Enhance your bench press with Sebastian Oreb’s ideas.
Final up to date on April sixteenth, 2025
The bench press is the final word benchmark of upper body strength. Although it appears easy, bench pressing entails many nuances that may make or break strength gains. In April 2025, elite power coach Sebastian Oreb demystified his secrets and techniques behind constructing an enormous bench press, having discovered from bench press file holder Kirill Sarychev.
Throughout the tutorial, Oreb blends approach with physiology and private perception to assist others obtain huge bench numbers.
Sebastian Oreb’s 10 Bench Press Ideas
- Heat up with excessive reps.
- Scapular retraction and melancholy are essential.
- Set ft beneath physique on balls of ft for arch and drive.
- Place the bar over the mouth/chin, not the eyes.
- Flare elbows to stack beneath the bar for unracking and press.
- Maintain your breath throughout bench press to stabilize.
- Relaxation longer between heavier units.
- Add incline presses for angle variation.
- Construct triceps with skull crushers.
- Keep away from compound lifts to failure; isolations are okay.
[Related: Mitchell Hooper’s 3 Must-Know Strength Tips]
Heat-up Logic & Lat Operate
Oreb prefaced bench press classes by supersetting dumbbell chest presses and lat pulldowns, utilizing mild weights, excessive reps, and progressive weight. This prepares the shoulders to maneuver via a full vary of movement safely and comfortably.
Lat pulldowns reinforce shoulder positioning. Scapular retraction and melancholy are key parts of a powerful bench press. The lats depress the scapula, permitting the shoulders to maneuver freely and deal with heavy masses. (1)(2)
I hold my shoulder blades again and down towards my again pockets.
—Sebastian Oreb
Strategic Setup, Bar Path, & Respiration
Correct bench press setup helps development and harm prevention. Oreb suggested putting the barbell in step with the mouth or chin somewhat than the eyes to forestall extreme attain.
The additional again you journey, the extra your shoulder blades have to come back out of place.
—Sebastian Oreb
Foot placement is equally essential. To arch the again and units the shoulders:
Up on the balls of the ft to get leverage and push the heels downward.
—Sebastian Oreb
A standard cue is shifting the elbows ahead and sliding the bar off the pegs. Whereas this may fly for mild masses, it gained’t for heavy units. As a substitute, stack the elbows beneath the bar (flare the elbows) to interact the triceps and preserve this place throughout urgent.
Pulling the shoulders again and down creates pure exterior rotation, which naturally tucking the elbows.
—Sebastian Oreb
Correct setup creates an optimally curved bar path. Stomach bracing helps preserve positioning and shortens the bar path.
I maintain my breath for the entire set.
—Sebastian Oreb
Quantity & Load Development
Oreb buildings his weekly classes as twice per week — in the future, mild with excessive reps; in the future, heavy with decrease reps. On lighter days, he works as much as two units of 155 kilograms (341 kilos) for 10 reps in 20-kilogram increments. Heavy days are carried out in decrease rep ranges.
Oreb rests for 3-5 minutes between mild units and as much as 10 minutes for heavy, low-rep days. Analysis exhibits that longer inter-set relaxation intervals maximize restoration and efficiency. (3)(4)
- In keeping with analysis, extra frequent coaching classes are higher for power positive factors and fewer essential for hypertrophy.
[Related: Latest Meta-Analysis on Training Frequency for Hypertrophy]
Accent Work and Triceps Improvement
To keep away from redundancy, Oreb consists of incline dumbbell chest presses or shoulder presses. Angle selection biases totally different muscle tissues. For instance, incline presses bias the upper chest better than flat presses. (5)
If all you do is compound urgent…you’re not getting essentially the most out of the lengthy head of the triceps.
—Sebastian Oreb
The triceps lengthy head, which crosses the elbow and shoulder, is the biggest and strongest triceps muscle. It performs an essential position in urgent efficiency.
Maximizing lengthy head measurement and power requires utterly stretching it by way of overhead movements. (6) Oreb addressed this with cranium crushers, or mendacity triceps extensions, with a slight arm angle to maximise stress.
References
- Contemori S, Panichi R, Biscarini A. Results of scapular retraction/protraction place and scapular elevation on shoulder girdle muscle exercise throughout glenohumeral abduction. Hum Mov Sci. 2019 Apr;64:55-66. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2019.01.005. Epub 2019 Jan 16. PMID: 30660072.
- Solem-Bertoft E, Thuomas KA, Westerberg CE. The affect of scapular retraction and protraction on the width of the subacromial area. An MRI research. Clin Orthop Relat Res. 1993 Nov;(296):99-103. PMID: 8222458.
- Grgic J, Schoenfeld BJ, Skrepnik M, Davies TB, Mikulic P. Results of Relaxation Interval Length in Resistance Coaching on Measures of Muscular Power: A Systematic Evaluation. Sports activities Med. 2018 Jan;48(1):137-151. doi: 10.1007/s40279-017-0788-x. PMID: 28933024.
- Schoenfeld BJ, Pope ZK, Benik FM, Hester GM, Sellers J, Nooner JL, Schnaiter JA, Bond-Williams KE, Carter AS, Ross CL, Simply BL, Henselmans M, Krieger JW. Longer Interset Relaxation Durations Improve Muscle Power and Hypertrophy in Resistance-Educated Males. J Power Cond Res. 2016 Jul;30(7):1805-12. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001272. PMID: 26605807.
- Rodríguez-Ridao D, Antequera-Vique JA, Martín-Fuentes I, Muyor JM. Impact of 5 Bench Inclinations on the Electromyographic Exercise of the Pectoralis Main, Anterior Deltoid, and Triceps Brachii through the Bench Press Train. Int J Environ Res Public Well being. 2020 Oct 8;17(19):7339. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17197339. PMID: 33049982; PMCID: PMC7579505.
- Maeo S, Wu Y, Huang M, Sakurai H, Kusagawa Y, Sugiyama T, Kanehisa H, Isaka T. Triceps brachii hypertrophy is considerably better after elbow extension coaching carried out within the overhead versus impartial arm place. Eur J Sport Sci. 2023 Jul;23(7):1240-1250. doi: 10.1080/17461391.2022.2100279. Epub 2022 Aug 11. PMID: 35819335.
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