Imagine if there was a bench press warm-up that would improve your technique/positioning and also reduce the likelihood of having shoulder pain… The good news is there’s a lot you can do in a quick 10-minute warm-up to prep your body for a great bench press session.

This warm-up centres on a couple key aspects. First, we want to prime the muscles that retract the shoulder blades. To have a stable shoulder position while benching it’s essential to pin the shoulder blades back. So we want to practice this in our warm-up.

Second, we want to ensure that the shoulder has the mobility needed for bench pressing. For some this is a given. For the less-flexible this can take a little work. If you have major restrictions you’ll need to work on this regularly but if you’re borderline, a quick hit in your warm-up does the trick.

With that said, here it is. Give it a try.