IDENTIFYING WEAK POINTS (PART 1) — BENCH PRESS
By Shane Robert
All of strength training boils down to a simple formula:
Train the movement + Strengthen the weak point(s) of the main movement
= Stronger
I’ve heard arguments that building muscle should be included in the formula and I don’t disagree. I do think, however, that it is a bit redundant as part of strengthening weak points often includes making it bigger.
The hard part in this formula is understanding what your specific weaknesses are and how to strengthen them. In some cases, weaknesses are very obvious, for example if your back rounds right off the floor during deadlifts, your core/bracing is weak. Often, it can be a little harder to know where the weakness actually is. Fortunately, there have been thousands of lifters to come before us to help identify and fix our weak points.
Before we move any further, let’s make one thing abundantly clear — if your technique is not very good, then far and away, that is your biggest weakness and the thing that you need to fix before worrying about specific muscles. You fix that by having someone teach you the correct technique and practicing it over and over and over. And over. Once you have mastered the movement, you still need to practice it, which is the first part of the formula above.
For bench pressing, there are 4 main areas that might be holding someone back:
- Missing at the chest
- Missing at the midpoint to lockout
- Elbow Flare
-
Instability
1. MISSING AT THE CHEST This is a fairly easy weakness to identify. The bar will barely move off of the chest once the weight is too heavy, or fatigue has accumulated. This is caused by weak pectorals.
The goal with these movements is to put the pecs under the most stretch and contraction as possible. After doing your main bench press work, you’ll pick one or, at most, two movements from each category. Take each set to no more than 3 reps in reserve. The set and ranges are suggestions and are certainly not written in stone. Cycle the volume and exercises as your program dictates.
2. MIDPOINT TO LOCK OUT If the bar flies off of your chest but, somewhere between halfway up to full lockout, it hits a brick wall, this is your weak area. It is likely an issue of weak triceps or, less frequently, weak shoulders.
Once again, pick 1–2 movements from each category and work hard at it.
3. ELBOW FLARE Elbow flare during the bench press occurs when the elbows move outward from the body instead of staying tucked, particularly in the initial push off the chest, which can reduce efficiency and increase the risk of shoulder injury. This is primarily caused by a weak upper back and weak triceps.
4. INSTABILITY Instability is an oft overlooked area of weakness in the bench press but can be seen when the bar is wobbly, crashes down, and/or the scapula doesn’t stay retracted while pressing, aka the shoulders round and come off of the bench. It is caused by a weak back, weak core and legs, and, to a lesser extent, weak grip and biceps. Though there are a lot of technical issues that cause instability, there are still muscles that need to be addressed.
In many cases, lifters need a little bit of every category to increase their lifts. Thankfully, as you likely noticed, there are a lot of movements that crossover between categories. At the end of the day, getting a stronger back, stronger triceps, and a chest bigger is certainly not going to hurt your bench. The great and terrible thing about lifting is that, once you strengthen a weakness, there is always a new one to deal with. It’s terrible because, well, it means you always feel weak about something and always have to work hard. It’s great because it means all you have to do to get stronger is to keep following the formula:
Train the movement + Strengthen the weak point(s) of the main movement
= Stronger
