, our push lesson begins with a nearly tragic tale that stars Todd as the hero.

Some years ago Todd was bench pressing with 315 stacked confidently on the bar. He did one rep, two reps and on the third rep, as the bar approached the halfway mark, it slipped from his hands and crashed into his rib cage. Luckily, a brutish man was spotting him and grabbed the bar as soon as bounced off of his chest. Luckily, Todd wasn’t injured. He learned, however, the importance of proper wrist alignment and a strong, crushing grip. A few short weeks later, Todd benched 405 in competition while weighing 197. He staunchly focused on grip, alignment and tension to prepare for that heavy press and avoid another iron waterfall into his chest cavity.

But there’s more than just the bench press…

The reality is that benching should not make up the bulk of our pushing exercises.  It just happens to be one of- if not the most technical push we do.  In fact, most of our clients don’t barbell bench press!