Bench Press Assistance Exercises

Bench Press Assistance Exercises

See Powerlift Assistance Exercises: Background Info for a discussion on how to best incorporate assistance exercises into ones powerlifting routine. See also Bench Press Assistance Exercises Videos.

It is recommended that raw lifters pause all of their reps on regular benches and on any "pressing" type of assistance work. Meanwhile, shirted benchers would probably be better off using a touch 'n go method. Just be sure you are not bouncing the bar off of the chest. However, practice using a pause anytime the shirt is used in training.

The links are to where the piece of gym equipment can be purchased from Amazon.

Bottom-end Exercises

(Helps the bottom part of benches)

3-Count Pause Benches* - As the name implies, pause the bar at the chest for a slow three count. Count the reps while holding the bar at chest as follows: "1001, 1001, 1001 - 1002, 1002, 1002" etc.. Doing this exercise will improve your lift off of the chest, and it will make the wait for the press signal at a contest seem short. This is probably the best assistance exercise for raw benchers.

Video of 3-Count Pause Benches

Dead Stop Benches* - These are done by putting a free bench in a power rack, with the safety bars set just below chest level while arched. Lower the bar slowly, and let it sink into the chest so that it rests on the safeties, but stay tight. Do not relax your muscles. Pause until the bar stops bouncing; as soon as it does, press it back up from this dead stop. If there is excessive bounce, then you are coming down too quickly. By letting it sink into your chest and waiting for it to stop bouncing, you are pressing the bar from below the normal stopping point and pausing longer than usual. Of course, this requires being able to set the safety bars at the right height. I have to put mats under the free bench to do so.

Wide Grip Benches* - This exercise works the anterior delts and pecs to a greater degree than regular benches, but they virtually take the triceps out of the movement. Due to the wider angle and stretch on the pecs adn shorter stroke, they mainly help the bottom of the lift and thus are best for raw lifters. However, wide grip benches place quite a bit of strain on the wrists and pecs. Wrist wraps will help with the wrist strain, but the pec strain is another matter. I injured my left pec doing these. As such, if wide grip benches cause undo discomfort, then it would be best to avoid them. But if you can tolerate them, they are an excellent exercise. I was using a grip about one hand width wider than for my regular bench, but I reduced it to one thumb length, and that eliminated the undo strain on my pec. Pause at the chest as with regular benches.

Cambered Bar Benches* - A cambered bar is a bar that is bent up and across in the middle. Such a bar is available from Amazon, though I got mine from Warehouse Fitness. The idea of using it is, by keeping the "bend" at the top, you can lower the bar to below the chest. This will then help you get the weight off of the chest when using a regular bar, so these are a great exercise for raw lifters. But some might not be flexible enough to actually touch the bend of the bar to chest. That is why I first did them in a dead stop fashion, as described above. But once I got used to them, I can now touch the chest, though barely. That gives me two ways to do them, dead stop and touch and go. Video of Cambered Bar Benches.

Flyes/ Peck Dec/ Cable Crossovers - These are very popular chest exercises, but none of them are really that effective for building muscular size or strength. And there is very little carry-over to benches from such exercises. The various bench press variations above are much more effective. But they are very good for rehabbing a pec injury or even for "prehab," meaning to prevent a pec injury. And these movements might have a place at the end of a chest workout to pump up the pecs.

Top-end Exercises

(Helps the top part of benches)

A word of warning to shirted benchers. If you concentrate on using the exercises below, it is very possible that your raw bench will stagnate or even go down. The reason for this is your drive off of the chest will weaken. But this does not matter. All that matters is that your weights on these exercises and on your shirted bench is going up. Given the heavy weights utilized, it would be prudent to wear wrist wraps when doing these exercises.

Chain Benches* - See Bands and Chains for details.

Band Benches* - See Bands and Chains for details.

Reverse Band Benches* - See Bands and Chains for details.

Lockouts/ Rack Benches* - These are partial bench presses. The idea is to do these from just below wherever your "sticking point" is. To do partial benches, you could just do a benches as normal, but only go part way down. But the problem with this is the danger factor. You can handle a lot more weight on partial benches than on regular benches. It would also be hard to come down to the same place on each rep. As such, I would recommend putting a flat bench in a power rack. Set the safety bars just below your sticking point. Video of Rack Benches.

Lower the bar down slowly, and rest it on the safeties, but stay tight. Do not relax your muscles. Pause until the bar is stops bouncing; as soon as it does, press it back up from this dead stop. If there is excessive bounce, then you are coming down too quickly.

Board Benches* - This exercise is similar to power rack lockouts. Only here, you place two to four boards (nailed together) on the chest. Lower the bar until it taps the boards and then press the weight. Boards specifically made for these purpose have handles so training partner can hold them in place. Without that, they tend to fall off.

