If you are looking to boost your bench press, then you need to start doing this back exercise. In this video, I am going to show you how you performing the inverted row is going to help increase your bench press.
To get a bigger bench press, you need to understand the importance of the back in the exercise itself. I know what you’re thinking; “how does the back relate to the bench press?” Well, engagement of the lats is key to benching because it allows you to stay tight and keep your shoulders back and down, which will allow you to press the weight safely and more efficiently.
So, how do you train the back in order to increase your bench press? One of the best accessory exercises was demonstrated by my good friend KC Mitchell, aka the 1 Legged Monster, is the lean back pulldown. But what if you don’t have a lat pulldown machine? Well, you’re in luck!
The back exercise that will help get you a bigger bench press is actually a simple bodyweight exercise that I have included in just about all of my ATHLEAN-X programs; the inverted row. However, it’s not just the exercise you need to be aware of, but it’s HOW you perform the exercise that matters the most. Why? Because if you perform the exercise the wrong way, then you are leaving all of its benefits on the table. However, with a slight tweak, not only do we make the exercise more effective, but it begins to have major carry over to other lifts; in this case, the bench press.
So, if we are going to perform the exercise correctly in order to increase how much you can bench press, we also need to understand where we can go wrong. The problem with the way that the inverted row is commonly performed is that people will often keep a hollow body as they bring themselves up to the bar. While you may be able to perform more reps doing the exercises this way, you’re not going to get nearly as much benefit as you could.
Like I said before, by performing the inverted row incorrectly (in this case, with a hollow body) you are missing out on the maximum potential gains you can get from the exercise as well as throwing away any carryover to increasing your bench press.
How do you perform the inverted row correctly that will have the most impact when you are benching? When you bring your body up towards the bar, you want to stick your chest out and essentially reach for the bar with your chest. This will allow for more engagement of the lats and establish a tight back throughout the movement. Now, while this is a great bench press accessory exercise, it’s important to understand why.
When you’re performing the bench press, you might just be allowing the bar to passively travel down to your chest before pressing the weight up. This, I find, is where you are leaving gains on the table. What I want you to do, instead, is to actively try to meet the bar on its descent. How do you do this? As the bar comes down to your chest, you want to bring your chest up to the bar, reaching with it just as you would on the inverted row.
Imagine that you are actually rowing yourself to the bar as it comes down towards your chest. This will allow you to further engage your lats and keep the tightness that is so important to the bench press. When you bring your chest to the bar, you are also driving your upper back and lats into the bench. This helps you to push the weight more efficiently, helping to boost your strength on the bench press.
So in order to bench press more weight, including the inverted row as an accessory lift in your programming is essential as it will help to reinforce the involvement of the lats and upper back in the bench press. With learning to row you chest up to the bar on its descent is essential for getting a stronger bench.
Next time you go to bench press, I want you to give this tip a try to see how much your bench improves.
If you’re looking for more accessory exercises to help boost your lifts and get you stronger, faster, be sure to head over to athleanx.com and use the program selector tool to find the program that best matches your goals.
For more videos on how to increase your bench press safely and efficiently, be sure to subscribe to our channel here on youtube and remember to turn on your notifications so you never miss a video when we put one out.
Build ripped athletic muscle here – http://athleanx.com/x/my-workouts
Subscribe to this channel here – http://bit.ly/2b0coMW
Chris Wright
You’re the goat Jeff
https://youtu.be/qobqGuLarNE.
Yeahhh buddy! Jussst finished my chest and back workout 2 minutes ago.
*NOTIFICATION SQUAD GIVEAWAY* – Alright guys, I’m giving away a complete 30 Day Workout program to 100 lucky clickers within the first hour this video is published! Remember, this is NOT THE FIRST 100, but those randomly selected within the first hour the video is published. Click the link to see if you’ve won. No strings attached!
https://giveaway.athleanx.com/ytg/bigger-bench-with-rows
If you don’t win, no worries, you’re not going away empty handed. Just be sure you have your notifications turned on so you can get to my next video quickly and try again. Good luck and thanks for being a loyal subscriber…
RESISTANCE BANDS
@Annas Ayaz you mean tight sleeves?
@Aaryan vlogs Triceps, legs, forearms.
