Should you’re severe about constructing muscle and energy, the bench press is probably going a staple in your routine.
However, if you happen to’re like most gymgoers, you’re most likely overlooking an important bench press method that may increase your efficiency and positive aspects: leg drive.
What’s bench press leg drive precisely?
Opposite to well-liked perception, correct leg drive doesn’t contain pushing your toes into the ground and squeezing your glutes to drive your hips upward.
As a substitute, leg drive is about utilizing your legs to stabilize your physique, generate additional energy, and press extra effectively.
To get leg drive proper, you’ll want to perceive the way it works and the right way to apply it in your bench press setup.
And that’s precisely what you’ll be taught on this article.
What Is Bench Press Leg Drive?
“Leg drive” is a weightlifting method that includes utilizing your legs to extend stability and generate energy within the bench press.
The essential concept behind bench press leg drive is that as you press the bar upward, you drive your toes into the ground as if you happen to had been making an attempt to slip your physique up the bench (although your physique doesn’t really transfer as a result of it’s pinned down by the burden in your palms).
Regardless of its potential to extend efficiency, many gymgoers neglect utilizing leg drive, viewing it as an “superior” method reserved for powerlifters seeking to press as a lot weight as potential.
Whereas it’s true leg drive requires ability, it’s less complicated to carry out than most notice. And provided that it may possibly assist you carry extra weight safely, it’s a worthwhile method for anybody seeking to achieve muscle and energy.
Why Is Leg Drive on the Bench Press Essential?
The principle advantage of utilizing leg drive on the bench press is that it can help you carry extra weight safely, which is critical as a result of, usually talking, the extra weight you possibly can carry, the extra muscle and energy you achieve.
Driving by means of your legs on the bench press achieves this in two methods:
- It will increase whole-body stability.
- It helps you employ a extra environment friendly bar path.
Let’s talk about every in additional element.
Leg Drive Will increase Complete-Physique Stability
You will have heard that sustaining an arch in your again whereas benching is smart, and that is true.
For many weightlifters, arching your backbone to create a fist-sized hole between your again and the bench helps hold your shoulders protected and “tightens” your torso for additional stability.
There’s just one caveat: That is solely true if you happen to additionally use leg drive. Should you arch with out pushing by means of your legs, your setup really turns into much less steady.
Why?
With out bracing your physique by pushing by means of your legs in the other way to the descending barbell, the burden of the bar is normally sufficient to break down your again arch and shift your torso out of place.
Whereas these adjustments in posture and place are sometimes minor (typically too small to note), they lower your general stability and hinder your potential to press.
Driving by means of your legs, nonetheless, gives stronger foundations in your again arch, enabling your higher physique to remain inflexible, balanced, and steady, which helps you press extra weight with a decrease threat of injury.
Leg Drive Helps You Use a Extra Environment friendly Bar Path
Shifting a barbell in a straight line from level A to level B is usually probably the most environment friendly solution to carry weights.
As an example, to maximise your efficiency within the squat, deadlift, and overhead press, shifting the bar in a straight line all through every rep is paramount.
The bench press is totally different.
Making an attempt to press the bar straight up and down over your chest creates a “second arm” between your shoulder joint and the bar. This forces your muscle mass to work considerably more durable and limits how a lot weight you possibly can carry.
To counteract this, you’ll want to appropriate your “bar path.” Right here’s how:
- Start with the bar immediately over your shoulders.
- Decrease the bar in a mild arc to your decrease chest.
- Press the bar up and towards your throat.
- As soon as the bar is over your shoulders once more, end the rep by urgent it straight up till your arms are straight.
Right here’s a diagram as an instance this:
Utilizing an environment friendly bar path is feasible with out involving your legs, nevertheless it turns into considerably simpler whenever you incorporate leg drive.
That’s as a result of leg drive allows you to use your complete physique to propel the barbell within the course you need it to maneuver (towards your throat), boosting how a lot you possibly can carry.
Tips on how to Use Leg Drive within the Bench Press
Most gymgoers assume leg drive means driving your toes into the ground to push your hips immediately upward.
That is incorrect.
The aim of leg drive is not to push your hips towards the ceiling—doing so will increase the probability that your butt will carry off the bench, which reduces general stability by eradicating one in every of your factors of contact with the bench.
In aggressive powerlifting, lifting your butt off the bench additionally invalidates your carry. Whereas this isn’t a difficulty in a non-competitive setting, it nonetheless falls into the class of utilizing “sloppy” kind to carry additional weight, which, like half-squatting and round-back deadlifts, usually isn’t wise.
To reap the advantages of leg drive, it’s essential to use your legs to push your physique up the bench. In different phrases, take into consideration driving by means of your legs to slip your physique towards the highest of the bench.
