Low Pin Press (Barely off the Chest)

Set the pins so the bar will be at chest height or 1 inch above. Slide yourself under the bar, plant your feet on the ground and take a grip wider than shoulder width.

Keep the chest sticking out and try to grab the bench with your shoulder blades. Before pressing the bar, brace your core, squeeze your back muscles and get as tight as possible. Press the bar to the lockout position by using the chest, back and triceps. Imagine you are pushing your body away from the bar and not the bar away from you. This will keep your bench tight and avoid energy leaks. After each rep, lower the bar until it is completely rested on the pins. Rebrace and reestablish tension before each rep is performed.

Trainer Tips: Whenever you are pin pressing, make sure you don’t bounce the weight off of the pins. Let’s say the program says to do a set of 8, treat that set as 8 singles with enough time resting the bar on the rack in order to kill or dampen the stretch reflex working on starting strength and the rate of force productions.