So you’re looking to learn how to increase bench press strength?
Very cool. But you’ll have to work hard at it to make it happen. If you’re willing to do that, you’re going to get a lot of good from this guide.
Being able to bench a ton of weight is a goal that many fitness buffs want more than anything. Many see the bench press as the epitome of strength. It is the “classic” weight lifting exercise, and for a good reason.
A good bench press is the cornerstone of many weight lifters repertoire. It not only results in a muscular chest. But, it also works out many other major muscle groups. It is an ideal form to master as you go along your weight lifting journey.
Regardless of your fitness goals, mastering good bench press form is essential. Whether you are hoping to build lean muscle, bulk up, or stay fit, being able to bench press properly helps!
Learning how to increase bench press strength is not as simple as it first appears. There are a ton of different things that go into this seemingly essential exercise. We are going to cover everything you need to know about bench pressing. Everything from warm-ups, recovery, maintaining good form, additional exercises to maximize your bench press success, and more. After reading this article, you will have everything you need to attack the bar like a pro.
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The Facts On How to Increase Your Bench Press Strength
We’ve all heard the saying, “If you keep on doing what you’ve been doing, you’re going to keep on getting what you’ve been getting.” This holds true when it comes to the world of weightlifting and strength training.
If you have ever tried bench pressing before and found yourself hitting a plateau that you can’t seem to break through, chances are you’ve been doing what you’ve always done which has resulted in you only getting what you’ve always gotten – lackluster results.
If this describes you, then you’ve come to the right place.
Effective bench press training is all about getting results. Whether you are looking at building muscle mass or just increasing the amount of weight you can push off a bench, you’re going to have to try something new, something different than what you’ve tried before, if you hope to achieve the results you are looking for.
In this article, you will discover the facts behind increasing your bench press strength. This isn’t a theory. These are tried and true methods for taking your strength to the next level.
Train Chest All Alone
First thing on how to increase bench press strength to-do list is to make sure you are well rested. If you are serious about increasing your bench press, you need to be sure that you are training chest alone. The supporting muscles in the bench press, the triceps and shoulders, shouldn’t be hit before you work the chest muscles.
They also shouldn’t be trained in the 48 hours before your chest workout. The tris and delts do need to be prepared specially to improve your bench. But chest day should be the day you get your pecs devastated all by themselves.
Warm Up, Warm Up, Warm Up
If you’re serious about learning how to increase bench press strength, make sure your body is ready for it. As pumped up as your mind might be, you should be sure that your body is prepared to handle it.
There is no dogma to how you should warm up your chest before your workout. Usually, people prefer to do warm up sets with the exercise that they start with. Warm up sets should usually be with a weight you can do 15-20 reps moderately easily.
Take Care of Your Rotator Cuff
Rotator cuff injuries are one of the most feared injuries for the serious weight lifter. They are exceedingly painful, and they can hamper your ability to lift heavily permanently. Avoid this disaster at all costs. Take the proper precautionary steps for warming up your rotator cuff on chest day as well as shoulder day.
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Breathe Properly to Maximize Your Bodies Effort
Getting your breathing right might seem obvious if you are going through this list. If you are a beginner, you should be practicing your breathing technique. Maybe even as much as you practice your bench press form. Breathe in as you bring the bar to your chest, breathe out as you push it upward. You’d be surprised how much proper breathing can aid your lifting especially when you training to failure. More on that later.
Keep Your Elbows Tucked to Protect Your Shoulders
Proper form is vital for your bench press workouts to be effective. Bad form is not how to increase bench press strength; it can cause injury which stops your training dead in its tracks. Be sure on the positive and negative portions of the lift that you keep your elbows tucked.
Position Yourself Correctly on The Bench Every Time
Your position on the bench before you lift the bar off is very important. It’s not just crucial for maximizing your lifts, but also for your safety. You need to be sturdily planted on the bench to do this. You want to be sure you aren’t trying to fire a rocket while standing in a canoe.
