Legs Up Bench Press
The feet up solution.
Legs up bench press. Even though this might seem like a small difference the impact of having the feet off the floor while bench pressing can change the emphasis of the movement drastically. In fact over arching the lumbar spine during the bench press is a sure fire way to both injure your low back and eliminate the growth inducing stimulus of the chest press itself. Some people do that and then do leg raises immediately after.
It flattens your back and it takes any sort of leg drive out of the equation. Each bench press variation works slightly different muscle groups. While the bench press is a chest exercise much of the weight is supported by your legs and by pushing through your legs and into your heels you can help drive the weight up.
Doing this will enable you to move more weight vs. The harder you contract your leg muscles the greater the force you exert when driving your legs during the bench press. You do not do a lot of weight for this.
As a result it has been argued that benching with your legs on the bench or in the air is safer and more effective at isolating your chest. Using the leg raise position eliminates this as the core must work over time to stabilize the spine and pelvis by keeping it neutral. People bench with their legs straight out like a mid air plank to basically do a light chest workout with an abdominal exercise.
Good leg drive won t make or break your bench press and truthfully i never fully understood it s use myself until i started pressing some heavier weights. Many personal trainers and misinformed coaches advocate performing the bench press with your feet in the air because doing so flattens the lumbar lower spine and is thus deemed safer. There are other less direct benefits of squeezing the bench between your thighs for one you ll find that this helps prevent your butt from lifting up off the bench.
This exercise is done lying down on a flat bench and pressing a barbell up and down. Some very strong powerlifters don t use much leg drive at all and others will benefit from training mostly without out and just using it leading up to and during competition. So you do like 10 15 reps with a light weight on the bench machine while you keep your legs elevated and straight.