Bench Press form

[lowsweep]

Can someone describe proper POWERLIFTING (not bb, please) bench press form? I just corrected a slight problem regarding the width of my arms. This same problem gave me rotator cuff problems all last year. I wonder if there are any other problems... I usually keep my shoulders up a little, curving the higher portion of my spine very slightly up, and dig in with my feet. I usually bench explosively, and at the bottom my forearms are perpendicular to the ground and to my body/trunk. When I am very tired, I have noticed that my arms tend to come in closer to my body. Anyone see anything I should be doing or not doing? thanks,
adam

[Ford Prefect]

That's funny there is a thread about this because I was just thinking about it this morning watching somebody bench. Most people bench "wrong" and in a way that will impact their shoulder and elbow joints. Power lifters lift a certain way not only because it lowers the ROM thus raising the weight used, but because they need longevity in their joints which is hard to come by when using such extreme weights.

Lay on the bench. Bring shoulder blades together. Grip bar hard and try to tear it apart (this brings your triceps into the motion). Drive with your feet, so your upper back is being pressed into the bench when you unrack. You need to keep tight shoulder blades while you unrack because you won't be able to correct them with the weight overhead. Even though you are driving with your feet, you still want you a$$ firmly on the bench. A good thing to do to make sure you are doing this is to put a towel under your butt with a weight ties to it hanging off the bench. If your butt raises, the weight will drop.

Onto the lift itself...

Like I said, you want to be crushing the bar and ripping it apart. On top of this you need to tuck your elbows in and keep them in and close to the body through the lift (like you are a boxer blocking a rib shot). Most people let their elbows flare out, thus increasing the ROM needed to bench the weight and unnecessarily stressing the elbows and shoulders because they are being stretched so far. This itself is a huge cause of shoulder injuries while benching.

When you are lowering the weight and raising it, you want to keep the bar directly above the elbows. This is what is driving the bar up, so you don't want it to be off center. You will most likely be bringing the bar to lower spot on your chest/abdomen than you are used to because of this. Don't worry. You'll get used to it and in no time you'll be benching bigger weights and your shoulders and elbows will thank you for it.

Kind of hard to detail every part of the lift, so feel free to ask about a specific point to go into more detail...

[Toby]

Hi FP,

Gotta question about the "tearing apart" of the bar. Is the movement like this:


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with the hands positioned at the 2 bottom arrows. i.e. a rotational movement, like you're trying to bend the bar? Or is it like this:


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<- ->

i.e. you're trying to rip the bar apart lengthwise?

I've obviously always been doing it wrong. I have my ring finger usually at the marker on the bar so my hands are wider than shoulder width. I used to (don't laugh) put my feet up on the bench so my back was completely flat against the bench. I keep my forearms vertical the whole way down except in the higher ROM and I keep my upper arms out almost perpendicular to my shoulders. Like lowsweep, I tend to (especially at the high ROM) shrug a bit with heavier weights and use my shoulders a lot. So I'm pretty much breaking all the powerlifting rules ... :(

I'll try it your way, and hopefully break through my plateau. I really want to break 250lbs in the medium term. Currently at 5x237lbs at the end of a 20 session PTP wave cycle. I'll start trying your form for the next cycle (starting next week). Any more hints appreciated.

[Ford Prefect]

The second one is right. You are trying to rip it apart length wise. There is a good way to really get the feel of this technique here if your gym has any bands. Look at step #2 in the bench section.

http://www.testosterone.net/articles/165tnt.html

The "powerlifting" way of benching definately takes some getting used to and your lift will probably go down while you are acclimating yourself. There is a reason they do it though. In the long run you will be able to lift more weight more easily and your joints will be all the happier.

[IronFist]

Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Even though you are driving with your feet, you still want you a$$ firmly on the bench.

I'm going to reitterate this point in case you missed it.

Keep your a$$ firmly on the bench!

Remember it's ok and good to arch your back, but only while keeping your butt on the bench. I see a lot of guys who "hump the air" while benching because at the bottom of the movement before they start to bring the bar up the thrust their pelvis into the air, which brings their butt off the bench, and they leave it off the bench until the get to the top of the movement.

[IronFist]

Ford, I didn't know you were supposed to try and pull the bar apart like that. I thought tear the bar apart meant do this, like you're trying to bend it. (I guess this is similar to Toby's first example). Btw, Toby, nice use of code. I didn't know you could use equal-spaced font onhere like that.

[Toby]

Ford,

OK, I'll try it. Thanks for the Testosterone Mag link, I hadn't seen that before. My "gym" is a power rack, barbell, bench and 400lbs of weights in my back shed so I don't have any bands. I might be able to make some up though. I wish I had access to guys like you and Iron to help me out with my form, but doing weights at home means I'm training like a hermit, hence I have to be careful with my form. My old gym was just the uni gym anyway, and all the trainers were either undergrads or grads from the Human Movement dept. No heavy iron lifters there, at least not in the mornings when I train, so no-one to ask questions of. I was one of the heaviest lifters there :eek:.