Floor Press* - Yet another way to do partial benches. Simply lie on floor in a power rack. Use the hooks in the power rack for the uprights. Take the weight off of the racks and lower the bar until the elbows just touch the floor and and then press up.

All-aspects Exercises

(Helps all aspects of benches)

Close Grip Bench Presses* - This is a great bench press assistance exercise. It is good for working the anterior (front) deltoids and triceps in a way that will directly benefit the bench press. Some think the triceps mainly helping the top part of the lift, so they say this exercise should be best placed in the section above. However, the triceps are involved throughout the lift, so CGBPs help all aspects of the lift. My grip is one thumb length closer than my regular grip.

Feet on Bench Bench Presses (a.k.a. Feet Up Benches)* - Bench as usual, except put your feet up on the bench rather than on the floor. This is a tough exercise as it takes all leg drive out of the bench. It also makes it impossible to arch. Just be careful you do not roll off of the bench!

Dumbbell Bench Presses* - Doing benches with dumbbells works more musculature than barbell benches. This is because more stabilizer muscles are needed to keep control of the dumbbells. However, it is because of the unwieldy nature of dumbbells that they can be more dangerous. If a dumbbell "gets way from you" while performing a lift, you could pull something trying to pull it back in place. To avoid this, be sure to concentrate at all times while using dumbbells. Of course, that's good advice when lifting in general, but even more so with dumbbells.

The biggest difficulty with dumbbells is getting them into place. I would suggest the following: Set the weights at the foot of the bench and sit on the end. Bend over, pick up the weights, and swing them onto your thighs, plates against your thighs. Then lean backwards keeping your legs bent. Only when you're lying on the bench, lower your legs to the floor, and then rotate the weights into place. Keeping the legs bent while going back will help prevent straining the back. Just be careful you don't roll off the bench before you put your legs down!

An even better alternative is to use "Power Hooks." These hook onto the dumbbells and are then hooked onto a bar placed in a power rack. The lifter then racks and un-racks the dumbbells as you would a barbell. Power Hooks can be purchased from Amazon .

Dumbbells can also be used for doing incline and decline benches. And the same comments above would apply for these exercises as well. The only difference is, for declines you would have to have someone hand the weights to you after getting set, as they're no way to safely get in position while holding the weights, unless you are using the above mentioned Power Hooks.

For raw lifters, an especially productive method of doing DB benches is in an alternating arms fashion. You press one arm at a time, while the resting arm pauses at the chest. That way, the resting arm is forced to pause extra long while the other arm pressing the weight up and comes back down. For a video of this exercise and a demonstration of using Power Hooks, click here.

For a video of DB Incline Benches, click here.

For a video of DB Decline Benches, click here.

Video of DB Benches (arms together)

Speed Benches* - Speed work is becoming a popular way to train the powerlifts. The idea is that by moving quickly you develop explosive strength. The lifter uses 50-60% of his/ her 1RM and moves the bar very quickly. However, the lifter should maintain control of the bar at all times. It is also imperative that you maintain correct form throughout the performance of the lift Also, be careful at the top of the lift that the momentum of the bar does not cause an injury. Bands and chains can be used to slow the ascent of the bar at the top. For benches, be sure not to bounce the bar off of the chest. Do them touch and go, but don't bounce. For more about this type of training, see Speed Work. Video of Speed Benches.

Rack-Speed Benches* - This is a specific form of speed work for those whose sticking point is in the middle part of the lift. Put a bench in a power rack and use two sets of safety bars. One set of safety bars is placed so that the bar is about 3-4 inches off of the chest and the other set of bars about 2-3 inches below lockout. Place the bar on the bottom set of safeties. Slide underneath the bar. Quickly press the bar up and just tap the top set of safety bars and then lower it quickly and just tap the bottom set of bars. Repeat for the required number of reps, then rest the bar on the bottom set of safeties, and slid back out.

Reverse Grip Bench* - For this exercise, the lifter holds the bar with a palms up (curl) grip. Using a reverse grip forces the elbows to stay in to the sides and thus emphasizes the triceps. But this can be hard on the wrists and elbows, so stop them if undo comfort occurs. And such a grip is not allowed in some federations, so do not use it as your primary grip.

Bench Assistance Day

Many lifters will train the bench press twice a week, doing regular benches on the first day and bench assistance exercises on the second day. I have found the best kind of assistance exercise to do on the bench assistance day is what I call "non-flat bench assistance exercises." By that is meant the following exercises.

Decline Bench Presses* - These work the lower pecs and anterior delts more than regular benches. But they are very awkward to do. You are almost hanging upside down, which can cause a headache for some. And it can be difficult to press the weight up without "wobbling" as you do. But if you can get the hang of them, declines are a very effective exercise. They work the lower pecs, which are involved in regular benches, especially if you arch when benching. But with the bench rather than your back keeping you in the downwards angle, you can handle more weight than with regular benches, so declines condition the body to handle such heavier weights.

