One of the most commonly asked questions between men at the gym is, "How much can you bench?" Yet, for the most part, many guys are losing vital poundage from their big lifts by neglecting areas of their fitness which can be worked on very easily. Today's post will teach you how to improve your bench press in three quick moves.

Of course, it is important to recognize the fact that owning a big, powerful deadlift or squat is not really important in the grand scheme of things. You can build a fantastic physique without having a particularly powerful personal best. However, in most gyms it remains a barometer for how well your training program is progressing, so increasing the three big lifts remains very important to most guys.

Increasing the three big lifts (chest press, deadlift and back squat) is often a game of working muscles that most guys neglect, such a forearms. The following three techniques will help you to get maximum results in minimum time:

1. Designate some time in your arm workouts for grip work and forearm based work.

2. Perform a reverse warm-up to better prepare your muscles for a heavy set.

3. Perform negative reps with a spotter on any lift you wish to increase.

The main problem with men who encounter issues with their big lifts is that the rest of their program is built around looking good, rather than being strong. As a result, they completely overlook the importance of training their forearms and grip strength. Your grip will always be the first thing to tire out on an exercise like Romanian deadlifts, long before your lower back and glutes, so it makes sense to incorporate grip-based work into your routine.

Try to get a good mixture of exercises to test your grip. Moves like reverse curls, handshake curls and even something simple like clasping two weight plates together for as long as possible have been shown to improve grip strength dramatically.

A good way to boost your bench press technique using a strong grip is to focus on trying to grip as hard as possible on the bar and 'rip it apart'. This allows you to place more stress on the chest and, in return, build more lean muscle with the exercise!

A reverse warm-up, otherwise known as a Hulk warm-up due to the fact Lou Ferrigno used the technique frequently, is another great way to boost any big lift. This involves using your warm-up set to go heavier than you plan to go in your working sets, thus tricking the body into recruiting more muscle fibers in the build up to your proper sets. While this might sound odd, it is a time-served technique adopted by many power lifters the world over. For example, if you plan on lifting 100 kg in a squat, try performing a set consisting of fewer reps with 110 kg (with a spotter, of course). Suddenly, that 100 kg lift seems remarkably easier than it normally would. This is because the body has reacted to your reverse warm-up by recruiting many more muscle fibers in the areas you are hitting, allowing you to push past things which were previously difficult.

Naturally, this technique works best when you use it as an occasional tool rather than using it all the time.

Our last technique for improving your big lifts quickly is negative reps. This means placing huge focus on the eccentric, or lowering phase, of each rep and getting a spotter to help you push through the concentric phase. Too many people neglect the eccentric phase completely and put all their effort into the concentric, but research shows that you can improve your results by as much as 50% if you work on the negative phase as well.

Again, as with Hulk warm-ups, try to go heavier than you usually would because this only involves you working solo during the lowering phase.

If you adopt the three techniques in today's article you will undoubtedly see an increase in any big lift on the gym floor. If you have been wondering how to improve your bench press and were performing endless assistance exercises such as dumbbell flyes and cable crossovers, you may be surprised to find that the techniques today involve simple things such as grip and reverse warm-up sets. However, each of the methods is proven and very, very effective.