Using Specific Accessory Exercises

Accessory exercises need to be very specific to the exercise they are attempting to improve, in this case the bench press. Specificity is the most important principle of strength and conditioning, and maybe the simplest. Specificity outlines that what we work on in our physical practice improves those specific physical characteristics being worked on. When we bench press we get better at bench pressing, when we squat we get better at squatting etc.

Specificity is important to understand when discussing accessory work, as we move away from the primary exercise, we need to be sure we are improving the correct part of the body to help improve the primary exercise. Accessory work should either move through the same movement pattern or attempt to grow the muscles involved in the exercise. Therefore for the bench press the accessory work needs to move through the horizontal press movement pattern or attempt to grow the muscles of the chest or the triceps. This same logic can be used to find accessory exercises for other strength movements.

Accessory Exercises Never Replace Primary Exercises

Accessory work is great, and it can help improve your main lifts. However it can never be used to replace the main lifts. Because of how specificity works, our bodies adapt to what we present to them, dips are great to help grow the triceps and the chest, but dips alone will not improve you bench press if you are not putting emphasis on the bench press. I have written an extensive article on how to break plateaus on your bench press, here you can learn techniques that will help you use the actual bench press to improve the bench press.

That being said, accessory work is an excellent way to increase weekly volume especially as it stresses the body less than the primary strength exercises, allowing us to perform more volume in the week than we would be able to with only the primary exercises.

Lack of Effective Strength Training Accessory Exercises

Accessory work is rarely for improving high levels of strength when it comes to the bench press. Most of the exercises provided below will be performed for high repetitions either to help improve strength endurance or hypertrophy. This means that bench press still needs to be performed while using these accessory exercises. I have not provided more powerlifting specific exercises such as slingshot exercises, using blocks or eccentrics etc as although we pull a great deal of principles from powerlifting this website doesn’t aim to provide powerlifting specific advice, especially as the vast majority of people will find the exercises provided very effective as bench press accessory work.

Try These 5 Bench Press Accessory Exercises To Improve Your Bench Press

DB Bench Press

The DB bench press is by far my favourite bench press accessory exercise. Using dumbbells to accumulate very high volumes of pressing is a great way to induce hypertrophy of the pectorals and the triceps all while moving through the horizontal press movement pattern. Personally and with my clients, when I am running a strength training block on bench press I will usually run a high repetition dumbbell bench press at the same time to ensure I am still providing a great deal of stimulus to the muscles of the chest.

KB Bench Press

The KB bench press is another great horizontal pressing option that can be used as an accessory exercise to the bench press. Personally I prefer the DB bench press as it doesn’t put so much weight into the forearm and requires less stability. However, I also love mixing up my training and that of my clients and the KB bench press is my go to alternatives to the DB bench press and can be very effective at inducing hypertrophy and stability gains.

Weighted Press Ups

Weighted press ups are another great horizontal pressing accessory exercise we can use to help improve the bench press. Press ups do move slightly away from the DB and KB bench press in terms of specificity but they remain a horizontal press that will develop strength and strength endurance in the horizontal press movement pattern. Be sure to use a weight heavy enough that you can only perform a maximum of 20 repetitions, after 20 repetitions we are moving into muscular endurance work and it will likely have little impact on your bench press.

DB Tricep Extensions

Tricep extensions are an isolation exercise which aim to increase the size of the triceps. This is a step away in specificity compared to the horizontal pressing work but is none the less an effective accessory work exercise for the bench press. Muscle size is one of the best predictors of muscle strength, so growing your muscles using isolation exercises can be an effective way to help improve your bench press.

Ring Dip / Dip

The dip is another great way to target both the muscles of the chest and the triceps. Again we are not moving through the exact same range of motion as the bench press but we can successfully grow and strengthen the muscles which perform the bench press, therefor helping to improve the primary lift. Personally I prefer the classic dip to the ring dip when trying to induce hypertrophy as it puts less emphasis on stability and more on muscular contraction, although alternating between the two can be very effective as improving shoulder stability in the long term is never an issue.