Bench press – common mistakes

Bench press is one of the most important exercises in the universe, and Monday is the official day of this exercise, but not just one Monday but every Monday. Many beginners usually start doing this exercise without any knowledge. In today’s article we will try to cover the most common mistakes while performing this exercise.

Asymmetric grip width

This is a classic, the bar is asymmetrical when lifting up, it is not going horizontal on it’s way up. This can happen because of two things, the first is an asymmetric grip width: one hand grabbed the bar closer than other hand and here you go: asymmetric grip equals asymmetric lifting.

The second case when this misatke occurs is when you are lifting heavy load and your left or right side is not strong enough. You will see the biggest difference in the first part of the movement when it is lifted, and as the movement moves towards its end, the asymmetric position of the bar can only increase.

Lifting up your base points

There are four base points in this exercise: heels, glutes, scapula and your head. You are going to see “foot dance” which occurs when a person tries to lift heavy lead and instead of focusing on the base it lifts his foot, destabilizing the base just to lift the weight. This is ego lifting and it won’t lift anything.

We need to focus on our base, it is our only contact with the surface (the bench and the floor) and it is important to have full feet on the floor, head, glutes and scapula on the bench to perform the exercise successfully.

Extra wide grip

Grip width is individual and depends on several factors: shoulder width, arm length and type of bench press we are performing but the forearms should be vertical on the floor when you lower the bar to your chest. Too wide grip will put unnecessary load on your shoulders. You probably know someone who doesn’t like bench press because it hurts his shoulders.

At the end of this article, we want to take this opportunity to congratulate you every Monday in advance, if you work your chest on Mondays. If you are not part of the bench press Monday movement, we hope that they don’t take your squat rack every time!

This post is also available in: Croatian