Five Must-Do Exercises for A Bigger Bench Press

The barbell bench press is arguably the most popular strength training exercise on the planet. Almost everyone who lifts weights includes bench presses in their workouts. When you get two lifters together, invariably, one will ask the other, “Bro, how much can you bench?”

Bodybuilders do bench presses to build chest size, while athletes do them to increase upper-body pushing strength. As well as being a popular muscle and strength-building exercise, the bench press is one of the lifts contested in powerlifting and is occasionally featured in strongman events.

Regardless of why you bench press, most exercisers want to know the secret to lifting more weight. After all, a big bench press can win you major bragging rights. Learn the average bench press by age, weight, gender, and experience level here.

In this article, we share five must-do bench press-boosting accessory exercises.

Five Key Exercises for Boosting Your Bench Press

Has your bench press progress ground to a halt? Do you want to put more plates on the bar? Do you want to score a new bench press one-repetition maximum?

We hear you!

Supplement your bench press workouts with the following must-do assistance exercises.

1. Close grip bench press

Muscles targeted: Triceps, pectoralis major, anterior deltoids.

While bench presses are classed as a chest exercise, your triceps are also heavily involved. In fact, because of their smaller size, the triceps usually fatigue and fail before the pecs during heavy or high-rep bench presses.

Benching with a narrower-than-standard grip means your triceps must work harder than usual. This extra overload should carry over and boost your bench press performance.

Steps:

1. Lie on the bench with your eyes directly under the barbell.
2. Hold the bar with an overhand shoulder-width grip or slightly narrower. Pull your shoulders down and back, brace your core, and plant your feet firmly on the floor.
3. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest.
4. Bend your arms and lower the bar to lightly touch your chest.
5. Drive the bar back up and repeat.

Benefits:

• Boosts triceps strength.
• Builds a stronger lockout.
• More shoulder-friendly than parallel bar dips.

Tips:

• Avoid “bodybuilder-style” close grip bench presses where your thumbs are touching. These can cause shoulder, elbow, and wrist problems.
• This exercise works best with moderate to heavy weights and low to medium reps, e.g., sets of 4-8.
• Lower the bar under control and then drive it up explosively.

Read more on close grip bench press and alternatives.

2. Paused bench press

Muscles targeted: Pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, triceps.

There are several performance-boosting reasons to do paused bench presses. Firstly, they break the eccentric/concentric stretch-shortening reflex, making each rep harder. You’ll need to work MUCH harder to drive the weight up and off your chest. Next, they teach you to be more explosive, so you can blast the bar through your sticking points. Finally, it’s the best way to eliminate bouncing the bar off your chest, which, frankly, is cheating!

Steps:

1. Lie on the bench with your eyes directly under the barbell.
2. Hold the bar with a wider-than-shoulder-width overhand grip. Pull your shoulders down and back, brace your core, and plant your feet firmly on the floor.
3. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest.
4. Bend your arms and lower the bar to lightly touch your chest. Do not relax or let out your breath.
5. Pause for 1-5 seconds.
6. Drive the bar back up to arm’s length and repeat as necessary.

Benefits:

• Good for developing speed and power off your chest.
• Keeps each rep honest by eliminating bouncing.
• Teaches you how to stay tight and grind out hard reps.

Tips:

• Vary the length of your pauses from one second up to five seconds per rep.
• Keep your reps relatively low – 3-6 per set is ideal.
• Don’t go too heavy too soon; pauses make weights feel much heavier.

3. Floor press

Muscles targeted: Pectoralis major, triceps, anterior deltoids.  

A lot of benchers struggle with their lockout. They have no problem getting the bar up and off their chests but are often unable to complete their rep. This is why you should always bench press with a spotter on hand or in a power rack. Floor presses emphasize the last stage of the bench press and can help you improve your lockout strength. As an added benefit, floor presses are also very shoulder-friendly and ideal for banged-up bodybuilders and powerlifters.

Steps:

1. Set up your barbell in a squat rack set to about knee height or slightly higher.
2. Lie on the floor with your eyes directly beneath the bar.
3. Hold the bar with a wider-than-shoulder-width overhand grip. Pull your shoulders down and back, brace your core, and plant your feet firmly on the floor.
4. Unrack the weight and hold it over your chest.
5. Bend your arms and lower the bar toward your chest until your triceps lightly touch the floor.
6. Drive the bar back up and repeat.

Benefits:

• Builds a stronger lockout.
• Increases triceps size and strength.
• Very shoulder friendly.

Tips:

• You can also do this exercise with a close grip to increase triceps engagement.
• Try this exercise with bent or straight legs to see which you prefer.
• You can also do floor presses with dumbbells:

Read more on Floor Press.

4. Wide grip bench press

Muscles targeted: Pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, triceps.

While the triceps are a common weak link in the bench press, weak pecs could also be holding you back. After all, the pectoralis major is the agonist or prime mover during bench presses. Wide grip bench presses deemphasize your triceps, so your pecs have to work harder. This is also an excellent chest-building exercise. 

Steps:

1. Lie on the bench with your eyes directly under the barbell.
2. Hold the bar so your hands are 3-6 inches wider than your regular bench press grip.
3. Pull your shoulders down and back, brace your core, and plant your feet firmly on the floor.
4. Unrack the bar and hold it over your chest.
5. Bend your arms and lower the bar to lightly touch your chest.
6. Drive the bar back up to arm’s length and repeat as necessary.

