Yes. Bench press is the most popular workout in the gym. They don’t call it the king of all workouts for no reason ’cause it really is. Everyday you walk into a gym, you would see guys and even women doing barbell bench pressing. It’s funny when I watch other guys in the gym doing barbell flat bench ’cause there are so many who bench in terrible form. Too many bench in terrible form, it’s crazy.

Let me explain terrible benching mistakes they do:

• Half-repping: When they hold the bar high up, they only bring it down half-way and push the bar back up again. That’s how I see a lot of guys do their reps. I disagree with that. That’s not doing anything.
• Partial-repping: Kind of similar to half-repping but slightly different. I see a lot of guys when they take the bar off the rack and hold it way up to start their set, they only bring the bar down very little. Bring it down very little and push it back up very little. You’ve seen that too and I’m like, wtf is that doing?
• Elbow flare: What this is, it’s when guys have their elbows tucked in when they bring the bar down but when they bring it up they bring their arms parallel to the bar which is bad. You want to keep your elbows tucked in throughout the whole rep which is what I try to do.
• Wrists rolling back: Many would bench with their wrists rolled back but that’s kind of dangerous. It’s better to keep your wrists neutral which is what I try to do most of the time.
• Butt raising off the seat: I see this one a lot in the gym. Guys doing their reps on the bench and their butt goes off the seat on each rep. There’s a guy at the gym that I’ve seen that benches like this and it’s bad. They do this as a way to push the heavy weights more, but if they keep lifting like this, they are going to hurt themselves one of these days. It is a part of ego lifting believe it or not.
• Bouncing the bar off the chest: This is a real common one. Dudes that bench their reps really quickly and they bounce the bar off their chest really fast which is bad. I don’t do that at all. What I do is set the bar on my chest lightly, pause for a second and then push it up. That’s how you do it.
• Not keeping the bar balanced when lifting: You see a lot of dudes lift this way. Bar not balancing, bar being lower than the other side. If you’re doing that then you’re going too heavy. That’s ego lifting.
• Doing really fast reps: I see too many guys bench this way. Lifting heavy barbells and doing their reps up and down really quickly. They do it in good form but they do the reps fast. I don’t like that. It isn’t doing anything giving them fast reps. It’s better to do them slowly, in my opinion. The slower the better. You get more contraction in slow range of motion.
• Going too heavy without a spotter: I understand that there are going to be lots of ego-lifters on the bench press, admit it right? A lot of other men in the gym will never admit that they like to be show-offs and show everyone how tough they are. It’s a wrong thing to do to sacrifice your form to show off your big ego. It’s okay to leave your ego at the door and only lift weights that you can handle. No one cares if you can’t lift the heavy weights. When I bench in the gym, I don’t really need a spotter ’cause the benches there have safety catchers and I figured out a way to safely get out of a failed lift if I get in trouble. If I can’t get the weight up all the way, I’ll just carefully set the bar on the safety catcher, it’s easy. A lot of times I like to challenge myself and lift the heavy ones to see what my latest p.r.’s are. If your gym doesn’t have a power rack or if your gym have benches with no safety catchers then you need a spotter. You don’t want to get thrown in an ambulance, trust me.

So there you have it. Enjoy and bench safely and responsibly! I love benching. I used to be against benching but now it has grown on me.

Kev