Dear Friend,

Although the bench press is a decent exercise for building upper body mass, especially for beginners, I think it’s not always the best exercise for building your pecs and is often overemphasized by most bodybuilders.

But I always get emails every week from people asking me how to increase their bench press. It's a big ego thing to be able to tell people (especially women) that you can push up big weights in the bench press. <grin>

Well, here’s a quick technique you can use on the power rack or smith machine to break through your plateaus.

First, determine where your sticking point or points are in the barbell bench press. For most people, the sticking point either occurs at a point about 4 inches off the chest or towards the end of the movement when the triceps fully kick in a few inches before lockout.

Set the pins on the power rack to allow you to isolate that area of the bench press where you are weakest. The reasoning is simple: strengthen the weak point, and your bench will improve.

So if your sticking point occurs at about 4 inches off your chest, set the lower pins to a point about 2 inches off your chest, and set the upper pins to about 6 inches off your chest. Load up the bar and perform your movement within this limited range of motion. Do this once a week for 3-4 weeks and you’ll be blasting through that sticking point in no time at all.

Best,

Doberman Dan

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