How to do the French press for beautiful hands

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Iya Zorina talks about the technique and variations of the exercise.

The French press is an exercise in which you raise your arms, bend them at the elbows, bringing your forearms behind your head, and then unbend them back.

Why you should do the French press

This is one of the best ACE Study Identifies Best Triceps Exercises for isolated exercises for the triceps, the muscle that defines the shape of your arms.

All three triceps heads - long, medial and lateral - extend the arm at the elbow, and the first also helps to unbend the shoulder.

When you raise your arm over your head, the triceps is in a stretched position, which increases the mechanical tension in the muscle during work and promotes faster growth in volume.

In addition, the French press has many variations: standing, sitting and lying on a bench or on the floor, with dumbbells or a barbell, on a block, with an expander, one or two hands. You can do the exercise in any gym, regardless of equipment, or even at home if you buy a dumbbell or expander.

How to do the French press correctly

To begin with, we will analyze the most popular version of the French press - lying on a horizontal bench. It allows you to take more weight than when working standing or sitting, and great load on the triceps.

It is best to do this exercise with a curved or EZ-bar. This way the wrists are in a more favorable position (at an angle) and less stress. If there is no such bar, you can do it with a straight one.

How to take the starting position

Place a barbell with the correct weight on the edge of the bench. Then lie on your back on a bench, raise your hands behind your head and grab the shell. Move your arms with the barbell forward, to a position over the shoulders.

Resting your feet on the floor, move further along the bench so that your head protrudes slightly over the edge.

Lower your shoulder blades, press your shoulders against the bench and fix this position.

How to do the exercise

Move your arms to the side of your head so that they are not perpendicular to the body, but at an angle. Due to this position, the torque in the elbow increases and the triceps receives more load.

From this point, bend your elbows smoothly and under control, lowering the barbell behind your head. You can lower it to the level of the bench or just below - as far as the mobility of the joints allows.

Extend your elbows while lifting the barbell to its original position. Do not move your shoulders or lift your shoulder blades from the bench - this will turn on other muscles and take the load off the triceps.

During flexion and extension, do not move your elbows - they should remain approximately in the same place.

How not to do the French press

There is one popular version of the French bench press called the scullcrusher. In this version, in the initial position, the wrists are in line with the shoulders, and the barbell goes down to the forehead.

Such a performance is not particularly effective - the torque is reduced, and at the extreme point the triceps does not receive any load at all. As a result, the muscles will tighten less.

Moreover, such a performance can be dangerous: if you cannot handle the weight, the bar will fall not on the floor, but on your head.

What other variations of the French press are there

Lying on a bench with dumbbells

The version with dumbbells is more comfortable for the shoulders and elbows due to the wrist rotation, but at the same time it loads the muscles well due to instability.

Extend your arms with your fingers towards you and perform the exercise in the same technique as with the barbell.

Keep in mind that with dumbbells you will have to take less weight, since the strength is spent not only on extending the elbows, but also on stabilizing the shoulders.

Lying on the floor with a barbell or dumbbells

This option is suitable for those who want to limit the range and do each repetition clearly in the same amplitude.

The rules are the same as in the bench press, only here each time you lower the barbell or dumbbells until they touch the floor.

Standing or sitting with a barbell or dumbbells

In this version, the body is perpendicular to the floor, and the range of motion of the arms is greater than if you were doing the exercise lying down. On the one hand, you will take less weight, on the other, you will load the muscles more due to the greater amplitude.

Alternate this with the bench version to give the muscles an unfamiliar load and stimulate growth.

Raise the barbell or dumbbells up with outstretched arms. Lower your shoulder blades and lock your shoulders. Lower the projectile by the head to the end of the range, and then lift it back up.

Standing or sitting with a dumbbell in one hand

This version allows you to achieve the maximum range of motion and connect the body stabilizers to work.

Keep your abs tense so that the body is rigid and stable, do not arch your back. Place the dumbbell behind your head and then straighten your arm. Try not to move your shoulder and only move at the elbow.

Standing with one dumbbell in both hands

Here the limbs are closer to each other, which slightly changes the load on the triceps. The variation is more comfortable than the same barbell exercise.

Grasp the dumbbell by the pancake with both hands, lift it above your head. Bend and unbend your elbows, being careful not to move your shoulders.

Sitting on an incline bench with a barbell, one or two dumbbells

Renowned trainer and physical therapist Jeff Cavaliere recommends doing the French incline press because it prevents the elbows from being pulled apart and the movement becomes safer for the shoulders.

You can do this exercise with one or two dumbbells, or with an EZ bar. The rules are the same: move your arms further behind your head, do not spread your elbows, do not move your shoulders.

On the block

The version on the block trainer provides a constant load on the muscles at all points of the exercise.

Attach the rope handle to the lower block, turn your back and raise the handle over your head in outstretched arms. Then gently bend them, lowering your forearms behind your head, and lift them back.

For maximum study of the triceps, it is advised at the top point not only to straighten the arms at the elbows, but also to turn the wrists outward.

With expander

If you exercise at home, you can do the exercise with an expander. Step on the loop of the expander with your foot, and lift the other end up in outstretched arms. Bend and unbend your limbs at the elbows, trying to keep your shoulders at the same level.

How to incorporate French bench press into your workouts

Pick up the weight so as to perform 8-10 times per set. Repetitions should be hard, but not so hard that you have to spoil the technique. If you start to move your shoulders or swing your whole body, grab a lighter barbell.

Do the French press once a week, alternating with other triceps exercises: extension of the arms on the block or with dumbbells in an incline, push-ups on the uneven bars. Change the design from time to time in order to properly load all the muscle fibers.