Board press does(nt) work?

WHERE DID IT COME FROM?

Bench pressing off of different height boards is one of the oldest variations of bench press. No one can really nail down where they came from but a lot point to the original Westside Club in Culver City, and then later adopted by Louie Simmons of Westside Barbell in Columbus, Ohio.

Varying the height and range of motion in a bench press can have many takeaways. Sprinters don’t ONLY sprint the length they compete in, and powerlifters should be varying their bench pressing heights.

BOARD PRESS: WHAT IT WILL & WILL NOT DO

This is a proven tool for increasing your bench press, but there will be naysayers. The difficult thing is, they aren’t wrong. Board pressing will not work if you alter your form to bench something big off the board. It’s a little ticky-tacky but you cannot bench “to the board”.

You want to bench as you normally would, the board is just in the way. Upon hitting the board, press the weight. A lot of times if you look at where the bar would have touched a lifters chest, it’s would be too low or high and tight towards the collar bones. If you do ANYTHING wrong, it simply won’t work. So it makes sense that these lifters will say that boards don’t work. 

When applied correctly, board pressing works, and has worked for a long time. Bench like the board isn’t there, and watch your bench press numbers fly 🤘

If you liked this article, check out Why Walking Lunges?

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