Iron,

I keep my a$$ on the bench. Always have. I find it harder to lift it off than to leave it on anyway. There was this old Scottish guy at the gym I used to go to who would lift his a$$ 6"+ off the bench while pressing. He also used to do bicep curls with his upper body tilted 45 degrees forward at the low position, then swing the weight up with momentum and end up with his upper body at 45 degrees back at the high position. He used to do lat pulldowns almost standing up with his body tilted back at the up position, then swing down forwards using his body weight and momentum to get the bar down. He would lift pretty heavy for each exercise he did, but he had the worst form ever. I talked to a gym girl about it (the only thing I miss about my home gym) and she said some of the male trainers had talked to him about it, but he was so stuck in his ways that he just brushed them off. He'd been doing it that way for 20 years or so :eek:.

Re the code, I previewed my reply without the code and it got rid of the whitespace in my "diagrams", so I played around until I found the "#" button and code tags.

Thanks guys. You're a goldmine of information.

[Toby]

Ford,

I've got one more Q about the elbows. When you say "you need to tuck your elbows in and keep them in and close to the body through the lift", do you mean that e.g. at the lowest position, with the bar touching your chest, your elbows are pointed down towards your feet, with your arms brushing your ribs on the way down? Mine are definitely out perpendicular to my torso, and I kind of find it uncomfortable to keep the elbows inwards.

In my WC classes, we do knuckle pushups like that, but the fists are vertical so it's easier to keep the elbows right in. Once my hands turn outwards, benchpress-style, I think I would struggle to keep my elbows in. Can you confirm that this is what I should do and it's worth the struggle?

Thanks again.

[IronFist]

Ford, I have some questions, too. I was trying to do a strict power lifting bench tonight at the gym and the elbow thing felt kinda weird. Could you possibly post a pic of someone at the bottom position of a PL bench press? I don't get what you mean either by having the elbows by the body. I thought they were supposed to be at a 45 degree angle to the body, as in this picture that I'm going to draw after I post this.

[IronFist]

Here's the "45 degree angle from the body" thing I was talking about. This is what I was taught as "proper form" at the bottom of the movement. You can see the 45 degree angle thing illustrated by the red lines.

[Ford Prefect]

Hey guys,

All the powerlifting stuff I've learned, I've gotten off Westside Barbell articles and tapes, and by directly talking with Dave Tate. Rather than trying to re-write everything that has been written before, I'm going to link articles about benching power style.

http://www.testosterone.net/html/body_115b600.html

http://www.testosterone.net/articles/165tnt.html

http://www.elitefitnesssystems.com/documents/jm-article.htm

Iron,

Tearing apart the bar, I always took for tearing it in two, thus the band exercise to show proper technique. You have to be activlely "tearing" latreally and gripping tight in order for the bands not to yank your hands in.

Also, 45 degrees is the limit for where your elbows should be in respect to your body. The purpose of tucking the elbows is to shorten the ROM, minimize shoulder rotation/joint strain, and to keep your elbows directly in line with your wrists and the bar.

Toby,

I hope the above articles and explanation will help explain it for you. You don't want you elbows flaring out and being perpendicular to your body. You don't need to have the elbows facing your feet, but you don't want them any more than 45 degree angle in relation to the body.

[Ford Prefect]

BTW, I like the pictures Iron. :p

[abobo]

I needed to read those articles. This (http://www.hardgainer.com/articles/insidersnumber2.html) is how I was taught to bench - not in a straight line:

[Ford Prefect]

Yeah. That has some benching no-no's in it, but it's not a half bad article. At least it points out not to bench high on the chest with elbows flaring.

[Zbloff]

"(Figure at right: An illustration of bench pressing to the upper chest. NEVER DO THIS. It has permanently damaged the shoulders of countless trainees)"


Hmm, yeah well... there's an possible explanation for me feeling a little strange in the shoulders.

Thx a lot for the info.

[abobo]

About the elbows - if you are standing at the trainee's feet, are the forearms perpinducular to the ground from this angle? Because if you really tuck the elbows in your hands go to the outside of your elbows, knowhutimean?

Also, what kind of grip spacing do most PLs use? I put my pinky on the rings, because I heard 24" from a PLer, although I'm not sure which part of the hands that number was referenced to.

Oh yeah, and as far as the wrists, do you want them flexed as much as possible the whole time. I figure that lets you put the bar in a strong position on your palm, although past a certain point I find that the bar doesn't want to go down in a straight line.

I hope that makes sense. I didn't mean to get all mechanical about things, but otherwise I wouldn't be sure.

[Ford Prefect]

Hi Abodo,

You are correct that you don't want to tuck the elbows that much. That could put strain on the shoulders as well. You want your elbows, hands, and barbell directly in line.

PL's use a wide grip. Usually with at least their middle finger on the power rings or wider. This shortens the ROM as well. In training, most will use grips completely inside the rings... the widest being what you described.

You don't want your wrists bent at all. You want them as straight and tight as if you were punching somebody. If you bend them, this will put the bar out of line with your elbows and arms and cause you to bench less.

[abobo]

Thanks, that's pretty much what I've found in practice but it's good to hear it from you.

[abobo]

I think I've got it down for the most part. I expect that my shoulders will like my improved form, too.

While driving my upper back into the bench, I was surprised at how hard the glutes contract. It's because I am slightly weaker for now and I need more leg drive to move the same weight as a couple of weeks ago.