Leg Drive for Bench Press: Tips to Maximize Muscle Gain

In case you’re severe about constructing muscle and energy, the bench press is probably going a staple in your routine. 

However, for those who’re like most gymgoers, you’re most likely overlooking an important bench press method that may increase your efficiency and beneficial properties: leg drive.

What’s bench press leg drive precisely?

Opposite to well-liked perception, correct leg drive doesn’t contain pushing your ft into the ground and squeezing your glutes to drive your hips upward.

As a substitute, leg drive is about utilizing your legs to stabilize your physique, generate further energy, and press extra effectively.

To get leg drive proper, it is advisable to perceive the way it works and easy 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 method that entails utilizing your legs to extend stability and generate energy within the bench press.

The essential concept behind bench press leg drive is that as you press the bar upward, you drive your ft into the ground as for those who have been attempting to slip your physique up the bench (although your physique doesn’t really transfer as a result of it’s pinned down by the burden in your palms).

Regardless of its potential to extend efficiency, many gymgoers neglect utilizing leg drive, viewing it as an “superior” method reserved for powerlifters trying to press as a lot weight as potential. 

Whereas it’s true leg drive requires ability, it’s easier to carry out than most understand. And provided that it will possibly allow you to elevate extra weight safely, it’s a worthwhile method for anybody trying to acquire muscle and energy. 

Why Is Leg Drive on the Bench Press Essential?

The primary advantage of utilizing leg drive on the bench press is that it can assist you elevate extra weight safely, which is critical as a result of, typically talking, the extra weight you possibly can elevate, the extra muscle and energy you acquire.

Driving by means of 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 Complete-Physique Stability

You could have heard that sustaining an arch in your again whereas benching is smart, 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 protected and “tightens” your torso for further stability.

There’s just one caveat: That is solely true for those who additionally use leg drive. In case you arch with out pushing by means of your legs, your setup really turns into much less secure.

Why?

With out bracing your physique by pushing by means of your legs in the wrong way to the descending barbell, the burden 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 potential to press.

Driving by means of your legs, nonetheless, supplies stronger foundations on your again arch, enabling your higher physique to remain inflexible, balanced, and secure, which helps you press extra weight with a decrease threat of harm.

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 mostly essentially the most environment friendly technique to elevate weights. 

As an example, 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.

Attempting 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 groups to work considerably tougher and limits how a lot weight you possibly can elevate.

To counteract this, it is advisable to appropriate your “bar path.” Right here’s how:

Start with the bar straight over your shoulders. 
Decrease the bar in a delicate 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 while you incorporate leg drive. 

That’s as a result of leg drive allows you to use your whole physique to propel the barbell within the path you need it to maneuver (towards your throat), boosting how a lot you possibly can elevate. 

Find out how to Use Leg Drive within the Bench Press

Most gymgoers suppose leg drive means driving your ft into the ground to push your hips straight upward.

That is incorrect.

The aim of leg drive is not to push your hips towards the ceiling—doing so will increase the probability that your butt will elevate off the bench, which reduces general stability by eradicating one among your factors of contact with the bench.

In aggressive powerlifting, lifting your butt off the bench additionally invalidates your elevate. Whereas this isn’t a difficulty in a non-competitive setting, it nonetheless falls into the class of utilizing “sloppy” type to elevate further weight, which, like half-squatting and round-back deadlifts, typically isn’t smart.

To reap the advantages of leg drive, you could use your legs to push your physique up the bench. In different phrases, take into consideration driving by means of your legs to slip your physique towards the highest of the bench.

The diagram under illustrates this level. The image on the left reveals what not to do (drive your hips upward) and the image on the best reveals the path your must be pushing: 

To make use of leg drive within the bench press successfully, you could first discover the very best 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 a bit wider and turned barely out. Whereas protecting your soles flat on the ground, pull your ft towards your head till your heels really feel like they’re starting to elevate. For most individuals, this will probably be when their ft are below the knees or barely additional again. 
Lie on the bench and pull your ft so far as you possibly can below your physique whereas nonetheless protecting your toes involved with the ground. 

Right here’s how these foot placements look. Possibility one is on the left, and choice 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 very best resolution for many.

The advantage of choice two is that it permits you to create a pronounced again arch. Some powerlifters want this as a result of it will possibly vastly cut back the space the bar has to journey to finish a rep, permitting them to elevate the utmost weight potential. 

For many “way of life” weightlifters, nonetheless, it’s much less secure and prevents you from producing as a lot leg drive as you in any other case may. 

Timing Leg Drive

To maximize leg drive within the bench press, it is advisable to grasp its timing. A great way to do that is to check it to how you employ your legs whereas squatting.

As an example, you employ your legs to manage the eccentric (decreasing) section of the squat with out pushing in opposition to the burden. This modifications on the backside of every rep, when your legs drive in opposition to 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 forestall your physique shifting out of place. As soon as the bar touches your chest, you drive by means of your legs as laborious as potential 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 respectable method that many weightlifters use to stabilize their physique and generate extra energy throughout 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 dependent upon your present ability degree and method. Many novice weightlifters report that utilizing leg drive permits them to elevate 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 easy bar path, including leg drive most likely received’t produce dramatic beneficial properties. Nonetheless, it will possibly nonetheless provide a modest increase in your bench press efficiency and decrease your threat of harm by enhancing stability, which ought to allow you to 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—analysis suggests your pecs, shoulders, and triceps are ever-so-slightly extra lively when benching with out leg drive (presumably due to the larger stabilization calls for).

That’s to not say benching with out leg drive results in extra muscle progress—muscle activation is commonly a awful predictor of hypertrophy. However it does counsel that benching with out leg drive is a sound strategy for bodybuilders preferring it. Simply keep in mind that it seemingly means you’ll be capable to deal with much less weight, which can restrict the muscle-building potential of the train considerably.