The bench press, star of chest day, has long stood as the de facto measure for a lifter’s strength. There are, of course, more holistic ways to measure physical strength—and if your goal is simply to build muscle, you might not need chest presses at all. But if years of Hollywood montages have taught us anything, it’s that benching heavy counts for something.
To paraphrase Kenny Powers, not everybody’s trying to be the best at exercising. You need not worry if you don’t know, or care, how much weight you can put up on the bench. That said, if you know and very much care, we’ve got some intel that should have you stacking thicker plates on the bar in no time.
To find out what it takes to maximize the bench press, we spoke with top trainers, coaches, and practitioners who have studied the movement and understand the latest research. If you’ve recently hit a strength plateau, or even if you’re just interested in improving your form and efficiency on the lift, here are the experts’ top tips for taking your bench press to the next level.
Turn up the frequency
If you, like most men with lives outside of the gym, train your chest about once a week, you’re going to need to up that. “If you want to get better at bench pressing, you have to practice the skill of bench pressing,” says Luke Carlson, founder and CEO of Discover Strength. Just like training to run faster, that means attacking progression from multiple angles with at least two or three dedicated sessions per week.
To maximize strength gains and progression under the barbell, Mathew Welch, MS, CSCS, ATC, USAW-1, exercise physiologist at HSS, recommends a three-day training split that you can do on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
“The first day would be a maximal strength day, where we’re doing 3–5 sets of 1–5 reps, because you can build strength through that 1–5 rep range,” he says. The second day would be for accessory work—to develop the surrounding muscles that play a supporting role in the bench press. These would be exercises like the incline press and chest fly, working up to two sets of 5–8 reps for each. And Friday would be back to the bench for what Welch calls a “dynamic effort” day. Here, you’re doing 8–10 sets of just 1–3 reps, using a load around 55–65 percent of your one-rep max and trying to move the weight as fast as possible. “The dynamic effort method can be very effective for power development,” says Welch. “If you’re trying to break through a plateau, adding some power development can be very helpful.”
Set your feet
Using proper form isn’t just about deterring injuries; it also makes your body a more efficient bench-pressing machine. “You can improve your form and technique and have your bench press go up, even though your chest didn’t get stronger at all,” says Carlson.