- Eyes should be directly under the bar.
- Hands shoulder width apart from one another.
- Maintain at least 6 inches of space between the end of the bench and the top of your head.
- Feet should be planted firmly on the ground.
- Legs squeezed together or squeezed tightly to the bench.
Engage Your Legs, Glutes, And Abs for Increased Stability
While the bench press is primarily a chest, triceps, and shoulder exercise, your legs, glutes, and abs contribute as well. The better your balance, the better your lifts will be. Don’t let your legs flare out or arch your back on the positive and negative portions of the exercise. That will lead to your stability on the bench being off.
Push your feet into the ground, tighten your abs, and squeeze your legs inward on the bench throughout each rep. This takes some practice to get used to, but when done correctly, it is how to increase bench press strength. You’ll feel the increased stability enabling you to get through those final exhausting reps with more explosive power.
Push Up and Apart on The Positive Portion of the Rep to Engage Your Lats
Imagine you are pulling the bar apart as you push upward on each rep. Feel like you are trying to rip the bar in half. Doing this will maximize your power on the positive portion of the rep. Be careful you don’t shift your grip as you are doing this. You want to be using explosive force to engage your lats. Don’t let your hands slip and skid down the bar, though.
Explode Like A Hand Grenade on The Positive Portion of The Rep
When you push the bar off your chest, imagine a hand grenade going off. Picture yourself trying to throw the bar through the roof as it comes off your chest. This explosive action is necessary to max out your bench press potential. Remember that you need to be pushing the weight in a controlled manner.
Shove the bar off your chest as if your life depended on it. Doing this workout after workout will build up your fast twitch muscle fibers in your chest, triceps, and delts. Over time the cumulative effect is you learning how to increase bench press strength.
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Progressive Overload Is How to Increase Bench Press Strength
Progressive overload is the concept that you gradually increase the amount of stress that you put on your muscles. You can accomplish this in several different ways as we’ll detail below. This principle can’t be stressed enough when it comes to increasing your strength in any area. You must continually challenge your chest if you are expecting it to grow in strength.
It is also vital that you keep close tabs on:
- The amount of weight you are using.
- How many reps you do set by set.
- What your rest periods in between sets are.
- The number of sets you do.
Many people miss out on gains and progress because they aren’t applying progressive overload. Making matters worse, is the fact they aren’t keeping close tabs on what they are doing.
As you try to move up the ladder, those small weights will be your best friend. I’m talking about those good old 2.5-pound weights. Yes. Use those to slowly climb up the ladder in your quest for a heavy bench press. Most gyms I’ve been don’t have them, but I do highly recommend using even smaller increments than 5 pounds. You can get growth increases from a ¼ pound to 1 pound.
Mix-Up Rep Speed
One technique that is probably very underrated and underused for avoiding acclimatization is the mixing up of rep speed. Stay under control and remain fluid on the negative portion of the rep. Then explode on the positive part of the rep.
And yes, this is another great way to increase bench press strength.
However, it shouldn’t be the only rep speed in your repertoire. Changing your rep speed is a great way to bust through plateaus and avoid becoming acclimated, .
Doing extremely slow reps, 10 seconds on both the positive and negative portion of the rep, builds strength. Most weight room rats have never tried it. Try throwing three or four sets of slow reps into your routine for two weeks at a time.
Use the Rest-Pause Method to Tack on Extra Reps at The End of a Working Set
The rest-pause method is an excellent method for forcing your body to train past failure in a working set. It also helps prepare you mentally for moving up in reps for a given weight in your working sets. Let me give you two different ways to use the rest-pause method to kill it.
The first method goes like this:
- Do a working set on the bench that you can get at least 6-8 reps in before you reach failure.
- Rack the weight and rest 15 seconds. Then pump out as many reps as you can and rack it again.
- Rest 15 seconds and rep till failure. Rack it again.
The other method for rest pause goes like this:
- Choose a weight that is about 85-95% of your one rep max.
