4 Awesome Tips To Help You Increase Your Bench Press

There are certain times in your bodybuilding routine that you will find that you seem to hit a brick wall and feel that you will never be able to push anymore additional weight, especially on the bench press.

Increasing the resistance (weight) that is held on the bar can become harder as you progress through the different levels as the requirements of your body become much higher and sometimes you will be trying to push weights that are just out of your ability.

So how about I share 4 tips with you that will help you to add that little more weight to the bar?

Tip 1 – Make your body the focus of your attention, not the bar

Finding your focus while in the gym is vital if you are going to be able to get the most out of your time at the gym.

You wouldn’t run on the treadmill while looking at the running belt as that would distract you from the task on hand so when using the bench press you shouldn’t be focusing on the bar, something that forms one of the common mistakes made by gym users.

Instead of thinking about pushing the bar away from your body, a simple alteration to your train of thought will help you to retain more focus than ever before.

Simply think about pushing your body away from the bar.

The reason that this works while using the bench press is that the brain can be easily convinced into thinking that something isn’t possible and so thinking about the bar rather than your body you are giving your brain the indication that it is the bar that you have to battle against and as with any solid object, there will always be a point where you are unable to beat it.

Tip 2 – Alter the way that you push the bar away from yourself

The way that you push the bar while using the bench press is vital as using a technique that isn’t strong enough to deal with the weights that you are trying to lift will only result in either injury or failure to complete the set that you are working on.

Altering the way that your pushing technique is done will not only help you to secure your grip but will also increase the resistance that you can handle.

The new method that you want to be looking to adapt is that while pushing your body away from the bar, you want your hands to act as if they are pulling the bar into a longer shape, without moving your hands physically.

Adopting this technique helps you to push higher weights due to the body calling on more ‘stabilizer’ muscles within the arm and hands, allowing you to have a firmer grip and push on the bar.

Tip 3 – Envision The Bar Going Up

When working out with a partner or a ‘spotter’ it seems that you are able to increase the weight that you are able to push while using the bench press.

Think about all the times that you have been pushing the bar but seem to have hit a sticking spot with your rep, feeling like you can’t complete the movement. When your struggling with the bar what does your training partner do?

The most common practice is that without taking too much of the weight, the person spotting will place two fingers under the bar and suddenly with their help you are able to lift the bar.

Do you honestly think that the two additional fingers on the bar are really helping you to lift the bar? No, they are there as a signal to the brain to believe that you can now complete the set, giving the brain cause to believe that it can be done.

Because of this, we can clearly see that the majority of situations where you feel that you can’t push yourself to the limit any further can be rectified through positive thought and the brain telling the body that it can do it.

Tip 4 – Give Your Stronger Hand The Visual Power

Once again we offer a tip to help you complete those sets on the bench press that seem to haunt so many gym users.

When you find that you are hitting a sticking point during your set and you feel that you can’t move the bar any further away from your body, take that opportunity to alter your eye line and look at your most powerful hand, often the one that you write with.

Although not giving any reinforcement, altering your line of sight to include your most powerful hand will trigger a message within the brain that will call on the body to increase the power output of your hand.

Remembering that the mind is your most powerful tool is highly recommended as it does possess the ability to help you leave those broken sets in the history books as long as you use it correctly and extract all you can from it.

Once you've worked these tips for a few weeks head over to Brian Macs site and conduct yourself the bench press test to see if you've gained any strength