Greater Bench Press Power

What do all great powerlifters and strongmen that have a great bench press have in common with each other. What is the one muscle that grabs your attention when you see a great presser. The tricep. Big, huge, thick and massive triceps. That is where their pressing power comes from.

The bench press, done the way most big benchers do is not a chest exercise. It is a pressing movement. Just look at the way most of them perform the bench press. They pull their shoulders down and back when they lay on the bench. The chest raised high in the air. The grip is shoulder width apart and the bar is raised directly over the sternum. When the bar is lowered and raised the bar moves in a straight line and the elbows are pointed towards the feet.

Tricep power comes from heavy upper body pressing movements like the overhead press, close grip bench presses, and reverse grip bench press. These are big pressing movements using heavy weights that demand low reps. Not exercises like the kickback or the pushdown.

The tricep require heavy, heavy weights and low reps like all the posterior chain muscle groups. The hamstrings, spinal erectors, traps, glutes andthe calves along with the triceps thrive on heavy weight and low reps. They are the work horse of the body.

Train the triceps with the close grip bench press with reps in the three to five range with heavy weight. When you are done with that move on to a exercis that is a form of the extension. like lying tricep extensions or standing tricep extensions using a rep and set scheme like 6x6. The big pressing exercises need to have you using low reps and the exercises like extension use higher reps like six to eight.

This is the key to a bigger bench press. Not more chest work like flat flyes and cable crossovers. Not more exercises like the pushdowns or reverse grip pushdowns. But more direct tricep work. Increase the workload on the triceps and a bigger bench press will be the result. Increase the weight that the triceps are using in exercises like the reverse grip bench press or the close grip overhead press, and your bench will go up. Start moving big weights and higher reps in the lying tricep extension and your bench press power will go through the roof.