Every now and then, we all read a news report about someone who was accidentally killed by bench pressing alone, a terrible tragedy that can be averted by training sensibly and safely. As I have stated in previous articles, I’m not encouraging you to do anything unsafe. I’m merely telling you what I’ve done, the results I’ve achieved, and what I feel is the safest way to pursue competitive powerlifting if your circumstances have you training alone.
First and foremost, you must bench press in a rack. I wholeheartedly advise you to get an EliteFTS rack for, if nothing else, the one-inch hole spacings. In no other lift does this feature play as important of a role as it does in bench pressing alone. This one feature could very well save your life if something goes awry during the execution of your lift. I also advise you to use a Texas power bar in your training, as most likely that is what you will be using in a contest.
Training the bench press alone for competition can be a very precarious activity, and there are some key points I feel I must cover for you to be safe, make progress, and be able to enter a contest and bench press to your potential. First, I don’t encourage you to bench full range by yourself alone. It is just too dangerous and the chance of severe injury is too great. Next, I don’t encourage you to try and bench press in your bench shirt alone. Again, the injury factor. OK, so what do you do? As I stated in the squat article, it’s beneficial for you to occasionally seek out other lifters to train with full range in your bench shirt. It is up to you how often you do this and it also depends on your skill in bench pressing correctly in your shirt. Can you touch, pause, and press within the rules? Prior to a meet, say four to six weeks out and up to the meet, you many want to try and hit a few sessions like this.
That being said, what do you do before this? How do you train the bench press alone to get to that point? First, you must become proficient in unracking a loaded barbell by yourself and that will take practice on your part. It will take experimentation with your equipment—where to place your bench, how high or low to set your j-hooks, where your safety pins go for the particular movement you’re performing, etc. Once you’re comfortable with your set up, you must spend some time practicing the movements you intend to use with very light weights, allowing yourself to miss and see where that barbell will go. For example, if you’re performing a 3-boardpress and you have the safety pins set at a certain hole setting and you miss, where will the bar go? Will you be able to safely set the bar on the pins, remove your hands from the bar, push the 3-board out, and safely slide out? You need to find that out with a bar loaded very lightly. One inch makes a difference, so you need to spend a great deal of time with this. Get a pad and a pen and take an afternoon to do this correctly. Not only is your progress on the line but so is your safety.
As I said earlier, I don’t believe you should train full range benching alone. The incidence for injury is too great. To be honest, nowadays, if you’re proficient in your bench shirt, the majority of your time will be better spent on mid-range and lockout movements. I set the safety pins a good two or three inches above my nose and came down with an empty bar over that point to make sure I had good clearance and safety. From there, figure out what board heights you can use. For me, that’s a 2-boardand higher. For you, it may be a 3-board and higher. Experiment with an empty bar.
Once you’re satisfied that you’ve found the correct hole spacings for safety and the corresponding board heights, how do you train? I mostly use threes and fives as far as repetitions go. I use a wide variety of contrast methods such asbands, reverse bands,and chains.You may also vary your grip for even more records in training. You may want to stay with a certain method for two to three weeks such as reverse medium bands off a 4-board for a max triple or you may switch every week to a 2-board with three sets of chains with a medium grip for a max set of five reps. It is all up to you, but keep a record of your training so you can try and beat your PRs. Because most if not all of your heavy training will be partial range of motion, you may feel that your chest or starting position is being neglected. If that is the case, hit some dumbbell presses at different angles for as many sets as you feel are necessary. Perform some shoulder work. A favorite of mine is seated overhead pin presses in the rack at differing pin heights.
Most lifters train their benches twice a week, performing a max effort day and a speed day or a heavy day and a light day. However you want to look at it, if you decide to incorporate a speed or light day and you feel safe to go full range alone, keep some important factors in mind. Set your safety pins to where you would need them should something go not quite as planned. Don’t go heavy. Don’t do anything near where you could potentially miss. Keep it well within your abilities.
There you have it. Benching alone isn’t the optimal method for improving your contest bench, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t make progress if you find yourself alone. Be smart and be safe. If you’re unsure or if something doesn’t feel right, by all means don’t do it. Again, take my advice with a grain of salt. The overall factor is safety. Be safe and be strong.