IRONONLINE BENCH PRESS ARCHIVE

...Wants to learn to bench press

What is your advice to a 47 yr. ol' woman who is not in shape but wants to learn to bench press? What amount of weight should I target as reasonable. I weight 165. But, do I have to tell you my real hair color? Debby

Laree here....Boy do I love to see this! Bench pressing is so much fun and, truthfully, there are not enough women putting themselves under that bar.

Debby, when you say "not in shape" I'm going to assume that means that you're doing some training but don't consider yourself "fit". If you haven't gotten started at all, the answer would be slightly different, although not all that much, really. What that means to me in tossing out an answer is that you know your way around the gym and would be able to get onsite assistance from a gym worker, trainer or a friend who works out at the same time.

You can bench press as early as today. Find someone whom you trust who can "spot" you - this should mean someone who you'll tell that this is your first time bench pressing. This person will guide the bar both down and back up for you during every repetition of your first set until both he/she and you have the confidence that you can safely handle the empty bar (45 pounds) on your own. At your bodyweight, it's fairly likely that you will have no problem with this, however it takes a couple of sets to "get the groove" and gain this confidence.

Your spotter should guide the bar to the bottom position just at the bra line and back up to straight overhead. Depending upon your strength, he or she may assist you by taking control of a portion of the weight during any or all of your repetitions. If you've been doing dumbbell presses or machine chest presses regularly, you likely will not get too sore and should be able to do 3 or 4 sets today with assistance for your spotter. If you haven't been doing any pressing movements, just do two sets of 10 reps to begin to feel the movement and get your muscles, tendons and ligaments prepared for your next workout. You'll probably be a little sore, but not too bad provided your spotter helps you enough - ask for more help if you're struggling with the weight as pushing hard is not the purpose today. Enough time for that later.

In three days, you'll do this again. I absolutely promise you that your second bench pressing workout will be a thrill. Maybe someone else can explain how this works, I just know that once you've awakened the brain and muscles to this (or any new movement for that matter), it's always gets better the second time. The weight you struggle with today will seem simple next time - in fact, you may end up adding a 2.25 lb weight to each side next workout.

Adding weight stablizes the bar and actually makes the bench pressing motion easier. Although you will get stronger very quickly if pushing yourself at all, everybody (but especially women) will reach a point that gains will be much harder to achieve. It's great fun until then - that's when you gotta put your nose to the grindstone. I see women adding 5's and 10's to the bar, occasionally 15 or 20 pounds on each side, but it's few who get much past that.

I'm 43 and have been doing this for just under 20 years, so would probably not be the best person to ask, but I'm guessing at 47 that age is not yet a limiting factor. Warm up your shoulders using Dave's shoulder warmup movements before you begin, then go for it. Not seeing you visually, even a guess at potential strength would be foolish. I would say though, that very few women can bench press their bodyweight. For lack of trying? Don't know.

So, hey - the rest of you women reading this - if you're not bench pressing.....start Monday, ok?

Laree

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