COACH columnist

Dave Tate opens with a question for Dan Green:

“What would be your key indicators for the bench press?”

For Dan, it varies a lot. The ones he likes doing are the incline bench, shoulder presses, dumbbell presses, dumbbell bench... and the list could go on.

There are so many movements you can do when it comes to strengthening the back for the bench press, whereas other movements, such as the squat and pull, don’t have much variation. It’s just a matter of practicing those movements over and over with good technique.

But the technique for benching isn’t as complicated (or so Dan says). The trick? Get bigger and more jacked.

“It’s a lot like bodybuilding.”

Dave points out that Dan’s on to something there; if you’re going to do a huge bench, you’ve got to get tight, and you can’t do that flexing bone or skin. You’ve got to build muscle to get tight.

If they haven’t built up those muscles, it only makes coaching the bench that much harder. It’s bodybuilding repetition kind of work to get the muscles where they need to be.

Technique is paramount, but without strength, your lift will fail.


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