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"Advanced Bench Press Trick"
The Barbell Bench Press is one of the most popular exercises. And it is also one of the most misused exercises. Part of the problem is that the bench press is an "ego exercise".
A lot of guys judge their training progress based on how much they can bench. So often times they end up training too heavy and using poor technique in effort to lift more weight.
Most guys will try to increase their bench press by doing more frequent bench workouts, more sets, and trying to up the weight they lift on bench press.
When in reality they could make faster progress over the long term if they simply focused their effort on improving their bench press lifting technique.
The best way to make big strength gains in your bench press in the shortest period of time is to improve your form. And the "Advanced Trick" that you're going to learn in this e-mail is used by the best bench pressers in the world.
But I have to warn you that changing your bench press technique can take a bit of getting used to initially, and during the change over your poundages may go down before you get the hang of the new technique.
This is similar to when you first learned how to use a computer and started off as a two-finger typist. You can type with two fingers, but not very fast.
Then when someone eventually taught you the proper way to type, using all fingers, you probably found it very frustrating at first. Most likely you couldn't even type as fast as you could with just two fingers.
But with a bit of practice you eventually got the hang of it and got to the point where you can click away on the keyboard faster using the proper typing technique compared to the old two finger method.
The same will hold true for your bench press, once you get used to the proper lifting technique your strength gains will progress much faster.
Proper Bench Press Technique...
Many people do not realize how much strength they lose by making the bar travel further than necessary. The less distance you have to move the weight the stronger you will be.
To shorten the distance that you press the bar you need to expand your rib cage and stick your chest out. While at the same time squeezing your shoulder blades back together behind you.
You can even try this simple exercise RIGHT NOW while sitting hear reading this...
Right now sit up tall in your chair and take a deep breath, expand your rib cage, and stick your chest out as far as you can. At the same time squeeze your shoulder blades back as far as you can.
Now do it again, but this time hold your arms out in front of you as if you were doing a bench press. You can even alternate holding your arms out in front with your upper body relaxed and then holding your arms out in front with your chest out and shoulders back.
There will be at least a few inches of distance in the difference. By expanding your chest you can shave an inch or two off your bench press stroke. And by pulling you shoulder blades back together you'll reduce the distance by another inch or two.
Look at the pictures below and you'll see what I mean...