- Perform one rep with this weight on the bench. Rack it.
- Rest 30 to 45 seconds.
- Repeat until you can’t bench it anymore. (Usually somewhere between 4 and eight times.)
Vary Your Rest Periods
My go-to rest period has always been two minutes in between working sets when I am working out for strength. I can recommend using that as your baseline rest period. Varying your rest period is one of the simpler straight forward ways to avoid being acclimated. Scheduling your rest periods ahead of time is such an easy way to keep your workouts mixed up.
I do stress being precise with your rest periods though. It is not uncommon for people to befuddle their progress by varying their rest periods without even knowing it. They tend to go through sets based on how they feel instead of keeping track with a stopwatch. Don’t do that. If you are serious about learning how to increase bench press strength, you need to log your progress.
Use the Incline and Decline to Ensure That You Are Hitting All Areas of Your Chest
Looking to improve your flat bench press strength? Then, of course, you should be on the flat bench the most.
The way it works is simple; the incline bench puts more emphasis on your upper chest. While the decline bench puts more emphasis on the lower torso. I suggest utilizing one or the other at least four times every six weeks. Try 3 or 4 working sets with the incline or decline as your second exercise after the flat bench.
Add Negatives Reps at The End of Your Bench Press Sets to Break Yourself Off
Adding negatives to the end of your sets is a great way to add intensity to his working sets. You’ll quickly find that this is a wholly different beast than standard bench presses. And yes, it’s another super great way to build bench press strength.
Don’t Do Static Stretching Before Your Workout
Some research has shown that static stretching before a workout can hamper your strength during your workout. This mindset goes against conventional wisdom for many. Warm up and stretch before an exercise is a must, right? It’s not that stretching before your workout is a lousy thing to do. It’s that if you are looking to maximize your strength, static stretching could inhibit your ability to push maximum weight.
To prevent injuries, after your warm-up sets try doing dynamic stretching rather than static stretching. This way you’ll be preparing your muscles for the workout ahead while still preventing injuries.
Overtraining is NOT How to Increase Bench Press Strength
Alright, so I’ve been going on and on about all these hardcore methods that…
- Push you past plateaus
- Shock your chest into growth
- Increase your explosive power
And blah blah blah. That stuff is all well and good. But it still does need to be said that there is such a thing as overtraining. How you rest your body is just as important as how hard you push it to maximize your bench press.
A general rule of thumb, take a full week or two off from the gym every 10-12 weeks. Maintaining this pattern will give your body time to recover and is very important when you are hitting the heavy weights. It also helps you avoid being acclimated which is exceedingly essential.
Put Just as Much Intensity into Building Up the Supporting Muscles
The bench press is mostly a chest exercise, but your triceps and shoulders are significantly engaged as well. If you are serious about learning how to increase bench press strength, you’ll need to work your triceps and shoulders. Usually, you’ll want to train your triceps and shoulders after your chest day. Then make sure that you have at least 72 hours in between when you hit shoulders and chest again.
Use the Mind-Muscle Connection to Max Yourself
The mind-muscle connection might sound like a nebulous gimmick to some. Make no mistake about it; this is a very pragmatic way to help target muscle groups and further ensure good form on your lifts.
Here is the mind-muscle connection in a nutshell.
Your brain controls the movement and contraction of your muscles by releasing a chemical called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine binds to the receptors on the surface of your muscle fibers which triggers muscle contraction. The more efficient this process is, the more muscle fibers work doing an exercise.
The way that you can enhance this process is by consciously thinking about your chest muscles as you contract them doing your chest exercises. Keep in mind this should be done with lighter weights so that you can slowly go through both the positive and negative portions of the rep. A good time to do this is during your warm-up sets or at the end of your workout with a handful of light cooldown sets.
Use Smith Machine Bench Throws to Improve Your Explosiveness
It’s not uncommon for people to hate on the Smith machine when it comes to improving your bench press. The truth of the matter is it can be used to enhance your strength and power if used wisely. You shouldn’t be relying on the Smith machine as your go-to exercise for improving your bench. That is true. Smith machine bench throws should be used to complement a good bench press routine.