Can you do a video on the difference between tall and short people training? TY!
Can you do a video on the difference between tall and short people training? TY!
https://youtu.be/qobqGuLarNE
Easy, one of them is tall, the other is a dwarf.
Not much difference. Unless you’re like 6’5 or 5’4
I’m going to try this today in my chest routine. Thanks Jeff!!!
Congratulations to everyone who comes in every single seconds
I just won again lol! 3rd time I’ve won now! Too bad it’s still Anabolix though so I’ve already got that
@Moj Shar it doesn’t work that way pretty sure it allows 1 try per device
@John Hackler does it go away after 1 month tho
@OneRichMofo no its lifetime access..
Dude stfu, this comment is stupid enough
This isn’t Jeff, this guy isn’t wearing athlean x gear
imposter!
Why is it throwing me off that Jeff isnt wearing an Athlean X shirt?
Oh, that’s what was different
first thing i noticed
He’s even wearing it during his “family time” on Instagram photos. It’s so weird to see him wearing something different in a video
Possible future content: I think I have watched almost all of your videos and have not found anything covering this. Are you able to make a video for older people (53 here)that may have joint issues, knee, shoulder, elbow etc. when I was younger I could squat 400+ , but now my knee starts hurting at 135 pounds. Thank you for the consideration!!
Great idea, let’s lift this up by likes for Jeff to see this
Highly recommend kneesovertoes guy and his atg system
Fellow older guy here…I second the kneesovertoesguy recommendation.
For my knees, bodyweight Bulgarian split squat was huge…worked up to 30 reps per leg…started adding some weight. Don’t rush the rep,,focus on good movement. You’ll feel a lot,of quad a glue work…but your stabilizers working overtime. You’ll see shakiness at first that goes away.
I also did not squat with knee wraps or belt. I wanted those to strengthen. I increased weights very very slowly compared to my youth. Takes ligaments, tendons, et AL 7x longer to heal and strengthen than muscle. Set reasonable goes, take time to build resilience in joints. After 18 months, I do go heavier now, never less than 6 reps. I use wraps and belts on heavier lifts.
Most often cause of knee pain in squat, if it isn’t weakness, is mobility / flexibility.
Have someone watch if your knees are tracking out straight over your toes as you drop down and especially as you push up. If they are not, and then correcting to over toes, you need to,adjust your toe position in the stance, wider or narrower. You can do it yourself in front of a mirror. Note that you might have different movement with some weight on the bar vs no weight. I switched from a narrow, toes straight forward stance to a slightly wider than shoulders, toes out about 30 degrees stance. And a friend of,mine had to do exactly the opposite. Just depend on your physiology and mobility. You might find the path changes as you get more flexible.
Another great resource is the book “Rebuilding Milo”.
damn this shirt looks so good on you lol
@Adil Toktassyn i have a identical one from HnM , it literally looks the same.
@Sara Riem Wtf is that supposed to mean
@AxxL With that attitude, pshh as if
What’s wrong with you dude.
You know how I’d go about doing that?
Reach . Glad to see this que being taught. Swede Burns teaches it the best though
When I finally got a barbell and started doing bench, I remembered the core ideas of doing exercises and did exactly this. I started without weights, just the barbell, and noticed it was a serious upper back and delts exercise for my shortcomings. Good times.
Big fan not only of jeff but of whole athelean x team
Jeff looks so big. Damn his wife must really be happy when he’s not wearing athlean X gear and just normal clothes.
PERFECT VIDEO. This is just what I needed to know!
Great tips and advice as always, Jeff. I was literally thinking about doing these at the weekend for the first time in ages… and now I can actually do them properly as well – thanks!
Who here wants another no equipment HIIT workout from Jeff?
I’ve seen JM Blakely teach this “reaching” for the bar too, its good for benching more weight
As always, great info! I look forward to each video and try to apply everything to my training. Keep em coming
Reaching with the ribs is critical with loads over 90%, a way to help keep the chest up is avoid looking at the bar. When you look at the bar, the head will come forward which will lead to the chest lowering and the shoulders rounding forward.
Thankyou for the video! Just a question: is your back arching a bit and does it come off the bench when you reach with your chest for the bar? And if it does, is that bad or not? Thanks once again