Bench Press 2

Bench Press 2 is a button-mashing gym game; the faster you tap, the better your lift. Play with keyboard keys or virtual buttons on touchscreens. You get two challenges: lift the heaviest weight you can, or do five reps with 225 pounds in the shortest time. Each challenge has easy and hard modes, so there are four modes total and a medal to earn in each one. The top goal is to grab four gold medals.

On easy, every press is the same, and the game spreads the effort evenly between both hands. On hard, the left keys load the left hand and the right keys load the right hand, so you can even tilt the bar. The physics copy real bench press behavior. Muscles push harder while they stretch than when they shorten, so it's easier to stop the bar from dropping than to drive it up. The bar squeezes your chest, and the chest works like a spring with a force that grows as it's compressed. That's where the high-risk, high-reward part comes in. If you stop the bar close to the compression point, you build up a strong impulse when the chest unloads. Grip width is set in the menu and changes how high you have to lift and how stable the bar feels. A wider grip usually works better. The game also shifts button positions to match your grip.

How to play?

Press four keys or buttons to apply force. Keep one finger on each button and tap them as fast as you can to fight gravity. Don't hammer the keys too early at the start; the weight has to come down and touch your chest before you drive it back up. To improve your times and lift heavier weights, pause between runs. Treat it like a quick workout, grab a protein shake, and jump in again.

When you go for records, use your chest like a spring and time the push to ride that stored momentum. Tweak grip width in the menu to find the lift height and bar control that suit you. The default setup expects one finger per button, but you can always experiment with faster tapping tricks. Put in the practice and grab gold medals in all four modes.