The purpose of using bench press throws is to build up the explosive upward pushing power in your bench press. Using a Smith machine allows you to focus that upward pressing power while minimizing the risk of the bar going wayward and causing an accident.
Try using Smith machine bench press throws as the second or third exercise in your routine after your working sets on the bench press. You should be using a weight that is somewhere between 35-45% of your one rep max.
Mix Up Your Rep Range
I generally recommend using a rep range of 7-10 as your go-to for building up strength. Please understand this is not set in stone by any means, however. You should be changing up your rep range from time to time to keep your muscles from becoming acclimated, which is key to consistent gains in strength as well as size.
Keep track of what weights you can do 7-10 reps with, but in the long run, you should be mixing up the rep range of any set of exercises you do. My general guideline for you is to change up rep range once at least every eight weeks.
Mix in Pre-Exhaust to Really Work Your Chest to Its Max
For the average gym rat, using pre-exhaust is not the first thing that comes to mind when you are thinking of increasing your bench press. Usually, pre-exhaust is a method people use when they are thinking of increasing muscle size. More significant muscle generally does mean stronger muscles, however.
Here’s the deal.
If you are indeed serious about learning how to increase bench press strength, do not settle for average as you move to heavier weights, this will help you bust through plateaus like crazy. You can’t afford to be bogged down and stagnant because your body has become acclimated to your chest workouts. Think of using pre-exhaust as just another tool in your repertoire for breaking off your chest in all the right ways.
Pre-exhaust is a method where you do an isolation exercise for at least 3 or 4 sets first in your workout. So, for the chest that would be one form or another of the pec fly. I recommend using cables flyes if you can, it is okay so long as you don’t cheat yourself. Usually, you’ll be able to use roughly 10% more weight than you usually do because you are doing your isolation exercise fresh and first. Push yourself to failure or close to failure on these 3 or 4 sets. Once you’ve done them, then do your sets on the bench press.
You’ll find that the bench press is much more robust because you’ve already put your chest to great work! That’s the point of pre-exhaust and is how to increase bench press strength.
Use Drop Sets to Burn Out Your Chest in All the Right Ways and Spur Tremendous Strength Gains
Drop sets are one of the more popular ways of challenging your muscles into growth. A drop set is where you do a set of an exercise at a given weight, and then immediately lower the amount of weight and do another set. Complete these types of sets at least three times. Drop sets are also called strip sets sometimes. I love drop sets because they are just a very readily accessible way to challenge yourself and get your muscles feeling like they are going to explode out of your skin.
Utilize drop sets for any exercise that you do for your chest. Doing them on the bench is where you should focus the most of course. There are several different ways you can incorporate them into your workout.
If you’re doing three or four sets on the bench, you can do a drop set to finish off your last set as a way of capping off your sets on the bench.
You can do a workout that only drops sets, but it is not for the faint of heart, but if you’re reading this, I assume you are serious in your desire in learning how to increase bench press strength, you could do a total of 6 or 7 drop sets resting 3-5 minutes in between each set. You should drop the weight at least three times each drop set. Usually, you cut the weight by about 30% each time.
My favorite way is to do one massive drop set for the entire workout. For this kind of drop set, you drop the weight for a total of 20-30 times until you are benching just the bar. Each time you lose the weight you reduce it by the same amount. The amount you decrease the poundage depends on what you can bench for at least 6-10 reps.
For example, if you can bench 180 pounds for ten reps, you would start with that weight and bench it ten times.
- You would then immediately drop the weight to 175 and do as many reps as you can.
- Then drop to 170 and immediately do as many reps as you can.
- Repeat this until you get to just the bar which weighs 45 pounds.
- By then you’ll feel like your skin is going to rip off your chest you’ll be so pumped!
This kind of huge drop set is done best when you have 1 or 2 buddies with you so they can quickly drop the weight for you and expedite the process.