Benefits:

• Increases strength and power off your chest.
• Good for building bigger pecs.
• Reduces your range of motion.

Tips:

• Combine this exercise with paused reps for a more intense chest workout.
• You can also do this exercise with dumbbells if preferred.
• Reduce the weight on the bar; this exercise is more strenuous than it looks!

5. Push-ups

Muscles targeted: Pectoralis major, anterior deltoids, triceps.

The humble push-up might seem like an unlikely way to boost your bench press, but it’s actually one of the best exercises you can do. Push-ups work the same muscles as bench presses, but they’re not as systemically fatiguing, so you can accumulate a ton of volume without detracting from your bench press workouts. Plus, you can modify push-ups to replicate close grip, wide grip, and paused bench presses, so you can do your must-do bench press assistance exercises at home. Bench pressers in the know do LOTS of push-ups!

Steps:

1. Kneel on all fours and place your hands roughly shoulder-width apart, fingers pointing forward. Pull your shoulders out and back, and brace your core.
2. Walk your feet out and back so your body is straight.
3. Bend your arms and lower your chest down to within an inch of the floor.
4. Drive yourself back up and repeat.

Benefits:

• Easy to modify and adapt to suit all strength levels.
• Very functional and shoulder-friendly.
• You can do push-ups anywhere and anytime, making them the perfect excuse-free bench press assistance exercise.

Tips:

• Bring your hands in to emphasize your triceps, or move them out to work your chest more.
• Raise your feet to put more weight on your hands. Alternatively, use a weighted vest or resistance band behind your back.
• Put your hands on yoga blocks or use push-up handles to increase your range of motion and the difficulty of this exercise.

Bigger Bench Press – FAQs  

Do you have a question about training for a stronger bench press? No sweat because we’ve got all the answers!

1. How often should I do bench presses?

To get good at something, you need to practice doing it, including the bench press. So, while a lot of lifters bench press just once a week, usually on a Monday, you’ll improve faster if you hit the bench twice or even three times a week.

However, you should avoid doing so much bench pressing per workout that you’re tired for your next session. Instead, focus on quality rather than quantity.

You should also rotate bench press variations to avoid overuse injuries, plateaus, and boredom, and it’s also a good idea to vary the intensity level and set/rep scheme from one workout to the next.

For example:

Monday

1. Bench press – 5 sets of 3 reps
2. Wide grip bench press – 2 sets of 8 reps
3. Push-ups – 2 sets of 30 reps

Wednesday

1. Paused bench press – 4 sets of 5 reps
2. Close grip bench presses – 2 sets of 10 reps
3. Dumbbell bench press – 2 sets of 12 reps

Friday

1. Floor press – 4 sets of 8 reps
2. Bench press – 2 sets of 6 reps
3. Close-grip push-ups – 2 sets of 25 reps

2. How important is good technique for a bigger bench press?

While brute strength can take you a long way, good bench press technique can add a lot of weight to your lift. Proper bench press form ensures that all your energy goes into the movement and that none is wasted. Tricks like leg drive and elbow tucking vs. flaring can also have a marked impact on your bench press performance.

Good technique is also generally safer and less likely to cause injuries.

It’s beyond the scope of this article to teach you how to bench press correctly, but you’ll find all the information you need here: Bench Press Ultimate Guide

3. How much should I be able to bench press?

Several factors can affect and determine your ultimate bench press performance. For example, long arms and a shallow chest mean you’ll have to lower and lift the weight further than someone with short arms and a barrel chest. As such, some people are built to bench press, while others are not.

Bodyweight, gender, age, and experience can also affect how much weight you can bench press.

That said, there are charts depicting average bench press performance by age and gender, which will tell you how your lifts compare to other people in your demographic.

Check out this article to see how your bench press measures up.

4. Are exercises like triceps pushdowns and skull crushers good bench press assistance exercises?

While pushdowns and skull crushers are great triceps isolation exercises, they may not be the best way to improve your bench press performance. That’s because neither of these exercises works your triceps the way they function during bench presses.

During the bench press, the elbows and shoulders move simultaneously. However, pushdowns, etc., only involve the elbow joint, so they won’t necessarily carry over well to bench presses.

Generally, the best assistance exercises closely replicate the movement you want to improve. That’s why our list of five must-do exercises for a bigger bench press is mostly variations of the bench press.

5. So, I only need to train my chest and triceps for a bigger bench press, right?

While the chest and triceps are the engines that drive your bench press, they don’t work alone. You also need a strong upper back to bench press heavy weights.

During the bench press, muscles including your latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, trapezius, and deltoids, work hard to stabilize your shoulders and shoulder girdle. Any weakness will result in unwanted movement and wasted energy.

As such, as well as training your pecs and triceps, you also need to train your upper back if you want to build a bigger bench press. Good exercises for this purpose include:

Closing Thoughts

The bench press is an emotive exercise, and a lot of lifters want to get better at it. However, good bench press performances don’t happen by accident – you’ll need to train to build a bigger bench press.

The good news is that no matter your current bench press ability, you can improve it. Following a smart, progressive bench press program will help, as will supplementing your workouts with the best bench press assistance exercises. Set some goals, and then crush them.

Include these must-do assistance exercises in your upper body workouts; with time and effort, your bench press will GROW!

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