@madscientistofmuscle: How to use leg drive in the barbell bench press. This is how I train and teach leg drive...I've found it's what works for me. If you have more tips or tricks, share in the comments! I love to crowdsource, especially since I'm not a powerlifter. I'm always interested in learning other ways to teach and train it! Now, I'll be the first to tell you that I'm not a massive bench presser. My structure is actually terrible for the exercise (longer arms, narrow clavicles, no barrel chest) so I've had to really maximize every aspect of it that I can. With a lot of training, perseverance and technique work, at one point I did manage to bench 350 lbs for a PR (and 225 lbs for 25 reps). I'm nowhere near that now, of course (it was about 27 years ago :). Driving with the legs is a critical part of maximizing your bench press. The key point is that you're trying to very powerfully push/slide yourself up the bench at the moment (or very slightly before) that you change the direction of the bar to press it up. To be clear, I'm not a powerlifter and my form here is different than the pause required in powerlifting. Top benchers do use leg drive, but it comes AFTER the pause...right when they're ready to drive the bar off the chest. Timing it critical. If you watch a video of really good benchers, you'll see this action. The glutes don't come up off the bench but the legs drive backwards (like a leg extension), which transfers force through hips, core and upper back to help power the bar off the chest. This is a method you'll want to practice with just an empty bar until you get an idea of how to push yourself backwards and how to time it. You can use it as a warm-up, in fact. Driving with the legs like this is more appropriate for lower rep sets (e.g. 1-3 reps). If you try to use a lot of leg drive for a set of higher reps, it will eventually push you out of position. For higher rep sets, just keep a constant backwards-pushing tightness in the legs but don't hammer it on every rep (or save it for the last few tough reps). #madscientistofmuscle #benchpress #benchpresslegdrive #benchpresstechnique #benchpresstraining

Nick Nilsson

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Thursday 20 November 2025 17:10:13 GMT