The Big Three - Squat, Deadlift, Bench.

There are three main lifts in weightlifting: bench press, deadlift, and the squat.

These are most commonly referred to when trying to find out how strong someone is. People always ask, "How much can you bench?" or "What's your max on dead lift?"

These exercises truly measure your strength because they are compound movements, involving two or more body parts. These are also the main three exercises at power lifting competitions. In this article, we will examine these three lifts and the proper way to perform them.

Bench Press

The bench press is the one exercise that men most like talk about. Whenever you talk about weight lifting, someone says, "What's your max bench press?", no matter what. Therefore, everyone wants a big bench to brag about.

The bench press targets the pectoralis major, lower and upper. It also hits your front delts (shoulders) and triceps. Therefore, these body parts are important when it comes to having a strong bench.

To strengthen your bench, you must do assistant exercises. Let us get into the bench. There are three different types of grips you can use. The wide grip, narrow grip, or (regular) medium grip.

The wide grip involves the hands gripping the bar closer to the weights. This works the outside of the pecs more. The narrow grip involves your hands being closer together. This works the triceps, shoulders, and inner chest more.

The regular grip works the pectoral major as a whole. Feet should be placed flat against the floor with your back flat against the bench. You want to make sure your shoulders are far enough away from the uprights so that you do not hit them when benching, this will throw you off and could lead to injury.

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Now when taking the bar, you want to bring it up over the upper chest. When lowering the bar, make sure that you do not bounce it off your chest, you want to bring it down to where it slightly touches your chest. Then push the bar until your arms are extended.

Always have a spotter there to assist you. As I said before, to strengthen your bench, you need to work the assisting muscles, triceps and shoulders.

Squat

The squat targets the quadriceps. It also hits the glutes, hip adductors (inner thigh), and calves. There are many types of squats, but we are going to look at the rear squat.

Well, start with bar placement: The bar should rest below the top of your shoulder, at the bottom of the traps. You head should be up and you should be looking forward. This should be with shoulders back and chest out.

As far as the stance goes, each person has to find a stance with which they feel comfortable. Your feet should be pointed out while placing most of your weight on your heels.

Squatting is done by taking the bar off the squat rack in this position. You want to limit how far away from the rack you have to move, because extra movement used needed energy.

It is suggested to go down until your thighs are parallel to the floor. If you go deeper than this, make sure not to bounce to get back up. As always make sure you have a spotter.

Deadlift

The deadlift is considered the most impressive out of the big three because it involves explosive strength and overall power. It works your entire body. The conventional style deadlift is done with a shoulder width stance and arms hanging straight outside the knees.

An important thing to remember when doing deadlifts is to keep your hips down and back straight, doing this will help prevent injury. Your feet should be pointed out a little bit, about 45 degrees. Your shins should almost touch the bar.

You should put most of your weight on your heels to keep balanced. While lifting, your head should be looking up, not at the bar. This will also help prevent injury.

The major benefit that comes from doing these exercises is, they are great mass builders. All these exercises are compound movements that work much of your body. Incorporating these movements into your routine will definitely be worth the effort.

Remembering to always have a spotter there to help you is important. If you get in trouble while doing these exercises, correcting your mistake by yourself would be hard and you could also be seriously injured. Using a weight that you can control is also important and keep balance with.

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If your balance is thrown off, it could throw your lift off. Doing these exercises with proper form and a spotter will lead to many benefits.

Your overall power and strength will increase, which means your strength in other lifts will increase. You will also gain mass quicker. I wish you good luck and remember safety first.

Thanks,