Barbell Bench Press - Medium Grip

Chest · Barbell

How to do it

Lie with your eyes just under the bar and grip slightly wider than shoulder width. Pull your shoulder blades together and down into your back pockets: the chest stays high and the shoulder stays safe. Plant your feet and push them into the floor. Lower the bar to nipple level with elbows about 45 degrees from your torso, brush the shirt and press up and slightly back, towards a line over your shoulders. You should feel the chest stretched at the bottom and closing at the top, not the front of the shoulder. The classic mistake is flaring the elbows to 90 degrees and lowering to the neck: the chest hands the work to the shoulder.

Variants

The drawing shows one way of doing it, and the technique above describes that one. Almost every exercise has variants — standing or seated, the grip, the bench angle — and is still the same exercise: if you do it another way, write it in the exercise note and you will have it every time you train it.

Also works: Triceps, Shoulders

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