How to get more power on bench w/o lifting ass off?

[SizzlingPants]

Help me bros I push through my heels and my ass comes off the bench. I've been hitting PR's every week but this can't be good in the long run.

[IronPowerSpeed]

Act like you're trying to pull the bar apart, it'll help engage your triceps and lats to stabilize the lift.

[koweanguy]

Act like you're trying to pull the bar apart, it'll help engage your triceps and lats to stabilize the lift.

Interesting concept

Try to correct your form before you hit the heavy weights later on OP. .
If it means asking for a spotter, then so be it.

[MarcAWilson]

Adjust where you plant your feet. I went from Militia style to flat-footed and I feel like im able to get the same leg drive and my ass doesn't come off the bench.

Make sure your keeping your upper back tight. Tighter than you would think necessary. Really helps maintain shoulder positioning and it seems to help me control the bar path.

Try to bend the bar, will cause elbows to tuck, then think about flaring your lats and elbows when you hit your sticking point on the way up. Obviously don't overdo the elbow flare.

Vasalva hard as fukkkk and exhale sharply right at your sticking point.

[IronPowerSpeed]

Interesting concept

I promise it isn't something I made up haha, I can't post links but googling "pull bar apart bench press" has a few decent links

[Connor1226]

Stop trying to lift weights that are way above your strength level. I don't know who told you to drive through your heels but your feet are only there for stability, nothing else. It is a bench press not a hip press.
Lower the weight until you use none of your lower body.
Training at a weight too heavy doesn't lead to results but injury and a strength plateau.

Check your ego at the gym door. We all have a hard time doing it, but it is necessary.

[justinvb_657]

Play with your foot positioning and do your best to stay tight. And you should be driving your feet into the floor to create a strong foundation. I'm assuming your benching with an arch so you might try bringing your feet further under you.

[dmacdonal9]

Dan Green has a bench press video series floating around and one of them has an excellent explanation of leg drive. I don't have it bookmarked, but if you google around it should come up.

I think that if you're training with more of a bodybuilding mindset, then thinking about the feet in terms of stability is probably adquate. But if you're looking to move max weight in powerlifting style training, you would be looking to incorporate some leg drive.

[Get-n-fit]

Stop trying to lift weights that are way above your strength level. I don't know who told you to drive through your heels but your feet are only there for stability, nothing else. It is a bench press not a hip press.
Lower the weight until you use none of your lower body.
Training at a weight too heavy doesn't lead to results but injury and a strength plateau.

Check your ego at the gym door. We all have a hard time doing it, but it is necessary.

Nope, whole bunches of nope

Bench press is a compound movement, meaning your full body is involved, leg drive makes all the difference in the world. Look up Dan Greens vid- four steps to a better bench and pay attention to what he says on leg drive or look up any successful power lifter and see what they say about leg drive.

Do some research regarding bench pressing and leg drive and then delete your post.


OP- spread your legs out, most people find it easier to keep their butt planted by widening their stance. Plant your feet behind your knees though, doesn't matter if your on your toes or completely flat....very few federations require a completely flat foot, all require a$$ on the bench.

[ButcherPLer]

Spread your feet out wide or get them far out in front of you or some combination of those two things.

[MyEgoProblem]

Foor placement is different for everyone, and doesn't matter that much so long as your knees are below the level of your hips!

If you tuck your feet back and have only your toes on the floor, drive your heels down to get tight.

If your feet are flat and further down, the drive your toes into that floor, almost like your doing a leg extention.

Both Of these help keep your ass on the bench while driving your body towards your head and into your arch and traps keeping you super tight.

Tldr: knees below hips

[GuinnessPower]

Grip is also important. Make sure the bar rests comfortably on the palms of your hands, this works for me!

[JayVincent]

I promise it isn't something I made up haha, I can't post links but googling "pull bar apart bench press" has a few decent links

Don't know if it'll give you more power, but it'll definitely engage your rear delts, lats and tris.

[usersignup2]

before unracking, do your setup and flex your glutes. once your glutes are flexed, it'll be harder for you to lift your butt of the bench as it basically locks your entire lower body in position.

[davisj3537]

Stop trying to lift weights that are way above your strength level. I don't know who told you to drive through your heels but your feet are only there for stability, nothing else. It is a bench press not a hip press.
Lower the weight until you use none of your lower body.
Training at a weight too heavy doesn't lead to results but injury and a strength plateau.

Check your ego at the gym door. We all have a hard time doing it, but it is necessary.

Dude, no...you could not be more wrong.



OP, watch "so you think you can bench." It's about a 30 minutes series, but EXTREMELY helpful. Keeping your butt on the bench can be as easy as pushing your knees in or out when using leg drive. When done correctly will prevent your butt from coming off the bench.

Single best advice for a big bench is to stay tight. Your back muscles should be so tight when property setup that they are cramping. Proper bench setup is quite painful and very uncomfortable. The first few times you actually get tight enough your back will be sore the next day. A strong base means a strong bench.

[BombDonald]

Nope, whole bunches of nope

Bench press is a compound movement, meaning your full body is involved, leg drive makes all the difference in the world. Look up Dan Greens vid- four steps to a better bench and pay attention to what he says on leg drive or look up any successful power lifter and see what they say about leg drive.

Do some research regarding bench pressing and leg drive and then delete your post.


OP- spread your legs out, most people find it easier to keep their butt planted by widening their stance. Plant your feet behind your knees though, doesn't matter if your on your toes or completely flat....very few federations require a completely flat foot, all require a$$ on the bench.

Dude, no...you could not be more wrong.



