Tips to Improve Pressing with Long Arms
After spending a decade highly focused on powerlifting at the highest level in a gym that would see visitors from all over the world, it’s safe to say that I’ve seen people with every limb length advantage and disadvantage. There were people who always had an excuse on why they couldn’t perform an exercise well and there was always people who did really well on an exercise when mechanically they should’ve been terrible at the exercise. I will say that usually the difference was attitude and determination. The people who had success with their disadvantages worked to find solutions instead of pointing blame to something beyond their control. These are tips that I have seen work hundreds of times with people of every level of experience.
Optimal Technique
I have seen people cut 6 inches off their bench press motion with some simple adjustments made in how they set their upper back, hips, and feet. What’s important to understand here is that means 6 inches less motion on the way down and also up. That is 1 foot less that the body has to work to move the weight. This creates better leverage and will also cut down on the time required to move the load. Taking the grip position on the bar isn’t the only way to manipulate this and for many, a wider grip can lead to a lower power output. A helpful tip for this is to film your bench press from the side and see where the elbows are in relation to the bench press pad. If you can have your elbows above the bench pad while touching your chest with the bar, that is better than the elbows being below the pad.
Gain Muscle
Strength isn’t directly correlated to strength, but when moving maximal weight there does come a time where increased muscle mass helps because it’s increasing the surface area to use for pressing. This could be done using really heavy weight on accessory exercises like board presses or pin presses or a traditional bodybuilding type routine with higher volume on isolation exercises. It’s important when doing this not to add wasted size in areas you don’t need as it could bump you up a weight class if competing. I saw many longer limbed lifters increase muscle mass to areas like the arms, upper back, and chest and it made a great difference in their pressing power.
Accommodating Resistance
Bands and chains added to a barbell work for everyone, but I’ve seen them be a great tool for people with longer arms it will teach them to accelerate the barbell through a longer range of motion with higher force. Then once the bands or chains are removed, the bar will be easier to accelerate because they’re used to more tension at the top. Like any training tool, if used incorrectly there is a lower value.
Build the Upper Back
By building the muscle and strength of the upper back it creates a larger surface to press from and elbows keep better technique during the press like keeping the elbows tucked or pressing the bar in a straight line. Let all the gym bros be focused on building their pecs using isolation movements while you build real back strength with exercises like Pull Ups and Bent Over Rows. The bigger and stronger your upper back is, the less likely you are to have an injury to your shoulder or pecs which means you’ll get more valuable pressing workouts in.
Just because you have longer arms, doesn’t mean you can’t be strong at pressing. I saw Chris Speagal do a Close Grip Bench Press with 600lbs like an empty bar among many other people I trained with. To increase the press might take extra effort, but the longer limbs could be lending some benefit in other lifts like the deadlift. Everything has give and take and few people are built perfectly for the sport that they choose. If you convince yourself that you have a shitty bench because of your parents then you’ll never move beyond that because you can’t expand your mind into a stronger state.
Nick Showman
Showtime Strength & Performance