SOMETIMES THE SMALLEST changes can deliver the biggest results in the gym. Sure, it’s important to switch up your routine by swapping in new exercises occasionally, but it’s also well established that little tweaks often work just as well (if not better). Subtle adjustments like altering your grip, stance, or even the pace of each rep can be the springboard that launches you out of a training rut and reinvigorates your gains.
Nowhere is that truer than in the barbell bench press. There’s a reason it’s a mainstay of most men’s training programs and a card-carrying member of strength training’s “big three” lifts: Few other upper body exercises mobilize as much muscle or build as much lean mass. But a consequence of its storied status is that it can be overused, with lifters performing it the same way set after set, week after week, month after month, and year after year.
Eventually, guys stuck in the same cycle will hit a plateau. They might look to all kinds of wild approaches for a fix—which is a shame, because a possible solution to their struggle can be simple. By stopping the bar before it reaches their chest and pausing before finishing the rep, lifters can elevate their pushing (and muscle-building) power.
That “hold and hover” transforms the standard bench press into the Spoto Press, named after elite powerlifter Eric Spoto. He used it as the cornerstone of a training regimen that helped him crush a 722-pound raw bench press in competition. Follow his lead to maximize your push.
UNLIKE A TRADITIONAL barbell bench press, which involves lowering the bar all the way to your chest, the Spoto Press entails lowering the bar until it’s an inch or two above your pecs and then holding it there for a beat (one to two seconds) before pressing back up to the starting position. Everything else about the exercise is the same as a standard barbell bench press. That brief hold at the bottom makes all the difference.
Pausing the lift when your pecs are almost fully lengthened eliminates the stretch reflex, which is the natural tendency of a muscle to store energy briefly when stretched (much like a rubber band). During a standard bench press, the stretch reflex helps you drive the bar out of that bottom position. Removing it makes that job a lot harder.
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