How to Bench Press – Awesome Bench Press Tip
How to Bench Press
Awesome Bench Press Tip
Today we have a guest video from Jesse Burdick, elite powerlifter at POWERWOD.com. A few months ago I met Jesse and Mark Bell at Supertraining Seminar at Zach Even-Esh’s Underground Strength Gym. I made it to the second day where they were focusing on the bench press. During day one, Mark and Jesse went over the how to deadlift and how to squat sections.
The Smallest Things Make All the Difference
Jesse immediately picked up on my poor setup and lack of thoracic extension. I was flat on the bench and as you will hear from Jesse, this adds to a TON of extra stress on the shoulder and a weaker press. The more thoracic extension you have, the less anterior stress on the shoulder and the less potential for anterior humeral glide there is at the bottom of the movement.
Cool Bench Workout
Because this video is so important for proper execution of the bench press, I wanted to add a cool bench workout to the post.
Warm-up
1. Lat / Shoulder Stretches – various
2. Banded Facepulls with External Rotations, 2×15
3. Kneeling Reach Throughs, 2×10 each side
4. High Tension Rotator “Ys”, 2×10
Workout
1. Plyo Push-ups, 4×6
2. Bench Press, 4×8
3A. Push-ups, AMRAPx4 (*AMRAP – As Many Reps As Possible)
3B. DB Rows, 4×12 each side
4. Inverted Rows, 120 reps in shortest amount of sets possible
By Smitty on July 31st, 2011
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Great post Smitty! I think everyone can use a little more T-spine mobility. It really affects so many other areas in the body. Really enjoyed Jesse’s bench tips as well! That was a great seminar.
-Coach Gaglione
Its very nice to see that you no matter how big you get, you are always willing to learn and share.
I am pretty sure that many trainers would hide the fact that their bench technique needed some work, but you found a way to make it an educational experience for us.
As usual, thank you!
Hi Smitty–really enjoyed the post and Jesse Burdick’s tip–changing the angle of shoulder by lifting the trunk placed the shoulder in a relative extended position that decreased that anterior and internally rotated humeral position and then able to stabilize better with your external rotators–Really nice coaching–peter