OP, watch "so you think you can bench." It's about a 30 minutes series, but EXTREMELY helpful. Keeping your butt on the bench can be as easy as pushing your knees in or out when using leg drive. When done correctly will prevent your butt from coming off the bench.

Single best advice for a big bench is to stay tight. Your back muscles should be so tight when property setup that they are cramping. Proper bench setup is quite painful and very uncomfortable. The first few times you actually get tight enough your back will be sore the next day. A strong base means a strong bench.

There is a difference between trying to bench as much as you can, and benching to strengthen your chest/triceps/shoulders. Leg drive is usually quite important if you actually compete in powerlifting, but if you're someone who lifts weights for general purposes, it's overrated and unnecessary.

[davisj3537]

There is a difference between trying to bench as much as you can, and benching to strengthen your chest/triceps/shoulders. Leg drive is usually quite important if you actually compete in powerlifting, but if you're someone who lifts weights for general purposes, it's overrated and unnecessary.

Well the guy asked specifically how to get more power on his bench and the post we both replied to specifically stated not to use legs.

While leg drive might be overrated in your opinion, Connor telling OP not to use legs was a step in the wrong direction considering the title of the thread. Arguing the effectiveness of the leg drive is one thing. Telling OP not to use legs in bench press and that they are only used for stability is a completely different ball game.

[BombDonald]

Well the guy asked specifically how to get more power on his bench and the post we both replied to specifically stated not to use legs.

While leg drive might be overrated in your opinion, Connor telling OP not to use legs was a step in the wrong direction considering the title of the thread. Arguing the effectiveness of the leg drive is one thing. Telling OP not to use legs in bench press and that they are only used for stability is a completely different ball game.

Sometimes you just need to tell people they're doing it wrong though. If someone wants to arch and use leg drive, then they should do it, but understand why they do it. I personally could not care any less what people do in the gym, I just talk about things I know. Any powerlifting meet I've ever done, I've tried to "cheat" my bench as much as possible. All my training was with as big of an arch as I could do.

I'm not terribly interested in powerlifting anymore, and started benching with a (mostly) flat back with no leg drive and a medium grip, and my upper body has gotten noticeably bigger. I also have less nagging pains in my upper body now than I used to. I simply didn't know how to actually "press" before and was more interested in minimizing the ROM than I was with actually hypertrophying my chest/triceps/shoulders. Learning how to use your upper body to bench is important for long term gains. It's way easier to take a person with a large upper body and teach them how to bench (for a 1RM) than it is to take a bencher who relies on technique and put slabs of mass on them. Obviously the best benchers have large upper bodies AND rely on technique, but OP isn't in that category yet. Someone who benches 175x5 with their ass shooting up needs to get stronger in general, and doesn't need any kind of fancy techniques to do so.

[davisj3537]

Sometimes you just need to tell people they're doing it wrong though. If someone wants to arch and use leg drive, then they should do it, but understand why they do it. I personally could not care any less what people do in the gym, I just talk about things I know. Any powerlifting meet I've ever done, I've tried to "cheat" my bench as much as possible. All my training was with as big of an arch as I could do.

I'm not terribly interested in powerlifting anymore, and started benching with a (mostly) flat back with no leg drive and a medium grip, and my upper body has gotten noticeably bigger. I also have less nagging pains in my upper body now than I used to. I simply didn't know how to actually "press" before and was more interested in minimizing the ROM than I was with actually hypertrophying my chest/triceps/shoulders. Learning how to use your upper body to bench is important for long term gains. It's way easier to take a person with a large upper body and teach them how to bench (for a 1RM) than it is to take a bencher who relies on technique and put slabs of mass on them. Obviously the best benchers have large upper bodies AND rely on technique, but OP isn't in that category yet. Someone who benches 175x5 with their ass shooting up needs to get stronger in general, and doesn't need any kind of fancy techniques to do so.

I agree with pretty much all of this, but it does fall into the unsolicited advice category. Not that I'm above that.

On a side note I'm surprised your joints feel better with more ROM and less arch. I'm assuming you don't do heavy singles anymore and that is the factor here.

[STEFANOSSS]

Leg drive during bench press is a technique used by powerlifters who want to press super heavy weights so they have to use their whole body as a leverage,that's why we see all that belly bouncing and crazy arched backs...

Dan Green (as someone mentioned above) said it himself that powerlifting style bench is purely for powerlifting purposes...

Just squeeze shoulder blades together,plant your feet firmly on the ground and forget pushing through your heels,that's my opinion.Lower the weight if you have to,strength will come gradually with proper form.

Pushing through your heels too much will force your back to arch and put you in a rather awkward position I think...

[MyEgoProblem]

There is a difference between leg drive to keep tight and stable and to keep your arch (of varying degrees) And traps dug in.

And using leg drive to keep tight as above and to "shove" the weight up from the chest.. Like using your whole body to give you the little jump start of momentum on the press back up. Ala Dan green's comp style.

[BombDonald]

I agree with pretty much all of this, but it does fall into the unsolicited advice category. Not that I'm above that.

On a side note I'm surprised your joints feel better with more ROM and less arch. I'm assuming you don't do heavy singles anymore and that is the factor here.

My shoulders and triceps are bigger now, so that helps. I've never used many singles in training so that can't be it. My benching is typically 315 for 5 sets of 6-10 now, going heavier once in a while if I feel like. It's not much different than how I used to train with reps, but I would go heavier a little more often in the 345-375 range (best is 375x3 TNG). I just wasn't muscular enough to handle much volume or frequency with that weight, so it just tore me up. If I would have started off 6 years ago more concerned with size than I was with numbers, I feel like I would be benching more than I am now and would be more muscular.

[Cruceuz]

go look at some instruction videos at youtube man!