Master the bench press with proper form and technique. In this video, you'll learn how to bench press safely, build more strength, and target your chest, shoulders, and triceps more effectively. We cover proper bench press setup, grip width, shoulder positioning, bar path, foot placement, bracing, and common bench press mistakes that can limit your progress or increase your risk of injury.
Whether you're a beginner learning the basics or looking to improve your bench press strength, these simple cues will help you lift more efficiently and with better technique.
Topics covered:
Proper bench press form Bench press technique for beginners Correct grip width Shoulder blade positioning Foot placement and leg drive Bar path and range of motion Common bench press mistakes How to bench press more weight safely Chest workout tips Strength training fundamentals
Coach Josh from Kloss Fitness provides a comprehensive guide on mastering the barbell bench press. He emphasizes the importance of proper grip, body tension, and a controlled path of motion to maximize strength and minimize shoulder pain, guiding viewers through the technical setup and execution required for an elite-tier lift.
What's up guys, Coach Josh here from Kloss Fitness and today I'm going to show you how to do the
barbell bench press like an absolute pro. We're going to go over some high-level cues. I'm going
to try to make it quick, informative, and impactful. Let's waste no time and jump into this. First
things first is going to be setup. You're going to want to make sure you have the right arm
positioning. As a general rule of thumb, as you can see on the screen here, the closer grip I have,
the more I need to tuck my elbows to minimize shoulder pain, and the wider I go, the more I
involve my shoulders and my upper chest. The negative here is you can feel a little bit more
on the tension. What I recommend for most people to start, and then you can obviously adjust inward
or outward, is to make sure your fist is just above your elbow. That is going to be a very natural
place to start your pressing position. Now that you have your hand positioned down, the next thing
that's going to really matter is your setup with your body. A lot of people sit loose on a bench.
This is not what you want to do. You want to be a tight unit so you can really focus on driving up
through your lats, your chest, and your triceps to throw that weight up. The best thing you can
do here is actually retract your scapula on the bench, lifting that chest a bit, and putting
yourself in a strong position to begin this lift. From here, we're going to actually drag that bar
out. A lot of people make the mistake of lifting up and coming down. This is how you can actually
lose your pin. This is something you want to avoid. Instead, it's better to visualize dragging that
bench into your starting position. From here, a cue I like to give a lot of my clients is bringing
that barbell down to around your nipple line while keeping those elbows tucked. Tucking those elbows
and keeping them tight is going to help it feel more natural as you begin that descent
down to your chest. When you're learning, I recommend you learn this with poise like a pro.
In powerlifting, you're going to do a pause. I recommend this because it adds consistency.
If you do an inch above your chest, that quickly becomes two inches, three inches, and before you
know it, you're doing little micro reps. Instead, I recommend coming all the way down, one Mississippi,
pressing up. This way, you take the motion out of it. You put more control. You put yourself in a
position to learn how to press with great form, great control, and maintaining tension throughout
this whole rep. Whoa, pause. I know I'm pausing mid-rep, but I know I'm throwing a lot of
information at you. This is a very technical movement. I'm trying to give you easy cues, but I recommend
it's a great add-on to this video. I have a free form guide for you here. Over 80 plus exercises,
before and afters, and as you can see on the screen, bench is conveniently here with some
things to remember. Make sure you download that to accompany this because this will help you when
you're in the gym. You can pull it out. You can have it ready to go. It's totally free. First link down
below. Now we're tight. We got the bar just at our nipple line here. Our elbows are tucked. We're in a
strong position. Our scapula is retracted. From here, the mistake people will make is they'll push towards
their belly. This is going to disengage your chest. This is going to cause you to kind of bring your
shoulders in awkward. There's friction to me doing this motion. It's not going to feel natural.
Instead, from that tuck, we're going to envision pushing the bar towards our face. It's going to
feel a little awkward at first, and it doesn't need to be anything radical. It just needs to be a smooth
movement where you actually push that bar up towards your face. So once again, walking you through the
motion, I unrack here. Elbows are tight. Scalp is back. Legs are planted. I bring that bar down with
control. Pause. Power up towards my face. Rinse and repeat, and that ultimately is how you have an
amazing elite tiered bench. Now you know how to do the barbell bench like an absolute pro. It will take
some time. Please revisit this video. Save it. Like it. Do whatever you need to do to make sure you can
come back to it to master that bench. Something you want to continue to work on once you maximize
those mechanics. Your strength is going to go absolutely sky high. Once again, feel free to
grab my free form guide. First link in the description down below. That way you'll have
something accessible on your phone in your pocket so you can refer back to the exercise
at any point in time so you can know what to do. Make sure to grab that totally free first link
down below. If I helped you learn something today, smash like, subscribe, all that good stuff. We'll
see you in the next one. Peace out.
