Does a Bench Mat Help Your Bench Press?

Short answer: a bench mat does not make you stronger. It stops you wasting strength you already have. Here is the mechanism, so you can judge for yourself whether it applies to your bench.

Where the strength leaks

A good bench press setup is built from the feet up. You plant your feet, squeeze your upper back into the pad, set your shoulders down and back, and build an arch. When you drive your legs, that force travels up through a tight body and into the bar.

On a smooth vinyl bench, part of that leg drive goes somewhere else: it slides your upper back toward your head. Every millimetre you slide is force that never reached the bar, and it also loosens the shoulder position you set. Most lifters answer this by driving their legs less, which means leaving leg drive on the table, or by accepting a setup that shifts rep to rep.

What a bench mat changes

A bench mat gives your upper back something to hold onto. With the back anchored, three things happen:

• Leg drive goes into the bar. You can push hard with your legs without sliding, so the force has only one place to go.
• Shoulders stay set. The position you built before the lift is the position you press from, on the first rep and the last.
• Every bench feels the same. You stop adjusting your setup to the bench you happened to get, because the surface under your back is the one you brought.

None of that adds muscle. It removes a variable, and for lifters who were sliding it can be a large one. That is why the difference is often most obvious on a heavy single, where any setup shift costs the rep.

What a bench mat will not do

It will not fix a bad bar path, a weak lockout or a poor arch. It will not replace learning to set up properly. If you are not driving your legs at all, a mat changes little until you start. It is a tool for keeping a good setup in place, not a substitute for one.

Who feels it most

• Lifters in commercial gyms with slick, well-worn benches
• Arched benchers, because the arch puts more of your weight through a smaller patch of upper back
• Lifters who sweat through their shirt, because a damp shirt on vinyl is as slippery as it gets
• Anyone who trains on different benches week to week and wants one setup

What lifters report

These are verified buyer reviews of the Odyssey Bench Mat, quoted as written.

One of my biggest issues training at bodybuilding/commercial gyms is slipping off the bench, this bench makes that impossible. Love the product and definitely recommend!

Hit my first ever 400+ bench with this. Highly recommend, it's got crazy grip and I like this much better compared to using chalk, especially in commercial gyms.

Amazing product. Great if youre tired of chalking up the bench ever set or need extra grip

The Odyssey Bench Mat has been tested by 700 lb+ benchers and is rated 4.98 out of 5 across 208 reviews. You can read all of them on the product page.

How to tell if you need one

Film your next heavy set from the side. Watch your upper back during the press. If it moves toward the head of the bench as you drive, you are leaking leg drive into the pad, and a bench mat is the direct fix. If it stays put, your bench does not have this problem and you can spend the money elsewhere.

See the Odyssey bench mats. Every one is backed by a 90-day money-back guarantee, so if your back still slides, send it back.