Why You are Failing on the Bench Press and How to Fix It

Is there a certain point in the bench press that you consistently fail at but you don’t know why or how to fix it?

This article will discuss common failure points and the accessory exercises that will target and develop these weak spots allowing you to blow through sticking points and plateaus.

First, ensure you are setting up correctly. Keep your feet planted firmly on the ground, ass on the bench, and traps dug into the bench with the shoulders pulled back and down (digging your traps into the bench should keep the shoulders down automatically). This should turn you body into a bow; tight and ready to explode.

Next, make sure the bar is directly over the wrist joint, not back in the hand bending your wrist back. It helps to internally rotate the wrists a little to get into this position.

The first thing you must do is lower the bar (obviously). If, when you are lowering the bar, it wants to travel toward your face instead of in a straight line to the nipple level, it means your shoulders are taking over for your triceps. This naturally means your triceps need work.

Another common indicator of tricep weakness is failure at the top of the concentric (raising) portion of the movement, often accompanied by, again, the bar traveling towards the face instead of up in a straight line.

Of course, there are a zillion tricep exercises that everyone knows since arms are probably the most trained body part in any commercial gym. The ones show below will give you the most bang for your buck and carryover to the bench press.

1. Pin Press (set pins right at sticking point. Can be performed w/ close grip to further engage the triceps)
2. JM Press
3. Board Press (Varying thicknesses)
4. Dips
5. DB Rolling Tricep Extensions
6. French Press (BB, DB, or Cable)
7. Cable Pushdowns

Next, if you lose your upper back tightness and arch and the upper back flattens out or if the barbell is shaky on the way down, you have a weak back. The lowering portion of the bench press is performed by the lats, not the chest as many folks think. To fix this, we need to strengthen the overall back. I’ll break this into two categories, one for the upper back to combat flattening out, and another for the lats to eliminate the instability in the lowering portion.

Upper Back:

1. Any chest supported row w/ elbows flared to target the upper back
2. Upright Row (I like to do these on the cable machine with handles or a rope so I can take a couple steps back and target the mid/lower traps with a somewhat horizontal plane instead of the purely vertical like is done with a barbell or dumbbells.)
3. Power Clean/Snatch
4. High Pulls

Lats:

1. Chest Supported High Row
2. Lat Pulldown
3. Chest Supported Row (pulling elbow tight to side hip pocket to engage the lat)
4. Chest Supported T-Bar Row
5. Pullover
6. Cable Pulldown

Finally, you must be able to get the bar off your chest. This largely involves the lats and the chest but before we get into that we must touch on foot drive.

When you are coming out of the hole, your body should still be tight like a bow. Fractions of a second before you start the concentric portion of the lift you should push with your feet like you are trying to slide yourself forward on the bench. NOT UP. Keep your ass on the bench. If your traps are dug firmly into the bench and you push with your feet as described, you’ll get a little bounce to get the bar started; this is similar to a push press. Ensure you have this down before targeting other weaknesses.

Now that we have covered that, we’ll look at ways to strengthen the chest and muscles used in the hole.

1. Cambered or Bow Bar Bench Press
2. Dumbbell Bench Press (Multiple angles)
3. Paused Bench Press
4. Machine Chest Press
5. Pec Deck
6. Cable Flyes

While this list is not completely exhaustive, it should cover the most common failure points and give you a good idea of what lifts you need to be abusing to progress and blow through your sticking points.