How to do the Machine Bench Press

Steps

1. Sit down on the Chest Press Machine and select the weight.
2. Step on the lever provided by the machine since it will help you to bring the handles forward so that you can grab the handles and fully extend the arms.
3. Grab the handles with a palms-down grip and lift your elbows so that your upper arms are parallel to the floor to the sides of your torso. Tip: Your forearms will be pointing forward since you are grabbing the handles. Once you bring the handles forward and extend the arms you will be at the starting position.
4. Now bring the handles back towards you as you breathe in.
5. Push the handles away from you as you flex your pecs and you breathe out. Hold the contraction for a second before going back to the starting position.
6. Repeat for the recommended amount of reps.
7. When finished step on the lever again and slowly get the handles back to their original place.

Tracking it in OneRep

Add the machine bench press to a routine and your previous weight and reps sit beside every set, so the decision to add load is made by what is already on the screen rather than by memory. Exercise history and volume trends are one tap away, and logging works offline for the gyms where signal does not reach.

Because OneRep tracks food on the same timeline, a stall on this lift can be read against what you were actually eating that month — which is the difference between a programming problem and an eating one. More on that in tracking progressive overload without a spreadsheet.

Where the instructions come from

The steps above come from free-exercise-db, a public-domain exercise dataset. They are general guidance, not coaching for your body: if a movement hurts, stop and get someone qualified to look at it.