Improving the Bench Press

Mike MacDonald – greatest bench presser ever

That’s Mike MacDonald, the greatest bench presser ever. Not just my opinion. The bench press is easily the most practiced lift in the gym, everyone that has lifted weights has bench pressed. And this guy is the best that’s ever done it.

In the 100kg class he benched 263kg, in 1979.

In the 110kg class he benched 273kg, in 1977.

No one has benched more

Both those lifts are all time World Records. Across every Fed. That means no one has benched more in those 2 weight classes, in competition, raw, ever. How can any man have a world bench press record for 35 years, come on. These are official lifts performed under IPF judging, no bench shirt, hell, he doesn’t even have wrist wraps on. He has no arch, a common tactic used nowdays to limit the range of motion. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, check this out.

To the average gym goer, that looks absurd. I’m a gym owner and powerlifting coach, and I think it’s absurd. So I’m going to talk about what I believe you should be doing to get stronger. That word will seem foreign to the technique specialists reading this, but it’s the reason most people lift weights.

So let’s begin there, the reason you lift weights. Because I can’t poll everyone reading this, I’m going to take a guess, to get bigger and stronger, not to lift more weight. I’ll wait for you to read that again as I reckon I just lost you. Caught up? The picture above of the lifter with that massive arch would bench press much less over a full range of motion, lying flat on the bench, which is why he arches. So let’s say he can bench 125kg lying flat, and then makes 152.5kg, that’s what’s on the bar, with his big arch, is he any stronger or has he just moved more weight?

He is using less muscle activity because he has a 4” stroke by the look of it, normal is closer to 14”. With all my new clients, I teach full range of motion on every lift, squat, bench press, deadlift, overhead press, chins, dips, curls.

Let’s talk about the bench press

Let’s talk about the bench press, lay flat on a bench, but stay tight, drive your legs hard into the ground, grab the bar inside the 81cm ring markers. About those. I know lots of readers may train at a regular commercial gym, where the owner might not even be aware there is more than one type of bar. A powerbar, used for powerlifting, has rings grooved into the knurling that are 81cm apart, and 25cm from the collar. A weightlifting bar has rings that are 20cm from the collar, so 91cm apart. So if you normally use a powerbar at your gym, and you measure your grip from those rings, make sure if you’re in a foreign gym that you are using a powerbar, as taking too wide a grip with a maximum bench can leave you injured, shoulder at best, torn pec at worst. Not all equipment suppliers sell both kinds, Ironedge does.

Those rings, 81cm apart, signify the widest grip you can take in competition. Here’s how I start with grip and novices. I prefer a close grip, just an inch either side of the knurling. I recommend you bench with that grip till you can do a comp legal bench of around 110-120kg. This will be of great benefit for you later, as you will be endowed with strong triceps. What’s that? You do lots of tricep isolation movements. Why? The bench press is a great tricep developer, you will also be using more weight, 100kg is going to provide more muscle activity than a 10kg dumbbell. I’ve read where some Russian coaches don’t allow lifters to do direct tricep work till the lifter can bench 140kg. As the saying goes, “If the Russians are doing, you probably should be as well”. As far as reps and sets goes, there is no best, get strong at singles and get strong at tens, just do one of the 3 mores each session, more weight, more reps or more sets. That’s called, in case you’re wondering, progress.

Now, as with everything I preach, I practice it as well. In 2010 I had a lifter compete at Worlds, he benched 107.5kg at 78kg, he had the narrowest grip you have seen. This year at Worlds he benched 155kg at 86kg, a mere two years later. His grip has moved out to the rings. His triceps, a prime mover in the lift, are one of his strongest body parts. He would not have done direct tricep work besides dips in 10 sessions in those 2 years.

What we do to get stronger

So what do we do to get stronger? We press, a lot. We perform dumbbell flat bench pressing, dumbbell incline press, seated dumbbell shoulder press, standing military press, push press. We also do lots of dips, both weighted low reps and bodyweight high reps. This is a departure from what we do with squats and deadlifts. I just feel we get better results on the bench press if we become better all round pressers.

I’ve had technique experts tell me I’m holding our lifters back by not teaching accepted powerlifting techniques such as wide as legally possible grip and a high arch. I disagree. We are not a big gym in terms of members by any stretch of the imagination. I read recently where a local bodybuilding gym had over 2000 members, that’s a lot. Yet we have 12 lifters that can bench press between 150kg and 185kg, properly, no spotting, bar touching the chest, pressed to lock out. These guys range in bodyweight from 78kg to 160kg.

But what about our girls? I think one of the most impressive things you can see a girl do in the gym is bench the plates. Not many girls ever bench the plates, 60kg, yet we have had 11 girls bench between 60kg and 77.5kg, raw, flat back. Bodyweights of the strongest girls are 55kg to 60kg. I had one girl today bench 70kg x 4 whilst weighing 60kg.

The girls do the same assistance exercises the guys do, lots of pressing, dips. One of the sub 60kg girls can do a strict standing military press with 55kg, and does reps on 30kg dumbbell bench press. That’s strong pressing. At the recent Worlds a competitor from Israel asked me how I trained my girls for bench, as 3 of my girls, training partners, benched between 60kg and 70kg. She asked why we didn’t arch at all. I explained we simply trained to become strong pressers, every movement. This girl was a seasoned competitor and had been stuck on a 67.5kg bench for 2 years. I told her most of my girls hadn’t even trained 2 years. I told her how much one of them used for DB flat bench, which blew her away, because there is no arch or technique with dumbbells, strong is strong here. I think this girl is going to try this outdated approach of actually trying to get stronger. Curious to see how much she benches at Worlds in 2013.

Another area we work hard on is upper back strength, lots of bent rows, dumbbell rows, chins and shrugs. I have around 5 girls that can do proper wide grip dead hang chins without any swinging, the best bencher can do 16 reps.

The secret of the PTC bench press

So that’s pretty much the secret of the PTC bench press, get strong at pressing. Now there are many much, much stronger guys in gyms around Australia than my crew. My team is relatively young, most powerlifters don’t peak till their late 30’s early 40’s. Our 185kg bencher is 21, he has 2½ years training, in total. I have two 20yo who already bench press over 150kg while weigh 85kg. Our numbers are okay for such a young gym and young team. These are competition lifts as well, not gym lifts, if you’re not aware of the difference, enter a comp, the pause alone knocks 10kg off most guys benches. All 3 of the guys just mentioned hold the bench press world record in the GPC for their age and weight, similar with our female benchers.

So whenever a technique expert comes into PTC and tells me how we’re doing it wrong, this happens more often than you think, from lifters who can’t match my guys, I ask them to Google Mike MacDonald, the greatest bench presser that’s ever lived. He embodies everything that is good in the bench press, flat back, no bench shirt, no wrist wraps, and more bloody weight than anyone has ever moved, ever, in everyone’s favourite movement.

Of course there are always issues and side effects with following my advice. You may get really strong and you may actually build some muscle, making buying new clothes a necessity rather than an option.

Now this is not the only way to improve your bench press, but it’s the way I teach. Good luck.

Markos Markopoulos
Head Strength Coach,
Peformance Training Centre
Frankston