Incorporate Supersets to Help Shock Your Muscles into Growth
A superset is when you do to different exercises back to back with no break in between. In the strength training world, supersets are exceptionally well known for building up your arms. People love to do supersets of biceps and triceps exercises back to back.
Supersets are how to increase bench press strength. If you are looking to get an extra pump that will result in more significant strength gains over time, I highly recommend you incorporate supersets into your workouts.
I like to use supersets spontaneously to help keep my chest guessing how I’m going to break it off that day. So, I’ll do a set on the bench and then throw in some plyometric pushups or cable flyes after a set on the bench. Or if I’m finishing off my chest workout with pec deck flyes, I’ll toss in plyometric pushups to give myself a good pump.
Spontaneity can be a good thing if you know how to use it in your workouts, but it’s not for everybody. If you’re looking for a more ordered way to use it, I suggest super setting your bench press sets with something like incline cable flyes to hit your pecs right from two different angles to spice up your workouts. Super setting your bench press set with plyometric pushups is another one of my favorites.
You can also combine the method of pre-exhaust with supersets. Immediately doing incline cable flyes followed by incline bench press or flat bench press is a great break off.
Use Cables to Isolate Your Pecs to Perfection
The chest fly is a mainstay in any well-rounded chest workout and is how to increase bench press strength. It is a great exercise to isolate and emphasize your pecs. There is no question that it has very high utility in developing your chest’s strength and therefore increasing your bench press. It is not without some controversy, however. Using free weights to do your flyes has come under more and more scrutiny over the years as we have come to understand the biomechanics of our delts and pecs.
I’m not here to tell you that doing dumbbell flyes is to be avoided like the plague. I will say that I think that using cables for your flyes beat the dumbbell flyes hands down. Using cables ensures that you have constant tension on the pecs throughout the entire rep, especially at the end of the positive portion of the rep, where you squeeze your hands together. You can feel the muscle under tension at that point. When doing your cable flyes, you should make it a standard practice to hold that squeeze at the top of the rep for a 3-second count.
Use Cables to Enhance Your Explosive Pushing Power
Cables work fantastic for plyometric exercises. In the case of enhancing your bench press cable can be used to do plyometric punches, which is done by gripping the handle and merely punching out flyes like you’re in a boxing match. These can be done one arm at a time, or you can do them with both arms alternating.
Increasing your bench press is all about building up the explosive power in your chest, tris, and delts and cable punches are a great way to enhance that. I recommend doing them in sets of 20.
Don’t forget to apply the principle of progressive overload to this exercise. You should keep track of your progress and slowly but surely increase the amount of weight you are using to punch out using cables. Do this and watch how fast you learn how to increase bench press strength.
Use Giant Sets to Hit Your Chest in Every Way
Giant sets are one of my favorite ways to destroy myself in the gym. Giant sets are when you perform at least 4 or 5 exercises back to back for the same muscle group. Just one giant set is meant to take a muscle group to the point of complete exhaustion, so you usually only need to do 3 or 4 giant sets before you are ready to puke. To do 3 or 4 giant sets, you should be taking between 3 and 5 minutes of rest in between sets.
And I say unto you, that kind of intensity is right for thyself!
Doing this for your chest means pushing and squeezing out rep after rep until your torso is forced to do nothing but grow and strength. Keep in mind that giant sets are a beneficial tool for busting through plateaus because they are so good at challenging every fiber in the muscle group you’re working.
Here is a sample giant set for the chest to use:
- Bench Press
- Incline Dumbbell Press
- Flat Dumbbell Press
- Push-ups
- High Cable Crossover
- Low Cable Crossover
Use the Dumbbell Bench Press To Increase Bench Press Strength
Sometimes when folks focus on increasing their bench press, they end up neglecting the use of dumbbells in their pressing movements. It’s understandable why someone would do this.
You figure that what you are trying to enhance is your barbell bench press, so why would you invest any effort in using the dumbbells in your pressing movements.