The diagram under illustrates this level. The image on the left exhibits what not to do (drive your hips upward) and the image on the suitable exhibits the course your ought to be pushing:
To make use of leg drive within the bench press successfully, it’s essential to first discover the most effective foot place for you.
For many lifters, there are two choices:
- Lie on the bench and place your toes flat on the ground shoulder-width aside or a bit wider and turned barely out. Whereas preserving your soles flat on the ground, pull your toes towards your head till your heels really feel like they’re starting to carry. For most individuals, this will likely be when their toes are beneath the knees or barely additional again.
- Lie on the bench and pull your toes so far as you possibly can beneath your physique whereas nonetheless preserving your toes involved with the ground.
Right here’s how these foot placements look. Possibility one is on the left, and possibility two is one the suitable:
Possibility one lets you produce probably the most leg drive and doesn’t require excessive flexibility, making it the most effective resolution for many.
The advantage of possibility two is that it lets you create a pronounced again arch. Some powerlifters desire this as a result of it may possibly enormously scale back the space the bar has to journey to finish a rep, permitting them to carry the utmost weight potential.
For many “way of life” weightlifters, nonetheless, it’s much less steady and prevents you from producing as a lot leg drive as you in any other case might.
Timing Leg Drive
To maximize leg drive within the bench press, you’ll want to grasp its timing. A great way to do that is to match it to how you employ your legs whereas squatting.
As an example, you employ your legs to manage the eccentric (reducing) part of the squat with out pushing towards the burden. This adjustments on the backside of every rep, when your legs drive towards the bar that will help you get up.
Leg drive within the bench press follows an analogous sample.
As you decrease the bar to your chest, your legs stay engaged to buttress your again arch and stop your physique shifting out of place. As soon as the bar touches your chest, you drive by means of your legs as arduous as potential to heave the bar upward.
Bench Press Leg Drive: FAQs
FAQ #1: Is leg drive dishonest?
No, leg drive isn’t dishonest, supplied you retain your butt on the bench. It’s a official method that many weightlifters use to stabilize their physique and generate extra energy in the course of the bench press.
FAQ #2: How a lot will utilizing leg drive enhance my bench press?
The affect of leg drive in your bench press will depend on your present ability degree and method. Many novice weightlifters report that utilizing leg drive permits them to carry considerably extra weight as a result of it improves their stability and helps them use a extra environment friendly bar path.
If you have already got a stable bench press setup and a easy bar path, including leg drive most likely received’t produce dramatic positive aspects. Nevertheless, it may possibly nonetheless provide a modest increase in your bench press efficiency and decrease your threat of damage by enhancing stability, which ought to assist you construct extra muscle and energy over time.
FAQ #3: Do bodybuilders use leg drive?
Some bodybuilders use leg drive within the bench press, although many discover it hinders their “mind-muscle connection.” They could have some extent, too—research suggests your pecs, shoulders, and triceps are ever-so-slightly extra lively when benching with out leg drive (presumably due to the larger stabilization calls for).
That’s to not say benching with out leg drive results in extra muscle development—muscle activation is often a awful predictor of hypertrophy. But it surely does recommend that benching with out leg drive is a sound strategy for bodybuilders preferring it. Simply keep in mind that it probably means you’ll be capable to deal with much less weight, which can restrict the muscle-building potential of the train considerably.
+ Scientific References
- Van Every, Derrick W., et al. “Biomechanical, Anthropometric and Psychological Determinants of Barbell Bench Press Strength.” Sports, vol. 10, no. 12, 5 Dec. 2022, p. 199, https://doi.org/10.3390/sports10120199. Accessed 14 Feb. 2023.
- Kristiansen, M., et al. “Inter-Subject Variability of Muscle Synergies during Bench Press in Power Lifters and Untrained Individuals.” Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports, vol. 25, no. 1, 24 Dec. 2013, pp. 89–97, https://doi.org/10.1111/sms.12167.
- Chia, Justin . Leg-Drive Does Not Affect Upper Extremity Muscle Activation during a Bench Press Exercise. Mar. 2019, www.researchgate.net/publication/331535577_Leg-drive_Does_Not_Affect_Upper_Extremity_Muscle_Activation_during_a_Bench_Press_Exercise, https://doi.org/10.13189/saj.2019.070103.
- Vigotsky, Andrew D., et al. “Greater Electromyographic Responses Do Not Imply Greater Motor Unit Recruitment and “Hypertrophic Potential” Cannot Be Inferred.” Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, vol. 31, no. 1, Jan. 2017, pp. e1–e4, https://doi.org/10.1519/jsc.0000000000001249.
