3 Bench Press Set-Up Mistakes

If you’re reading up on the bench press, you’re bound to come across a handful of consistent recommendations. If you want to press more weight, you have to do X, Y and Z. It almost sounds like there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for a handful of problems.

Not true.

Just like a baseball player’s swing or a basketball player’s jump shot, every lifter has an individualized technique that must be optimized for their body type and current strength levels.

With that technique comes a unique setup, which, from my experience, is the most butchered part of the whole lift. A bad setup will almost always result in a bad lift. And if you’re on the platform at a meet, you don’t have attempts to spare.

Here are 3 bench press set-up mistakes that will leave you doomed from the start. Fix these and you’re on your way to a bigger bench.

1. PUSHING INSTEAD OF PULLING

This is not original advice. When someone first learns to bench with a powerlifting approach, they’re taught to get the shoulders pulled down and back. This then requires the lifter to PULL the bar out of the rack with the lats instead of PUSHING upward, which will round the shoulders forward and negate a tight upper back.

Imagine doing a stiff-arm lat pulldown or a barbell pullover to unrack the bar. You MUST NOT let the bar travel upward out of the rack. If you do, you’ll not only increase the range of motion of the lift (because your chest caves and you lose some of your arch), but you’ll also mess up the bar path because you can’t effectively PULL the bar to your chest.

Some lifters suggest always getting a handoff so you don’t slip out of your setup. I say do the majority of your sets WITHOUT a handoff so you can learn how to pull the bar out of the rack with your lats. Hell, I went almost two years without a handoff and I managed to bench 370 pounds.

Save the handoff for your heaviest sets, specifically heavy singles and PR attempts.

2. UNRACKING WITH THE ELBOWS IN FRONT OF THE HANDS

This mistake plays off the first point because it starts with the setup. Many people start with their head too far forward (i.e. towards their feet) on the bench, which results in the elbows starting too far in front of the hands.

If the elbows are way out in front of the hands, it forces the lifter to tuck the elbows in really tight and essentially do a triceps extension to unrack the bar. This is just as bad (if not worse) than pressing the bar out of the rack.

Sorry to the person I stole this from, but this is NOT a good starting position.  The elbows are way too far out in front of the bar. This lifter needs to get her eyes directly under the bar and let the elbows flare out more.

Now this may sound crazy because we always hear that we need to tuck the elbows to lift more weight. Yes and no. Here’s why:

Tucking the elbows is secondary to driving the shoulder blades down and back. Way too many people create this down-and-back motion from their wrists – they’re simply trying to supinate their wrists, which rolls the elbows inward without enough scapular retraction and depression.

Instead, get the shoulders set first. Let the elbows hang out wide during the urack, and tuck them as you pull the bar down, NOT beforehand.

Ideally, the bar will move a very short horizontal distance during the unrack. Raw lifters shouldn’t bring the bar to their belly like a 300-pound geared lifter, which negates the need to move the bar a long distance from the rack.

3. HEELS BEHIND THE HIPS

Yes, there is such thing as getting the feet too far back.

Setting the feet too far back toward your head will ruin your ability to get effective leg drive. If you bench with your heels up and your feet tucked under the bench, your goal should be to get your heels under your hips – no further back than that.

You see this mistake most commonly with females. Because girls are generally more flexible than guys, they tend to arch more and get their feet way back. Unfortunately, this directs any leg drive up towards the ceiling instead of back toward the bar. Not good.

As you can see in the picture above, the feet are well behind the hips and the toes are on the ground – not the ball of the foot. Regardless of how effective this is for the specific lifter in the picture, this WILL NOT WORK for the majority of lifters.

Yes, this foot position maximizes the back arch and minimizes the distance the bar has to travel. But it won’t matter one bit if the lifter can’t get any leg drive to pop the bar off the chest. I’ve seen way too many lifters set up like this at a meet, only to have the bar stick to the chest as if it was covered in super glue.

One of my favorite bench press techniques belongs to Eric Lilliebridge, who just broke the all-time world record with a 2,353-pound raw total. Check out his foot position in relation to his hips:

This lets Eric arch hard while still maximizing leg drive AND keeping his butt on the bench.

For proper foot position and leg drive, follow these steps:

• Heels under the hips
• Balls of the feet on the floor
• Toes pointed out at an angle (similar to a squat stance)
• Squeeze the bench with your thighs
• Push your toes into the front of your shoes
• Slam your heels toward the floor as your press the bar back up

LOCK IT UP

Avoiding these three mistakes will help you lock in your setup and press more pounds. Period.

Enough alliteration. If you haven’t already, subscribe to this blog in the upper right-hand corner of the page to receive my Top 10 Bench Press Mistakes e-book for even more tips and tricks for a better bench.