The logic here is fair enough I would say.
The dumbbell movements tend to put more emphasis on the chest and less focus on the tris, which is more pronounced at the top of the rep where you can squeeze the dumbbells together for an extra pump in your pecs. Use this to your advantage if your tris are a strong point, but your chest is lagging.
The dumbbell movements tend to be a good teacher of form for your pressing movements in general. Using the dumbbells forces your coordinating muscles to engage much more, and this can aid in enhancing your coordination and confidence in your barbell bench press.
I recommend leading with the dumbbell bench press in your workout at least every 3rd or 4th chest workout to keep a good pace in your workout.
Use Workout Chains And Workout Bands to Employ Progressive Overload into Every Rep
Using workout chains might be my single favorite way to enhance my bench press. The advantage of using workout chains or workout bands is that it makes each rep progressively more difficult. As you push the weight off your chest, the total amount of weight increases because you are pushing links of the chain off the ground, or you are increasing the elastic resistance in the band.
Usually, people go for the chains because they tend to be easier to set up, but both are a great addition to your strength training repertoire.
Employing these while also doing drop sets is how to increase bench press strength.
Note: If you’re new to the fitness scene check out our Strength Training for Beginners Guide while you’re here.
Use A 10 Week Pyramid Scheme to Push Your Max Higher
Pyramid schemes are mainly using the concept of progressive overload in a tried and accurate manner to increase your strength levels systematically. Try this classic 10-week pyramid scheme to push your max bench press higher. Remember though that the training is only half the story. If you want to take full advantage of a system like this, you better have your nutrition on point as well, or you will be missing out on significant strength gains.
Keep Track of Your Total Volume Output to Measure Progress
It is smart to measuring total volume output because it is an advanced technique because you must really understand several different workout schemes and how to employ them effectively for yourself.
Measuring your total volume output means you would measure the total amount of weight essentially by the total amount of reps. That is if you did 1 set on the bench with 135 pounds for ten reps, then your total volume output is 1350.
Keeping track of your total volume output and adjusting your weight and reps accordingly so that your overall volume is going up by the week, even if only by a little, is how to increase bench press strength. Be sure that if you start to employ this in your scheme that you are keeping all relevant workout variables honest. You can fool yourself into thinking you are or aren’t making progress by being inconsistent in an area like your rest periods in between sets.
Recruit Your Fast and Slow Twitch Muscle Fibers to Maximize Your Muscles Potential
Fast twitch muscle fibers are the muscles in your body that are responsible for explosive movements. Slow twitch muscle fibers are responsible for more long sustained moves like endurance running. Fast twitch muscle fibers tend to grow best when you are working in the rep range of 3-7 reps. Slow twitch muscle fibers strengthen when you get past roughly the 15-rep range.
Note: If you’re a runner, I recommend you check out How to Boost Your Running Performance with Strength Training. What you learn could dramatically decrease your running times.
If you’re learning how to increase bench press strength, you are more interested in putting those fast twitch muscles to work. The process of improving your strength is going to recruit both muscle fibers at some point however because you need to be changing different variables in your workout constantly to avoid becoming acclimated.
Here is a 3 set scheme that you can use to incorporate all your different muscle fiber types. Using this regiment can be a good change of pace that you can use for your entire chest workout, not just your working sets at the bench.
Add A Pump Set Of 100 reps On Your Final Set on The Bench to Flood Your Chest with Blood
One hundred rep sets are for you if you are looking for a challenge and are serious in wanting to learn how to increase bench press strength. Adding this to the tail end of your working sets on the bench should push you to your pain threshold limits, but it’s worth every excruciating rep.
You’ll be sending a massive amount of blood to your pecs which is an often-used method for both strength trainers and bodybuilders. It doesn’t just help you get a great pump; it also aids in getting you that extra amount of muscle fiber breakdown which leads to significant strength gains.
