The bench press has been called the king of all upper body exercises, and for good reason. The bench press is a heavy compound exercise that stresses almost every major muscle group in the upper body, including specifically the pectoralis, deltoids and triceps. The bench press also indirectly stimulates the abdominals, biceps and latissimus dorsi. Champion bodybuilder and seven time Mr. Olympia turned actor and politician, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was once asked that if he could only do one upper body exercise which one would it be. His answer was the bench press, without question.

There are several variations of the bench press which makes it a versatile upper body movement. The bench press can be performed in it’s traditional form on a flat bench with a straight bar, but it can also be performed at a variety of incline and decline angles using a bar or dumbbells. Each of these variations hit the major targeted muscle groups in a different way and each has it’s value in your overall exercise routine.

The biggest problem with the bench press is that it is often not performed correctly and too many people in the gym are caught up in how much weight they can press rather than learning to do the exercise correctly. Everyone has seen them in their local gym, the skinny guy who loads up the bar and then proceeds to lift his butt so far off the bench that he might as well be doing an incline bench press rather than using a flat bench. 

These are the people who are letting their ego write checks their body can not lift. Many people love to brag about how much they can bench press and typically the first question people ask when attempting to gauge a person’s strength is “how much can you bench?”. This leads many to cheat on the exercise just to stroke their ego and inflate their bench press number. 

The more telling question to ask would be, “how much can you bench press correctly?”. A correct bench press would be one that would be considered a legal lift in a power lifting competition. A legal competition lift is one in which the bar is lowered to the chest and is motionless for one second before the upward portion of the lift can begin. The lifters buttock are not allowed to break contact with the lifting bench, however the lifter may arch his back as much as desired as long as the buttocks remain in contact the bench.

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