Barbell Bench Press

Also known as: Bench Press, Flat Barbell Bench Press, Flat Bench Press

Barbell Bench Press is a compound strength exercise using barbell that trains the chest.

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Primary muscles: Chest

Secondary muscles: Shoulders, Triceps

How to do it

1. Lie back on a flat bench. Using a medium width grip (a grip that creates a 90-degree angle in the middle of the movement between the forearms and the upper arms), lift the bar from the rack and hold it straight over you with your arms locked. This will be your starting position.
2. From the starting position, breathe in and begin coming down slowly until the bar touches your middle chest.
3. After a brief pause, push the bar back to the starting position as you breathe out. Focus on pushing the bar using your chest muscles. Lock your arms and squeeze your chest in the contracted position at the top of the motion, hold for a second and then start coming down slowly again. Tip: Ideally, lowering the weight should take about twice as long as raising it.
4. Repeat the movement for the prescribed amount of repetitions.
5. When you are done, place the bar back in the rack.

Track it with MyoAmigo

MyoAmigo pre-fills every set of the Barbell Bench Press from last time, charts your estimated 1RM trend so you can see strength move without testing a true max, and flags a stall with a concrete fix. It also credits this work toward your weekly Chest volume on the MyoMap heatmap. New to the movement? Start with picking a working weight and progressive overload.

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