8 Dumbest Bench Press Mistakes Sabotaging Your Chest Growth! | STOP DOING THESE!

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When it comes to the barbell bench press there are a few common mistakes that could be holding back your muscle growth. These mistakes come from a combination of poor form, misinformation and ego lifting. If it is your goal to build as much muscle as possible, then make sure you are not falling victim to the below 8 dumbest bench mistakes!

Benching Too High / Not Retracting Shoulder Blades
I decide to combine these two mistakes because 99% of the time they are related. If you are benching with a flat back this will completely change the path the barbell will travel as you raise and lower the weight to be more over your shoulders instead of your chest. If this happens, you will bring A LOT more of your shoulders into the movement which can lead to a serious shoulder injury or aggravate a previous injury. In order to avoid benching too high, or over your shoulders, make sure you are retracting your shoulder blades back and down before unracking the barbell to perform the movement.

Bouncing The Barbell Off The Chest
Many people use their chest as a bounce pad at the bottom of the barbell chest press to gain momentum to press more weight. Now, this may make you feel better because you can lift more weight for more repetitions, but you are just kidding yourself. Making the barbell change directions is one of the most challenging and important parts of targeting the chest for muscle growth. This is the STICKING POINT of the movement and you want to use as much of your chest as possible to execute this work. If you are bouncing the barbell off your chest, you are completely removing the tension from your muscles and greatly reducing the damage you could be causing to your muscle fibers in order to stimulate chest growth. To create maximum engagement / maximum growth, you need to feel and control the entire movement. Remember, if you are a bodybuilder and are lifting for maximum growth, muscle engagement and fiber damage are more important and way more effective for muscle growth than lifting more weight with improper form. You are not a powerlifter so there is no need to all of a sudden train like one when you get to the bench press!

Dancing Feet
Whenever you are performing the bench press you want to minimize movements that will distract you from the exercise. If your feet are constantly dancing during every single repetition, ESPECIALLY at the bottom of the movement, you are wasting energy and creating instability that will hinder your ability to press as much weight as you can. However, I would like to add that it is ok to bench with your feet in the air or on the bench itself. It just depends on your goal. For example, if you bench with your feet placed firmly on the ground you can use this position to help you drive more strength into the barbell for a stronger lift. But if your goal is purely muscle gain, a lot of bodybuilders prefer to keep their feet off the ground to take away the driving force that is provided from your feet, hips, and core during the movement. This way you know for sure you are activating as many muscle fibers in your chest as possible when doing the exercise. Now keep in mind that you will not be able to bench as much weight this way. But that means nothing if your goal is to build muscle. All that matters is that you are FAILING when you reach your desired rep range which is probably around 8 – 10 reps and if we know we are activating MORE chest muscle fibers with our feet up, who cares if you are benching 15 – 30 pounds less on your sets.

Half Reps
I’ve said it before and I will say it again. Any range of motion that you do not train in you will always be weakest in. So if you are skipping the lower portion of the movement, which is the sticking point, you will always feel weakest there and will have a hard time increasing your overall max lift whether bodybuilding or strength training. For those of you who just bench mid-range and never fully lockout or full descend, aside from the fact that you are not fully stretching and shortening the pectoralis major for maximum growth, you are restricting yourself from having a stronger lockout as you lift heavier as well.

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