The average male doesn’t bench press at all. So that brings the statistic WAY down.

Casual observation at my gym would suggest that the average males who bench press there, bench about 90 to 200 pounds. Allegedly you should be able to bench your own weight. That gives a big incentive to lose the extra fat!

The bench press for many is the ultimate measure of strength. Often when you tell someone you go to the gym the first thing they’ll ask is ‘how much can you bench?’. It also just so happens to be one of the most effective exercises for building muscle and is one of the ‘big three’ compound movements that between them involve every muscle in the body and trigger all the ‘growth’ buttons in the body. The other two are the squat and the deadlift, but the bench press is far more accessible and less dangerous for the average gym goer, which on top of its focus on upper body strength means it’s enjoyed a large amount of popularity.

So if you really want to be taken seriously you need to have a fairly good bench press on you. Fortunately there are several ways you can achieve this without decapitating yourself with the barbell.

Firstly if you’re aiming to improve you bench press you should aim to work all the other major muscle groups involved independently. These are the pecs, the traps, the deltoids, the triceps and abs; so you should do pec flies, shrugs, shoulder presses, tricep kick backs and sit ups to make sure every muscle group is pulling its weight (or pushing it rather).

Then to make sure all these muscles are working in unison you can go up a weight using comparable exercises – such as bench pressing using the Smith Machine (which balances the weight for you) or doing press ups.

Similarly you also want to make sure that both sides of your body are even. Being successful on the bench press is actually largely a matter of balance, and so if the force you’re exerting on one side of the barbell is uneven you’re likely to drop it or struggle on one side when you go up a weight. The problem is that when you’re bench pressing using a barbell it’s easy to push harder with one hand in order to make up for one side being weaker. This obviously is a vicious circle however as it means the weaker side will never improve. To make sure both sides are equally proficient then, stop using a bar bell for a while and instead use dumbbells where each arm has to work independently. Make both arms do the same and you may find that you have to actually slow one side’s progress down for a while but don’t worry – it’ll lead to overall gains in the long run.

As balance is so important, you also need to train the smaller supporting muscles in the arms. One great way to do this is to do press ups using an exercise ball or with your hands placed on a wobble board.

Then when you’re finally ready to try and go up a weight make sure you’re warmed up and you have a spotter (or two even) on standby to help you out if you get trapped under the bar. Hopefully, if you’ve done your training correctly, they should find that they have nothing to do.

Mack LeMouse

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