In case you’re critical 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 approach that may increase your efficiency and beneficial properties: leg drive.
What’s bench press leg drive precisely?
Opposite to standard perception, correct leg drive doesn’t contain pushing your ft into the ground and squeezing your glutes to drive your hips upward.
As an alternative, leg drive is about utilizing your legs to stabilize your physique, generate further energy, and press extra effectively.
To get leg drive proper, it’s good to perceive the way it works and methods to apply it in your bench press setup.
And that’s precisely what you’ll study on this article.
What Is Bench Press Leg Drive?
“Leg drive” is a weightlifting approach that entails utilizing your legs to extend stability and generate energy within the bench press.
The fundamental concept behind bench press leg drive is that as you press the bar upward, you drive your ft 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 truly transfer as a result of it’s pinned down by the load in your arms).
Regardless of its potential to extend efficiency, many gymgoers neglect utilizing leg drive, viewing it as an “superior” approach reserved for powerlifters trying to press as a lot weight as attainable.
Whereas it’s true leg drive requires ability, it’s easier to carry out than most understand. And on condition that it will probably assist you carry extra weight safely, it’s a worthwhile approach for anybody trying to acquire muscle and energy.
Why Is Leg Drive on the Bench Press Necessary?
The primary 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’ll be able to carry, the extra muscle and energy you acquire.
Driving by 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 focus on every in additional element.
Leg Drive Will increase Entire-Physique Stability
You will have heard that sustaining an arch in your again whereas benching is wise, and that is true.
For many weightlifters, arching your backbone to create a fist-sized hole between your again and the bench helps maintain your shoulders secure and “tightens” your torso for further stability.
There’s just one caveat: That is solely true if you happen to additionally use leg drive. In case you arch with out pushing by your legs, your setup truly turns into much less secure.
Why?
With out bracing your physique by pushing by your legs in the other way to the descending barbell, the load of the bar is normally sufficient to break down your again arch and shift your torso out of place.
Whereas these modifications in posture and place are sometimes minor (generally too small to note), they lower your general stability and hinder your skill to press.
Driving by your legs, nevertheless, offers stronger foundations in your again arch, enabling your higher physique to remain inflexible, balanced, and secure, which helps you press extra weight with a decrease threat of injury.
Leg Drive Helps You Use a Extra Environment friendly Bar Path
Transferring a barbell in a straight line from level A to level B is usually essentially the most environment friendly method to carry weights.
As an illustration, 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 completely 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 tougher and limits how a lot weight you’ll be able to carry.
To counteract this, it’s good to appropriate your “bar path.” Right here’s how:
- Start with the bar instantly 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 for instance this:
Utilizing an environment friendly bar path is feasible with out involving your legs, but it surely 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 path you need it to maneuver (towards your throat), boosting how a lot you’ll be able to carry.
Learn how to Use Leg Drive within the Bench Press
Most gymgoers assume leg drive means driving your ft into the ground to push your hips instantly upward.
That is incorrect.
The aim of leg drive is not to push your hips towards the ceiling—doing so will increase the chance that your butt will carry off the bench, which reduces general stability by eradicating considered one 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 problem in a non-competitive setting, it nonetheless falls into the class of utilizing “sloppy” type to carry further weight, which, like half-squatting and round-back deadlifts, usually isn’t smart.
To reap the advantages of leg drive, you have to use your legs to push your physique up the bench. In different phrases, take into consideration driving by 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 best exhibits the path your needs to be pushing:
To make use of leg drive within the bench press successfully, you have to first discover the most effective foot place for you.
For many lifters, there are two choices:
- Lie on the bench and place your ft flat on the ground shoulder-width aside or somewhat wider and turned barely out. Whereas holding your soles flat on the ground, pull your ft towards your head till your heels really feel like they’re starting to carry. For most individuals, this will probably be when their ft are beneath the knees or barely additional again.
- Lie on the bench and pull your ft so far as you’ll be able to beneath your physique whereas nonetheless holding your toes in touch with the ground.
Right here’s how these foot placements look. Possibility one is on the left, and possibility two is one the best:
Possibility one permits you to produce essentially the most leg drive and doesn’t require excessive flexibility, making it the most effective answer for many.
The good thing about possibility two is that it permits you to create a pronounced again arch. Some powerlifters want this as a result of it will probably vastly cut back the space the bar has to journey to finish a rep, permitting them to carry the utmost weight attainable.
For many “life-style” weightlifters, nevertheless, it’s much less secure 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, it’s good to grasp its timing. A great way to do that is to check it to how you employ your legs whereas squatting.
As an illustration, you employ your legs to regulate the eccentric (decreasing) part of the squat with out pushing towards the load. This modifications on the backside of every rep, when your legs drive towards the bar that can assist you rise up.
Leg drive within the bench press follows the same 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 your legs as arduous as attainable to heave the bar upward.
Bench Press Leg Drive: FAQs
FAQ #1: Is leg drive dishonest?
No, leg drive isn’t dishonest, offered you retain your butt on the bench. It’s a reliable approach 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 influence of leg drive in your bench press is determined by your present ability stage and approach. 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 strong bench press setup and a clean bar path, including leg drive most likely gained’t produce dramatic beneficial properties. Nonetheless, it will probably nonetheless supply a modest increase in your bench press efficiency and decrease your threat of damage by bettering 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 might 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 better stabilization calls for).
That’s to not say benching with out leg drive results in extra muscle progress—muscle activation is often a awful predictor of hypertrophy. Nevertheless it does recommend that benching with out leg drive is a legitimate method 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.
