Fitness Tips By WeightBench Depot

• TheBest Lift for Lower Chest: Decline Bench Press

  The Decline Bench Press is one of the most effective ways to work your lower chest. It is important when lifting that you focus on all areas of a muscle group. Building a big fully develop chest means doing declines. Adjust your weight bench to a 75 degree angle. With your head at the bottom follow the below instructions. The following steps assume you have a barbell and a decline bench with a rack to hold the barbell. With the barbell on the rack, lie on the decline bench so that the bar is above your head.Bring your hands up and hold the bar just wider than shoulder width apart. Lift the barbell off the rack and extend your arms until they're straight.Slowly lower the weight until the bar almost touches your chest.Slowly lift the weight back up.Repeat steps 4 & 5 until you've repeated the desired number of reps

• Weight Bench Champ-Success Story

  My good friend, Glenn, recently became a weight bench champ. He increased his bench press by 100 pounds in a period of 3 months. He followed the spring weight lifting program used by the BYU football team. The workout will be detailed later in videos on our weightbenchdepot.com site. Basically the workout involves big movement excercises like the bench press, squat, dead lift, and cleans. By focusing on these big muscle building lifts he was able to increase his overall strenght and add 17 pounds of muscle. Glenn says, " it comes down to being consistent and paying the price. I had to change my diet, eating a more times throughout the day, and getting more protein." I love watching people make big changes to their bodies. Improve your body and you instantly improve your life. Not only will you feel and look better you will have new found confidence. What ever is holding you back confront it and start working out. Our Trainer Matt will be making a great video series on this very program as well as other killer routines.

• Ultimate Bench Press Workout

  Before we talk workouts we need to talk Bench Press technique. To get the maximum benefit from the Bench press you need to be able to lift more weight. The most important elements of proper technique are stability and good leverage. Simply lie down flat on the bench and grasp the bar with your middle fingers over the lines that are engraved in the bar. Slide on the bench until your chest is under the racked bar, your feet should be planted firmly on the ground. Lift up your shoulders off the bench and arch your back, plant your neck and traps firmly on the bench so that only your traps and butt are touching it. Now the bar should be above the top of your head. Be sure to pinch your shoulder blades together and hold it throughout the lift. This position does two things, it helps with stability and focuses the weight on your lats, triceps, chest and shoulders. This also shortens the distance that the bar travels. From the down position, load the bar to 30 percent of your bench press max. Check your positioning and push up on the bar lifting it for the rack. Hold it at arms length over your chest and lower it in a smooth controlled descent. The bar should stop just below your nipple line. Your elbows must maintain a 45 degree angle to your body during the entire lift to keep the proper line and leverage. Press the weight to the starting position in a straight line. A simple bench press tip is to try and pull the bar apart while in the press motion.With the proper technique out of the way we move on to the most important part. Adding weight to the bar! With 60 percent of your bench press max on the bar, get into position and complete 5 repetitions in good form. After each set stretch and rest for 3 minutes then increase the weight. Now put 80 percent of your max on the bar and lift it for 3 repetitions. Next you will stretch and rest. This is so important to prevent injury. Load the bar to 85 percent. Lift this weight for 1 explosive rep. Lastly put around 90 percent of your best Bench Press weight on the bar and perform 8 to 10 sets of 1 repetition, and as always stretch and rest between each set. The bench press guide will add muscle and power like never before.