If your bench feels heavy the moment it leaves your chest and never builds any speed, you have a bottom-end problem. Getting explosive off the chest is about building both the raw strength and the speed to launch the bar hard out of the bottom, so it carries through the rest of the lift.
Why Speed Off the Chest Matters
The faster the bar is moving as it leaves your chest, the more momentum it carries into the middle and the lockout. A weak, slow start means you are already losing the lift before you reach the part most people think of as the sticking point. Building explosiveness off the chest gives the whole press something to build on.
Train With Speed and Intent
Dynamic effort work is the main tool. Use a lighter weight, around half of your max, and press it with everything you have, driving the bar off the chest as fast as humanly possible for low rep sets. The goal is not fatigue, it is speed and intent. Even on your heavier sets, try to move the bar with the same aggression. Training the body to press fast teaches it to recruit muscle quickly when it counts.
Build Bottom-End Strength Too
Speed alone is not enough if the bottom is simply weak. Pause work and the Spoto press build raw strength in the bottom position by removing the bounce and forcing you to press from a dead stop. Combine that strength work with explosive speed training and you get a bottom end that is both strong and fast.
Press with intent, train the bottom from a dead stop, and learn to launch the bar off your chest. A fast, strong start turns a grinding bench into one that moves.