How to Increase Your One Rep Max 1RM Bench Press

You don’t need complicated programming to increase your 1RM Bench Press. It might be simpler than you might think. 

Before we dive into what you might need to do to increase your strength, let’s first get off the table some mistakes that could be limiting your progress. 

When you’re doing the Bench Press, does your form look like coming down and back up without any down and forward or up and backward movement? If so, you might be working more of your anterior deltoid and not your pecs. 

An effective bar path includes bringing the bar forward in addition to down during the eccentric phase of the movement and then bringing the bar backward and upward during the concentric portion of the movement. 

If you’re always comparing your 1RM from last week to this week or formally testing your 1RM every month, this might be part of why you’re stuck in a plateau. Whereas those who take 3-4 months and follow a structured program to improve their strength and technique in the Bench Press will make much greater progress in the long run.