Are you warming up properly before throwing more weight plates on the bench press? Probably not.
In the latest installment of “The Fix” physical therapist from Cameron Yuen, DPT, PT, CSCS He walks you through his four-part protocol to make sure your body is ready for the horizontal push. Please follow the video above to help you reduce your risk of injury and also to ensure you get the most out of your training session.
Keep in mind Yuen’s favorite acronym, RAMP, as you go. This means: Rincrease your body temperature; ANactivate key muscles and movement patterns. METERmobilize those joints; Pstimulate the nervous system. Then you’ll be ready for your heavy presses.
Bench Press Workout Warm Up
air bike
Do jumping jacks or jogging on the spot if you don’t have access to an air bike, treadmill, or elliptical. Do this for five to 10 minutes.
Elevated shoulder blade flexion
This focuses on the front of the body, the chest, the shoulders, and the shoulder blades. “Big emphasis…go really slow here, develop that mind-muscle connection, get a good retraction of the shoulder blades,” says Yuen, emphasizing the importance of lengthening the shoulder blades as you get to the top. Aim for two to three sets of five to 10 reps.
foot assisted immersion
This movement targets your range of motion and mobilizes your shoulder. “We really just want to treat this as a dynamic stretch in his final range.” If you can’t get as low as the fitness model in the video, that’s fine. Two or three sets of five reps is a good place to shoot here.
Medicine Ball Chest Pass
“So we’re done raising our body temperature, we’ve activated those key muscles and movement patterns, we’ve mobilized our chest and shoulders, now we’re going to power up our nervous system with some hard, intense medicine ball chest passes,” Yuen said. . . From the articulated position, make hard chest passes to the ground with the ball. Do this for two to three sets of three to five reps as hard as you can.
Ease in working sets
Now, you are ready for the bench press. One note: “You want to make sure you’re not just jumping to your heaviest weight,” advises Yuen.
Start with a few sets with just the bar, then progressively increase the weight. For example, if you’re training 135 pounds, that means doing a few sets with just the bar, then doing another two or three sets with 95 pounds, before moving up to 135 pounds.
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