Video of DB Benches (alternating arms)

Video of MG Declines

Video of WG Declines

Incline Bench Presses* - A very good exercise for working the upper pecs and anterior delts. The higher the angle of the bench, the more the delts will be worked and the less the pecs. An angle of about 45 degrees is generally recommended. But given that the angle here is opposite that of an arched bench press, these are not that effective for helping the bench. But they are ideal to be done on Bench Assistance day. Here is a video of barbell inclines.

Weighted Dips - These are very taxing to all three major muscles groups used in the bench press, the pecs (especially the lower pecs), anterior delts, and triceps. To add weight, you need to use a dip belt. Conversely, If you are unable to do dips with your bodyweight, then you have a couple of options. The first is to only do partial dips, gradually going deeper with each workout as you are able. A second option would be to have a spotter hold your legs and give you as much assistance as necessary to complete a full dip. You could also use bands to help pull you up. There are also machines available for performing assisted dips.

To target the anterior delts and lower pecs you need to lean forward about 15 degrees. In this way they work the pecs in an angle similar to decline benches (see above). If you do them straight up and down then your triceps will get most of the work.

It is best to lower down until your upper arms are parallel to the floor. Any less than this and the exercise is not that effective, but going down lower can strain the shoulders. Be sure you are thoroughly warmed-up before doing dips. I would recommend doing them after another major bench movement. Also, always do at least one warm-up set before your work sets. Be sure to do them in a slow, controlled manner so as not to hurt your shoulders.

An interesting alternative to dips on bars is to do dips on gymnastics rings. These are very tough but a great exercise for strengthening the shoulder girdle.

Overhead Presses/ Overhead Dumbbell Presses - Overhead presses work the upper pecs, anterior delts, and triceps as benches do, so they do provide some benefit for the bench press. However, most of the stress when doing presses is on the medial (middle/ top) delts, which are mainly used in a supportive role in benches, so the carry-over to benches is not as great as with the above exercises. But still, presses can have a place in a powerlifter's routine to maintain muscular balance in the shoulder. And they are a great size and strength builder in general, but they are best done on Bench Assistance day.

Video of Wide Grip BB Overhead Presses.

Video of DB Overhead Presses.

Video of MG Standing Presses

Video of CG Seated Presses

Miscellaneous Exercises

Upright Rows - Upright rows are a unique exercise in that they are both a bench press and a deadlift assistance exercise. They are a bench assistance exercise since, as with presses, they work the medial delts. However, they are a deadlift exercise in that they work the traps. They also work the biceps.

The wider one's grip the more upright rows work the delts, and the narrower the grip, the more they work the traps. Also the delts do most of the work until the upper arms are about parallel, then the traps take over. Therefore, to focus on the delts, use a wide grip and only come up to parallel; to focus on the traps, use a narrow grip and raise the bar to chin level. To work both evenly, use a shoulder width grip and raise the bar to the top of the chest.

But it is important to mention that some consider upright rows to be a dangerous exercise. They put the shoulder in an unnatural position, which can lead to injury. Personally, I no longer do them for this reason. But it is up to the reader if they are worth the risk or not. But if they are done, be careful to use correct form. Stay upright with no forward or backward bending, and raise and lower the bar in slow, controlled manner.

Laterals (Front and Side) - Front laterals work mainly the anterior delts, so there would be some carry-over to benches. However, the bench variations above would be more effective. Side laterals work mainly the medial delts, so they would be of little benefit to benches. Presses would be a more effective exercise for powerlifters to include than side laterals for shoulder development. But either form of laterals might be useful to pump up the delts after a chest/ shoulder workout.

Triceps Exercises - Close grip benches, dips, and any other pressing movement work the triceps very effectively and in a manner that would have the most carry over to benches. And for many, this will provide more than adequate triceps work. In fact, including direct triceps work could lead to overtraining the triceps. Also, you have to be careful as direct triceps exercises can be taxing to the elbows.

However, some might find that triceps exercises benefit the bench and/ or serve to pump up the triceps at the end of a bench workout. And for such purposes, there are many good triceps exercises, but the various forms of "French presses" and triceps pushdowns are probably the best. A very effective way to work the latter is to use a Triceps Rope, available from Amazon.

Rotator Cuff Work - Rotator cuff work is done using light DBs or weight plates. The weights can be rotated at different angles. These are the type of exercises that are done as rehab when someone injuries their rotator cuff or shoulder area in general. But doing them before an injury is called "prehab" and can help prevent such injuries. I did such exercises for my shoulder after my bicycle accident. For examples of such exercises, see Rotator Cuff Exercises Videos. One of the best ways to do them is with a Shoulder Horn, available from Amazon.

Video of Shoulder Horn: Arms Together

Video of Rotator Cuff, Lying-in Exercise

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