Floreat
Joondalup
Flat barbell bench press
Posted: 26 June 2018

Improve your upper body strength with a barbell bench press.
The bench press strengthens a variety of upper-body muscles, but its focus is on the pectoral muscles of the chest.
You're not only working your pectorals (chest), you're also working your anterior deltoids (front shoulders), triceps and latissimus dorsi (back).
Why include a bench press in your workout:
- Improve upper body strength
- Build your strength for push-ups
- Build upper body bone density.
The American College of Sports Medicine encourages older adults to use multi-joint, free-weight exercises as a method of improving bone mass, muscular strength and muscular endurance.
Technique - how to:
- Sit and the end of a Flat Bench. Then lie down by lowering yourself back on the bench slowly. Put your eyes under the bar.
- Raise your chest and tighten your upper-back. Put your shoulder blades back and down. Squeeze them.
- Grab the bar with your pinky inside the ring marks. Squeeze the bar with a full overhand grip.
- Feet flat on floor, shoulder width stance.
- Straighten your arms to lift the bar out of the rack. Lift it balanced over your shoulders.
- Lower the bar slowly until your arms are at a 90 degree angle and the bar is touching just below the chest. Don’t flare elbows.
- Repeat for the prescribed amount of reps and then carefully place the bar back onto the rack