to the bottom, feel a total-body stretch before returning to a push-up position. Alternate sides with each repetition. Perform two sets of 5 reps per side.
• Incline Plyo Push-up: Setup near a stable flat bench or box, in a push-up position together with your hands on the bench, your toes on the bottom, and your body straight. Lower your chest toward the bench and explosively drive upwards, letting your hands leave contact with the bench. Catch yourself with barely bent arms and brace your core. Take a breath and reset quickly before performing the following repetition. Perform two sets of eight reps.

Glad Benching

There are various alternative ways to focus on your chest, shoulder, and triceps, however the bench press is the preferred and, potentially, probably the most effective tool. You possibly can construct muscle and strength by specializing in a handful of probably the most effective movements to enrich the bench press. All the time warm-up your chest and shoulders, after which attack the muscles using the in-depth, ultimate bench workout laid out above. Your Mondays won’t ever be the identical.

References

1. Schoenfeld, B. J., Grgic, J., Van Every, D. W., & Plotkin, D. L. (2021). Loading Recommendations for Muscle Strength, Hypertrophy, and Local Endurance: A Re-Examination of the Repetition Continuum. Sports (Basel, Switzerland), 9(2), 32. https://doi.org/10.3390/sports9020032
2. Lockie, Robert & Moreno, Matthew. (2017). The Close-Grip Bench Press. Strength and Conditioning Journal. 39. 1. 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000307.
3. Baroni, B. M., Pompermayer, M. G., Cini, A., Peruzzolo, A. S., Radaelli, R., Brusco, C. M., & Pinto, R. S. (2017). Full Range of Motion Induces Greater Muscle Damage Than Partial Range of Motion in Elbow Flexion Exercise With Free Weights. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 31(8), 2223–2230. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0000000000001562

Featured Image: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV / Shutterstock