10 Ways a Weight Bench Can Help You Reach Your Fitness Goals

A weight bench is super versatile and there are a variety of ways in which utilizing one can help you reach your fitness goals whether it is to improve strength, build muscle or lose weight. You are able to work almost every single muscle in your body through the use of a weight bench, particularly all the major muscle groups. It would almost be possible to create an entire workout based from a weight bench if you wanted to. You can use the following 10 factors to reach your fitness goals whether it be muscular strength, hypertrophy or endurance, weight loss, sports performance or rehabilitation, there are a multitude of goals your can work towards with a weight bench. If you are interested in how a weight bench can help you reach your goal, keep reading!

1. Chest​

Improve your chest muscles – pectoralis major and minor.

  • Dumbbell bench press
  • Barbell Bench press
  • Incline dumbbell bench press
  • Incline barbell bench press
  • Decline dumbbell bench press
  • Decline barbell bench press
  • Dumbbell lying chest fly
  • Narrow arm dumbbell press
  • Incline push ups
  • Decline push ups​

2. Back

Improve your back muscles – Latissimus dorsi, rhomboids, Serratus anterior and trapezius upper, middle and lower

  • Incline reverse fly
  • Single arm row
  • Lying down incline dumbbell row
  • Lying down incline barbell row
  • Bench plank dumbbell row

3. Shoulders

Improve your deltoids anterior, middle and posterior and the muscles of the rotator cuff – Supraspinatus, Infraspinatus, Teres minor and subscapularis

  • Seated dumbbell shoulder press
  • Seated barbell shoulder press
  • Seated dumbbell upright row
  • Seated barbell upright row
  • Seated dumbbell front raise
  • Seated barbell front raise
  • Seated dumbbell lateral raise
  • Seated military press
  • Incline dumbbell lateral raise

4. Triceps

Improve the muscles of the triceps – Triceps brachii laterl head and triceps brachii short head.

  • Triceps bench dips
  • Dumbbell skull crusher
  • Barbell Skull crusher
  • Narrow arm push up
  • Kneeling one arm dumbbell triceps extension

5. Biceps

Improve the muscles of the biceps – Biceps Brachii long head and Biceps brachii short head.​

  • Seated dumbbell bicep curls
  • Seated barbell bicep curls
  • Alternating dumbbell seated bicep curls
  • Alternating barbell seated bicep curls
  • Dumbbell hammer curls
  • Dumbbell alternating hammer curls

6. Core

Improve the internal and external muscles of the core – rectus Abdominis, external and internal oblique’s, transverse Abdominis hip flexors and erector spinae.

  • Face down superman kicks
  • Seated Russian twist
  • Decline plank (feet elevated)
  • Incline plank (hands elevated)
  • Incline side plank (Elbow elevated)
  • Decline side plank (feet elevated)
  • Incline mountain climbers
  • Elevated feet plank to pike
  • Body lift (Lift upper body off floor by holding bench)
  • Half body on, half body off hold

7. Glutes

Improve your gluteus maximus, medius and minimus.

  • Feet elevated glute bridge
  • Single leg foot elevated glute bridge
  • Hip thrusts
  • Step ups
  • Single leg step up
  • Bench squats
  • Goblet bench squats
  • Side step ups
  • Dumbbell side step ups
  • Single leg dumbbell hip thrust
  • Single leg barbell hip thrust

8. Quads

Improve your quadriceps muscles – rectus femoris, vastus lateralis, vastus intermedius and vastus Medialis.

  • Barbell assisted squats
  • Dumbbell step ups
  • Barbell step ups
  • Single leg step ups
  • Bench jumps
  • Bulgarian split squat
  • Leg extension using bench with rollers
  • Beginner bench assisted thruster
  • Kneeling hip flexor stretch
  • Burpee jump onto bench
  • Lateral shuffle over bench
  • Bench step up jump

9. Hamstrings

Improve your hamstring muscles – Semitendinosis, Semimembranosis and biceps femoris.

  • Dumbbell lying hamstring curls
  • Single leg, leg curl
  • Leg curls using bench with rollers
  • Hamstring stretch
  • Box jumpsCentre jump

10. Calves

Improve the muscles of your calves – gastrocnemius and soleus.

  • Calf raises
  • Calf dips
  • Seated calf raises
  • Singe leg calf raises
  • Single leg calf dips
  • Single leg seated calf raises
  • Bench jumps

These 10 factors are the reasons why a weight bench should be included in your workout program in order to reach your fitness goals. As you can see, you are able to work almost every muscle in your body and provide your body with a muscle stimulus variation in your training regime to reduce a plateau in results when working towards achieving the results you desire. So, start using a weight bench today!