The bench press is a simultaneous motion exercise and is considered one of the "core" weight lifting exercises. The reason behind this is because it is extremely effective in strengthening the prime movers of the upper extremities. Here are a few examples of were this can be found: football-tackling, blocking and passing, swimming-crawl and breaststroke, track and field-pole vault, shot put, and discus, boxing-punching, basketball-shooting, boxing out and rebounding. There are also other muscles that are strengthened besides your pectoralis major and minor. There are you triceps, anterior and middle deltoids, wrist flexors (grip), and your rotator cuff and biceps work as a stabilizer and are slightly strengthened.
There are a few things that you should do before you begin your lift phase of the bench press. You should stretch and warm up. Your stretching should be static stretching and it should be before you work out and after you are finished. The reason that you want to stretch is that it helps prevent injuries and it also improves strength. The more flexible you are the better. A good stretch before bench pressing is to grab a pole above your head and lower your body while you hold on to the pole. This will stretch out most of your upper extremities. After you have stretched you need to warm up. Push-ups are an excellent form of warming up for the bench press. When warming up you basically want to get the blood flowing but you don"t want too overdue it because then you wont be as strong for your lift.
The next phase of the lift is the preparation phase. There are a few tasks that need to be addressed in this phase. First you want to make sure that the weights are balanced on the bar and that the collars are securing the plates. If the plates are unbalance you will lose stability and possibly injury yourself. Next you want to mentally prepare yourself for the task. When lifting weights your mental state plays a huge part in weather or not you will be able to lift the weight.
