What muscles does the bench press work?

On a flat bench the chest and the front of the shoulder measured about the same, with the triceps behind them. What the same study did separate is angle: the middle and lower chest peak flat and the upper chest at around 30 degrees. If your shoulders are what feel worked, your shoulder blades are rolling forward under the bar.

Why does my shoulder hurt when I bench?

The two usual causes are elbows flared square to the body, which loads the rotator cuff at the worst angle, and shoulder blades that are not set back and down. Both are position problems rather than weight problems. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.

How wide should my grip be?

Wide enough that your forearms are roughly vertical when the bar touches your chest, with the elbows somewhere between 45 and 70 degrees from your sides rather than straight out.

Should the bar touch your chest?

Yes, touch and press from a dead stop. Bouncing removes the hardest part of the lift, which is the part that made it worth doing.

Is incline bench better than flat?

Neither is better. Flat works the middle and lower chest hardest, and about 30 degrees works the upper chest hardest. Past 60 degrees the front of the shoulder takes over. The two cover different parts of the same muscle.

How much should I be able to bench press?

There is no number you should hit. Compare your bench to your own bench a few months ago, which is the only comparison that tells you whether your training is working.

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Barbell · intermediate · chest

Barbell bench press flat

Also called Bench press, Flat bench, Barbell bench, Flat barbell bench press.

The short answer

The flat bench press lowers a bar to your mid-chest and presses it back up. Your chest is what presses it back up, with the front of the shoulder working about as hard as it does on a flat bench and the triceps behind both. Setting your shoulder blades back and down before you unrack is what keeps it that way.

How to do it

Step oneLie flat on a bench and grip the barbell with hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
Step twoUnrack the bar and hold it directly above your chest with your arms fully extended.
Step threeLower the bar to your mid-chest by bending your elbows at approximately 45 degrees.
Step fourPress the bar back up to the starting position by extending your arms.

What usually goes wrong

Each starts with what you would notice.

The front of your shoulders aches afterward and your chest does not.

WhyThe shoulder blades are not set back and down, so the shoulder rolls forward under the bar and takes the load the chest should carry.

FixBefore you unrack, pull your shoulder blades together and down into the bench and keep them pinned there for the whole set. Retracting them creates a stable base and measurably reduces the forward force through the shoulder, especially on the way down.

Your shoulder pinches at the bottom of the press.

WhyThe elbows are flared square to your body, which is the position that puts the most torque on the rotator cuff exactly where the weight is heaviest.

FixBring the elbows to somewhere between 45 and 70 degrees from your sides rather than straight out. Flared elbows also break the shoulder-blade position, so this and the fault above are usually the same fault twice.

You bounce the bar off your chest.

WhyThe weight is heavier than the bottom of the range can handle, so the ribs provide the drive.

FixTouch the chest and press from a dead stop. The bottom is the hardest part of the lift, which is exactly why bouncing removes it.

Your hips come off the bench to finish a rep.

WhyArching hard to shorten the distance the bar has to travel.

FixKeep your backside in contact with the bench. A small natural arch in the lower back is fine; lifting the hips to make the lift shorter is a different exercise with a bigger number.

Barbell or dumbbell bench press

A barbell joins your hands together and fixes their position, which is what makes it stable and lets you load it heavier than any other chest press. Load is what most of the growth follows, and it is why the barbell is the version people test themselves on.

The cost is that a stronger side can quietly take more of the weight without you knowing, and your hands can only stop where the bar meets your chest. Dumbbells fix both, at a lighter load.

They answer different questions. If you want to press the most weight, press a bar. If you want to know whether your left is keeping up with your right, press dumbbells.

Flat or incline bench

This one has been measured directly, across five bench angles. The middle and lower parts of the chest work hardest at flat. The upper chest works hardest at about 30 degrees. The front of the shoulder takes over by 60 degrees, and the triceps work about the same at every angle.

Set the incline at 30 degrees. Steeper than that and you are gradually converting a chest press into a shoulder press, which is fine if that is what you wanted and a waste if it is not.

It also means flat pressing on its own leaves the upper chest trained less than it could be, which is the honest argument for doing both rather than picking a side.

Your bench is a convention, not a measure

Two claims follow this lift everywhere. The first is that the bench press builds the chest, full stop. The measurements above say otherwise: the upper portion peaks at around 30 degrees of incline, not flat, so pressing only on a flat bench leaves part of the muscle working less than it could.

The second is that your bench is the measure of upper body strength. It is a convention, and a useful one for comparing yourself to yourself over time. It is not a fact about your body. Pressing overhead, rowing and pulling all describe strength the bench does not.

What it is genuinely good at is loading the chest heavily and letting you add weight to it for years. That is enough to earn its place without the mythology.

What it is for

The barbell flat bench press is the foundational compound chest exercise. Pressing a barbell from a flat bench activates the entire pectoral muscle, along with the triceps and front deltoids, making it a cornerstone of upper body strength development.

Questions people ask

What muscles does the bench press work?: On a flat bench the chest and the front of the shoulder measured about the same, with the triceps behind them. What the same study did separate is angle: the middle and lower chest peak flat and the upper chest at around 30 degrees. If your shoulders are what feel worked, your shoulder blades are rolling forward under the bar.
Why does my shoulder hurt when I bench?: The two usual causes are elbows flared square to the body, which loads the rotator cuff at the worst angle, and shoulder blades that are not set back and down. Both are position problems rather than weight problems. If something hurts and keeps hurting, that is a question for a physiotherapist.
How wide should my grip be?: Wide enough that your forearms are roughly vertical when the bar touches your chest, with the elbows somewhere between 45 and 70 degrees from your sides rather than straight out.
Should the bar touch your chest?: Yes, touch and press from a dead stop. Bouncing removes the hardest part of the lift, which is the part that made it worth doing.
Is incline bench better than flat?: Neither is better. Flat works the middle and lower chest hardest, and about 30 degrees works the upper chest hardest. Past 60 degrees the front of the shoulder takes over. The two cover different parts of the same muscle.
How much should I be able to bench press?: There is no number you should hit. Compare your bench to your own bench a few months ago, which is the only comparison that tells you whether your training is working.