Exercise Advice: This exercise is very similar to the regular medium grip barbell incline bench press. The only difference is that the Smith machine acts as a spotter for you! Place a free-standing incline bench under a Smith Machine (if you do not know what a Smith machine is, ask a trainer at your gym to assist you). Lie flat on your back and grab the barbell above you with a grip slightly beyond shoulder width apart. Lift the barbell off of the rack and slowly lower it to about 3 inches above your clavicle (just below your Adam’s apple) and then press the bar back to the start position. DO NOT TOUCH THE BAR TO YOUR UPPER CHEST (this causes unneeded stress on your shoulder joints and takes the tension away from your upper pec muscles, which are what we want to be doing the work!). Be sure that when you are lowering the bar that you do so in a slow and controlled fashion. Conversely, when you press the bar upward, you want to do so in an explosive fashion. Repeat this movement for as many repetitions as yu can until failure.
