Hitting a bench press plateau is a frustrating experience, where no matter what you do, you can’ t make the progress you want to and begin to stagnate. One thing we can do to fix this problem is to start introducing accessory exercises into our training that help boost bench press performance.
So we're going to list out three accessory exercises you can perform to blow up your bench press.
Close-Grip Bench Press
When we preform a bench press repetition, we bring the bar down to our chest through that eccentric motion. As we start to push the bar up, during the first half of the movement our pecs and shoulders are doing a majority of the work.
As we get around halfway to the top of the movement, our triceps will be called upon to lock out our elbows and finish the lift.
So having strong triceps is essential for bench press performance, because that’s what’s going to help you lock your arms out and finish the lift. Now with the close-grip bench press, just by bringing our grip closer together, the work is going to shift dramatically to the triceps throughout the movement.
Performing high-volume close-grip bench presses during the accessory portion of your workout and getting stronger at that movement will reap massive benefits to your standard bench press performance.
Kettlebell Bottoms-Up Bench Press
Now if you’ve been bench pressing a while, You’ve probably experienced the phenomenon where it seems like one arm is pressing more than the other, and then your bench press ends up looking crooked.
This is one of the most common issues with the bench press that I see as I coach.
The solution to this problem is going to be shoulder stability.
When you bench press, one of the number one technique cues you want to be performing is squeezing your shoulder blades together and puffing your chest out, while having that arch in your back.
What this does is place the shoulders back into an optimal (and safe) position for the bench press movement. If I don’t set my shoulders back and simply lay flat on the bench, my shoulder is going to be in a compromised position and much more prone to injury during the movement.
The act of keeping the shoulders pulled back and down while you’re performing a heavy bench press comes down to shoulder stability.
What I’ve seen a lot is athletes will have one shoulder that is totally capable of stabilizing and staying locked down during the movement, but the other shoulder can’t, and then a crooked bench press is the result. And this will also put that shoulder in a place for injury.
So to work on this, we can use the kettlebell bottoms up bench press.
This movement will train you to keep your lats engaged and keep the shoulder locked in.
I recommend using this movement for a couple sets during your warm up for the bench press.
Dips
The reason dips will help your bench press is because it’s basically training all of the same big pushing muscles used in the bench press, so it’ll allow you to simply add more volume to this area.
Like the bench press, we’re training our pecs and our shoulders as we get deep into the dip, and then, again, at around that halfway point to the top, our triceps are kicking on to get to that lockout.
This is another great addition to the accessory portion of your upper body day. When I began doing weighted dips as part of my training, I saw a massive leap in my bench press performance, and I think you will too.
If you'd like to watch our full-length video on bench press accessory exercises, click here.
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