Bench Press Variations

In profiling the bench press, in this week’s issue of River Weekly, I mentioned a couple variations of the exercise. I’d like to give a few more variations here. These are good for hitting different points of the muscle as well as making your workouts a little more interesting.

Changing Angles:
Incline bench press—A bench press done on an inclined bench. You can usually set the incline to different angles. With the inclined bench, you hit the upper chest (clavicular portion of the pecs) more.

Decline bench press—Bench press done on a declined bench. At a decline, the bench press focuses in on the lower part of the chest.

Changing Grip:
Wide grip bench press—This variation is done with a wider than normal grip. You’ll feel this one in the outside part of the chest and the deltoids.

Close grip bench press—As the name says, it’s a bench press with a close grip, used to hit the triceps more.

Reverse grip bench press—This variation can be tough on your wrists, so strap up if needed. It utilized an underhanded grip to hit the triceps.

*You can change both grip and angle as well (i.e. wide grip incline press).

Changing Equipment:
Dumbbell bench—A bench press done with dumbbells.

Kettle bell bench—This one is done with kettle bells.

Smith machine press—Bench done on the Smith machine.

Unilateral press—This is a bench press without the bench, but on a unilateral machine while standing up. Because there is no bench, there is less stability.

Cable press—Using the cables, you can bench press or unilateral press.

Floor bench—Doing the bench on the floor restricts your motion, so you are working from the sticking point (the point where most lifters get “stuck” in their bench press motion) and you don’t get to bounce the bar off your chest.

Chain bench—This is a bench with a chain wrapped around a barbell. As you are pressing, more of the chain is used and the weight gets heavier. This is a great variation for getting through your sticking point.

Elastic band bench—This is the same concept as the chain bench, but with elastic bands.

Chaos bench—There’s a lot going on in this one. It’s an elastic band bench with kettle bells or dumbbells.

*You can also change equipment and grip, equipment and angle, and equipment, grip and angle (i.e. kettle bell incline bench, close/hammer dumbbell bench, incline wide grip smith bench).

Changing movement & misc:
Alternating dumbbell—One dumbbell is pressed, while the other is poised at the bottom of the press. Lower the pressed dumbbell and then press the other. This variation keeps the poised arm engaged, while focusing the attention to the movement of the single pressing arm.

One arm bench press—This is the same concept at the alternating bench, but you only work one arm at a time.

Towel/Board bench—This incorporates the same concept as the floor bench, but a towel or board is placed on the chest. The weight is lowered only to the towel and then pressed.

Half-way bench—The weight is lowered and then only pressed half-way up. This is used to work on the first part of the bench and speed.

3 part bench—This variation is usually done with high repetitions (15, 18, 21, etc). In the first phase, you do reps, let’s say 5, in the half-way variation, then you do 5 more reps as if there was a towel on your chest, and finally you do 5 regular reps. It’s a great burnout exercise.

Strip bench—This is another great burnout exercise. The barbell is stacked with small plates (i.e. 2.5lbs, 5lbs, 10lbs). You do a set to failure, then strip off weights from either side of the barbell, do another set to fail, strip again, and so on, for a total of anywhere from 5-10 sets.


That’s all I have for now. If you would like to comment or add to the list, feel free to do so. Happy training!