Bench Press (Barbell)
The barbell bench press is a foundational compound upper-body exercise that primarily targets the chest while engaging the shoulders and triceps for maximum pushing strength. It involves lying on a flat bench and pressing a weighted barbell upward from the chest with controlled technique.
The bench press imposes significant demand on your central nervous system, meaning your performance can fluctuate based on sleep quality and recovery status. The AI analyzes your HRV and daily readiness alongside your RPE (Rate of Perceived Exertion) to auto-adjust your working weights in real-time, preventing overreaching while ensuring progressive overload. Additionally, by tracking specific chest and tricep recovery from previous sessions, the app ensures you are training at the optimal intensity for muscle growth without compromising shoulder health.
Form Cues
- Plant your feet firmly on the floor to create leg drive and tension
- Retract your shoulder blades and drive them into the bench
- Lower the bar with control until it lightly touches your mid-chest
- Keep your wrists straight and stacked directly over your elbows
- Drive the bar up in a slight arc back toward your eyes
- Don't flare your elbows out to 90 degrees
- Don't bounce the bar off your chest to generate momentum
- Don't lift your hips or butt off the bench during the press
- Don't bend your wrists backward excessively
- Don't unlock your shoulder blades at the top of the movement
Common Mistakes
- Flaring elbows too wide
- Lifting hips off the bench
- Bouncing the bar off the chest
- Inconsistent bar path
- Gripping the bar unevenly
Muscles Worked
This exercise is the gold standard for developing the pectoralis major (middle chest) through heavy loading. It relies heavily on the anterior deltoids for stability and initial drive, while the triceps (lateral and medial heads) are crucial for the final lockout portion of the lift.
Primary
Secondary
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