Better Your Bench with Technique & Equipment

For anyone who has tried to bench heavy in a commercial gym, they typically find that the experience is frustrating. Weights are harder than expected and may even come with missed reps.

Bad equipment is often to blame.

Whether it is slippery bars with nearly no knurl to those bench-rack combinations that have the bar far too low or too high to slick benches that prevent you from digging into the bench and freezing your scapulae, these gear problems abound in commercial gyms.

You can, typically, make a bad situation worse. You can better your bench.

Wearing a bar grip shirt helps your shoulder blades stick better to the bench. You may want to bench in a squat rack, which typically has smaller jumps between holes, then in those bench-rack combos. Having a spotter so you don’t have to shrug the bar 4 inches off the j-hooks can help.

You may need to put plates underneath your feet so you can get a better arch.

At home, getting a monolift is a good investment, especially if you tend to experience shoulder pain.

Also, you may need to lower expectations. This can be a good situation for autoregulation.

Better Your Bench with Correct Technique