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Liftworthy

Every exercise ranked by research, by lifters and by results. Find what’s S-tier for your goal, then train it.

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Explore/Chest

Barbell Bench Press

Also called Bench press, Flat bench

BarbellCompoundTakes some practice
Front
Back
Primary Secondary

Works

Chest

Also delts, triceps

You need

Bench press station

How to do itPictures · 3 steps
1Start
2Bottom
Main musclesAlso working
  1. 1Pin shoulder blades back and down
  2. 2Touch the bar to your lower chest
  3. 3Drive through your feet as you press

Most common mistake

Flaring elbows to 90° and bouncing the bar off the chest.

Watch a demo

Good for

  • Easy to keep adding weight

Compare with

vs Dumbbell Bench Pressvs Machine Chest Pressvs Single-Arm Cable Chest Press
D
For soccer
#24 of 25
See the full list →
Research
38
Scored by hand
Results
Soon
From the app
How lifters rate itBe the first
S
A
B
C
D
F
Why research scores it 38
TransferFair
Injury protectionFair
PracticalityStrong

Upper-body strength helps in duels and when shielding the ball. It won’t make you faster on the pitch.

Research behind these criteria

  • Transfer: Seitz et al., 2014 · Markovic, 2007 · Blagrove et al., 2018 · Rønnestad & Mujika, 2014
  • Injury protection: Lauersen et al., 2014 · van Dyk et al., 2019 · Harøy et al., 2019 · Webster & Hewett, 2018
How scores work

Machine taken? Swap to

  • SCopenhagen PlankBodyweight
  • SNordic CurlBodyweight
  • SBulgarian Split SquatDumbbell
  • ARomanian DeadliftBarbell

Takes

None yet
needed to post
280