Bench press taken? What to do instead
Ask how many sets are left, work in, or reorder. If every bench is busy, press without one: floor press, push-ups, or a machine or cable press. Sets and reps.
Short answer
“The bench is taken” covers two different problems. Sometimes one bench press station is busy and there’s a free flat bench a few metres away. Sometimes every bench in the gym is in use. The fix for the first is easy. The second needs a press that doesn’t use a bench at all.
First, ask how long it will be
| What you find | What to do |
|---|---|
| One or two sets left | Do your next exercise now and come back |
| Several sets left, and your loads are close | Ask to work in: you alternate sets and change the plates between turns |
| A long session, or very different loads | Swap the barbell bench for today |
| A towel or phone on the bench, nobody around | Ask the people nearby before you use it |
Ask between sets, not while someone is pressing. “How many sets have you got left?” is all it takes.
Reorder your session
If the wait is ten minutes or so, move the rest of your upper-body work forward. Rows, overhead presses, triceps or shoulder raises can all go first. You’ll be a little tired when you get to the bench, so expect a rep or two fewer at the same weight, but you keep the lift in your week.
One bench is busy, but another bench is free
Take a pair of dumbbells to the free bench. You have three good options:
- Dumbbell bench press: the closest swap. Same muscles, and each arm works on its own.
- Incline dumbbell press: if the free bench is adjustable and you also want more upper-chest work.
- Smith machine bench press: if you want to keep a heavy bar and the Smith machine is free.
Every bench is busy: press without one
This is the tier most guides skip. All of these need no bench:
| Swap | What you need | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Dumbbell floor press | A pair of dumbbells and some floor | Pressing with load; the floor stops your elbows, so the range is shorter |
| Push-up | Floor space | Any goal, if you make them hard enough (see below) |
| Machine chest press | The machine | Heavy pressing with no balance or spotter needed |
| Cable chest press | One cable station | Even tension through the whole press |
| Dips on parallel bars | A dip station | Chest and triceps with your body weight |
| Standing band chest press | A band and an anchor | When everything else is taken |
To make push-ups hard enough for strength or muscle, add a band across your back, put your feet on a step (feet-elevated push-up), or lower for 3 seconds and pause at the bottom. If you can do more than about 20 clean reps, make them harder.
Match the swap to your goal
- Strength on the bench press itself. Pick the heaviest option you can control: a free bench with dumbbells, the Smith machine, or the chest press machine. A meta-analysis found heavier loads gave more one-rep-max strength, while muscle growth was similar across load ranges. Get back on the barbell next session.
- Muscle. Any of the swaps can work if you take the sets close to failure. In the same meta-analysis, muscle growth was similar across load ranges when sets were taken to failure; applying that to sets with a rep or two left is our extrapolation. Hard push-ups count too. In a five-week study, push-ups with a band and bench press done at the same effort level (6-rep max) gave similar strength gains.
- Triceps too. Triceps muscle activity was lower with dumbbells than with the barbell in one study. That measured activity in a single session, not growth, but if triceps strength matters to you, adding a set of triceps work is a reasonable hedge, or use the close-grip bench press next time the bar is free.
Set the load, sets and reps
Your barbell numbers won’t carry straight over. In a study of 12 trained men, the dumbbell bench max was about 17% below the barbell max, and the Smith machine max sat in between.
| Planned | Swap | Sets and reps |
|---|---|---|
| Barbell bench 3 × 5 | Dumbbell bench press | 3 × 6 to 8 |
| Barbell bench 3 × 5 | Machine chest press | 3 × 6 to 8 |
| Barbell bench 3 × 8 to 10 | Dumbbell floor press | 3 × 8 to 10 |
| Barbell bench 3 × 8 to 10 | Push-ups, made harder | 3 sets, stop 2 reps short of failure |
- For dumbbells, start with a pair that adds up to about three-quarters of your barbell working weight. If you bench 60 kg for sets of 8, try 22.5 kg dumbbells.
- Aim to leave 2 to 3 reps in reserve on the first set. If you had more left, go heavier on the next set. If you missed reps, go lighter.
- Next time you do the swap, use the double progression calculator to decide whether to add reps or weight.
Pressing without a spotter
If you’re on your own, make failure safe before you start:
- Dumbbells: keep 1 to 2 reps in reserve on heavy sets so you never get stuck under them.
- Barbell in a rack: set the safety arms just below the bottom of your rep. Before you load the bar, lie relaxed and lower the empty bar onto them: it should rest on the arms, clear of your chest and neck. If it doesn’t, adjust the arms or bench, or use dumbbells or a machine instead.
- Smith machine: set the stops the same way and run the same empty-bar check.
- Machines and push-ups: no spotter needed.
Can you bench in the squat rack?
Yes, if you set the safety arms just below the bottom of your rep and check with an empty bar that they catch it clear of your chest. Squat racks are often the scarcest kit in the gym, though. At busy times, ask whether anyone is waiting for the rack, and keep it to your bench sets.
What the research says about swapping
- Dumbbell, Smith machine and barbell presses produced similar chest and front-shoulder muscle activity in one study, but the dumbbell max was lower and triceps activity was lower too (Saeterbakken and colleagues, 2011).
- Band push-ups and bench press at a matched effort level gave similar strength gains over five weeks (Calatayud and colleagues, 2015).
- Randomly varied exercises gave gains similar to a fixed program over eight weeks (Baz-Valle and colleagues, 2019).
None of these studies tested a busy gym, but together they suggest one swapped session costs you very little.
Founder and editorial lead, Handler
Handler's founder writes general training guides and documents their sources. This article is educational, not an individual coaching or medical assessment.
Sources
The study findings below come from the linked abstracts. The tiers, sets and reps and load rules are coaching guidance, not results from those studies.
Sources
- 01Saeterbakken et al. 2011: barbell, Smith machine and dumbbell chest press (In 12 trained men, dumbbell 1RM was 17% below barbell and 14% below Smith machine; chest and front-shoulder activity didn't differ, triceps activity was lower with dumbbells.)pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21225489/
- 02Calatayud et al. 2015: bench press vs push-ups at matched muscle activity (Five weeks of 6RM bench press or 6RM band push-ups gave similar strength gains.)pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24983847/
- 03Schoenfeld et al. 2017, J Strength Cond Res: low vs high load training (Muscle growth was similar across load ranges; heavier loads gave more 1RM strength.)pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28834797/
- 04Baz-Valle et al. 2019, PLOS ONE: varied exercise selection (Randomly varied exercises gave gains similar to a fixed program, with better motivation.)pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31881066/