Nutrition and Supplements
It’s been said that you can’t out-work a bad diet. If you have hopes of increasing your muscle mass or your overall strength, it is vital that you get your nutrition on track right away. Don’t think that you can get away with a bad diet and make up for it with hardcore training. It doesn’t work like that.
When you are working out, the way you build additional strength is by growing and conditioning your muscles. And just like you can’t make bricks without clay, neither can your body build muscle without the necessary building blocks required. Demanding muscle growth and increased strength from your body while at the same time withholding the key ingredients for that to happen is a waste of time.
That is why nutrition is one of the most vital elements of your workout routine. Depending on who you talk to, it may also be considered one of the hardest elements of your workout routine. It’s one thing to discipline yourself and spend an hour or two at the gym on a regular basis; however, getting your nutrition game on track can be much more difficult for some people.
Here are some easy tips to help you up your nutrition and supplement game so that your body has what it needs to help you meet your fitness goals.
Use A Good Pre-Workout to Get Your Mind and Body-Focused and Full of Energy
Using a pre-workout is a good idea because it’ll help get your body and mind into the right mood. A good pre-workout usually has a good dose of caffeine to raise your energy. It may not be the only way to increase bench press strength, but it works.
Note: Check out these 111 Delicious Paleo Diet Recipes to spruce up your diet, and give your body the energy it needs to grow strong. If you suffer from excessive eating urges, I recommend you also read 19 Practical Ways to Control Hunger Cravings Now. The strategies helped me, and they’ll help you too if you give them a shot.
Vitamin C
This mainstay vitamin might seem like one of less “sexy” supplements to be taking when you are talking about strength training, but it often goes unnoticed for what it does. Vitamin C is an antioxidant which helps aid in recovery.
If you are serious about pushing your bench press to its max, you’ll need all the recovery help you can get. In those taxing workouts, your muscle tissue gets damaged causing your body to create what are called free radicals. These free radicals if left unchecked can hamper your recovery. Vitamin C helps clean up those free radicals.
Whey Protein
Whey protein is a protein found in milk. If you consume dairy, you are consuming whey protein. The big deal about whey protein is that it is absorbed very fast in the body and this is very crucial to your gains immediately post workout. If you’re interested in how to increase bench press strength, don’t skip whey protein.
Although there is some debate about the so-called anabolic window, I recommend immediately following the grueling workout you need to be consuming 40-50 grams of whey protein if you want great gains in strength.
Casein Protein
Milk contains casein protein. In contrast to its whey counterpart, casein digest slowly when taken, which can be used to your benefit as well. Because casein digests slowly it can keep your body in an anabolic state across an extended period.
Most references say that casein takes from 6-8 hours to digest. Casein then should be consumed before you go to bed so that while you are sleeping, you are staying anabolic. I also recommend you take it when you wake up so you can keep your body anabolic from dusk till dawn.
Creatine
Creatine had sort of a checkered history when it first hit the market. It still carries controversy today, as do most supplements. But if you’re wanting to learn how to increase bench press strength I recommend you consider taking it.
Nonetheless, creatine has repeatedly stood the test of time and trial. When used correctly it can be a beneficial addition to your nutritional/supplemental stack if you are looking to pack on strength. Creatine works primarily by giving your muscles added energy for explosive and powerful forms of movement. When used correctly you can push out those extra reps you need to spur your chest, triceps, and delts into benching more.
Summary
There you have it – everything you need to know about mastering the art of bench pressing. We covered a ton in this article. If you begin to implement these tactics and strategies, you will start to see improvements in no time.
To recap, we started by talking about why building up your chest muscles is so important. We talked about the importance of a good warm up and maintaining perfect form. Then we got into
Learning how to increase bench press strength is more complicated and involved that it may first appear. You can just lay down and push some weight away from your body and call it good. However, you will quickly discover that this is neither effective or safe for your body. Purposefully approaching bench pressing with the information in this article will ensure that you not only see results quickly but also that you can maintain your workouts through quick, healthy recovery.