1. Poor Technique.
Benching with bad form will not only strip you of potential poundage that you could be lifting, but also drastically increase your chances of injury.
When pressing, the bar should start over the shoulders, aligning the wrist, elbow and shoulder in a straight vertical path. As the bar lowers, it should arc towards the lower chest to allow for natural shoulder movement, such that the wrist and elbow still maintain the vertical alignment. Lowering the bar straight down results in greater shearing forces on the shoulder, along with increased potential for a rotator cuff or pectoral tear.
The extent to which your elbows are tucked matters. Flaring the elbows out excessively runs the risk of grinding the greater tubercle against the acromion process, along with every thing in between. Too much of a tuck will reduce the pec’s involvement in initiating the movement, reducing force production at the bottom of the lift. Therefore, find a happy medium – A 45 degree elbow tuck.
Maintaining a proper arch in the lower back while keeping your back side on the bench will also assist with pushing the chest out; decreasing the distance to the chest and reducing stress on the shoulder at the bottom position.
Note: Some trainers suggest putting the feet up on the bench in order to decrease stress on the anterior functional units (the front part where the intervertebral disks are) of the lumbar vertebrae, therefore decreasing chances of lower back injury. Anyone who runs the risk of lower back injury while maintaining a normal lordotic curve while benching, probably shouldn’t be pressing until such risk has been corrected and removed.
Putting the feet up on the bench while pressing any sort of significant load creates a huge amount of instability in the body, increasing the chances of shoulder injury, or even falling off the bench and dropping the bar on your face.
That being said, if you’re training for strength, keep your feet on the floor. If you’re only benching light
2. Too Unstable.
Unless your body is grounded and completely stable on the bench, the amount you’ll be able to press will be significantly reduced. Firmly plant your feet on the ground and apply pressure away from the bench to root yourself. Contract your core, lock down your body, get stable. Then press.
3. Benching Too Often.
Benching too often can lead to local overtraining (overtraining certain muscle groups versus the entire body). If you bench press often and still see no improvements, or feel “flat” in the movement, consider reducing the frequency or taking a week or two off from the exercise and returning to it later.
4. Weak Triceps.
The triceps are heavily used in any pressing movement, especially towards the end of the range of motion (e.g. lock out). Weak triceps will ensure poor pressing, overall. Strengthen them.
5. Weak Upper Back.
Contrary to popular belief, constantly working your bench press and biceps isn’t going to get you very far in either area. Neglecting to train the upper back is a critical mistake that bench press jockeys tend to make.
The upper back musculature is responsible for controlling the shoulder girdle which provides an anchor for the shoulder joint. When benching, it’s critical to be able to retract (pull together) and depress (push down) the scapulae (shoulder blades) for numerous reasons. First of all, it provides additional, active support for the rotator cuff and significantly reduces the risk of injury to it. Secondly, maintaining a retracted position places the pectorals in the best position to be activated while initiating the press (and therefore increasing force production out of the hole).
6. Your Shoulders Lack Mobility.
If you have unhealthy shoulders, benching is a bad idea. If mobility is restricted, the nervous system will automatically decrease force production in order to protect the body. If your shoulders are stiffer than bricks, work on your mobility. It could mean the difference between a new personal record or a trip to the surgeon.
7. Poor Skeletal/Postural Alignment.
This point ties in with the above point. Poor posture can be an effective bench press killer. If you have protracted shoulder blades, internally rotated shoulders, and an excessive kyphosis (rounded back) in your thoracic spine, you have ideal conditions for a shoulder impingement, or worse. Benching under these conditions is a prime method for injuring yourself.
Don’t even get me started.
New clients who come to me with poor postural alignment are banned from benching (gasp) until their spinal alignment, shoulder girdle, and shoulder joint have been corrected. Being unable to retract the shoulder blades and maintain that position throughout each set will significantly decrease the effectiveness of the bench press.
If you have poor posture, fix it. Don’t run the risk of destroying your upper body.
8. Weak Core Strength.
The core is responsible for spinal stability and force transmission throughout the body. If your core is weak, you’ll have a difficult time being stable on the bench. Furthermore, the feet and legs can assist with increasing force production in the press. The more you dig your feet into the ground and apply pressure, the more you’ll be able to push. However, any force produced from the lower body will be lost through a weak core.
9. Not Varying Intensity & Volume.
This applies to any lift. Constantly using the same workload (sets x reps x intensity; aka a “standard load”) is a sure fire way to plateau quickly. Implementing variety in intensity is imperative for continued improvement. For those who max out regularly, it’s important to consider that only 3.5-7% of all lifts performed should be 90% or more of your 1RM, with most (35% of all) lifts performed between 70-80% 1 RM. The remainder being used for recovery and restitution (Zatsiorsky & Kraemer 2006).
10. Poor Assistance Lift Selection.
Choosing poor exercises to help support improvements in the bench press is also another reason why progress could be lacking. Choosing cable cross overs, dumb bell flyes, or other bodybuilding type exercises isn’t going to help much. If this is sounds familiar, consider going back to the basics.
And no, this isn’t a knock against bodybuilders, however, lift selection needs to be specific to the goal in mind. If you’re looking purely for aethetics, by all means, do your flyes. If you’re looking for strength improvements in the bench… That’s a differently story.
Dips, push up variations, standing bar bell presses, push presses, incline benching with barbells or dumb bells etc are all great exercises to help you strengthen the prime movers of a bench press. Dumb bell rows with the elbow tucked or flared, face pulls, chin ups, body weight rows, etc are all decent means to strengthen the upper back and lats. Stop wasting time with “pretty” exercises and get down to business.
Final Thoughts
There are a million and then some reasons for why progress could be lacking. When that happens, it’s important to take an honest look at what you’re doing, step back, and reassess.
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