Bench Press Form

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xarfox

New Member
so I've heard that lowering the bar to your chest is too far down and puts too much strain on the shoulders

some people are stopping at about half way, making the range of motion very short

how are other people doing it? i've been benching for 10 years and would be surprised if its been wrong the whole time
 
Well, I would dispute that lowering the bar to the chest is too low assuming you have reasonable flexibility. If you ever train bench with dbs you will know that it is easily possible to go lower than with a bb. Reducing the range of motion will technically allow you to use more load which could very well put more strain on your GH and AC joints esp. if your form is not good in other ways.

What helped my shoulders the most (bench used to kill my AC joints) was to ensure that I adducted my scaps hard at the start of a set and kept them that way throughout. I also try to ensure that I don't flare my elbows out to the sides in typical bb fashion. I still get some minor AC joint soreness following heavy 5s or 3s but it is manageable.
 
i typically lower it to 1" or barely touching the chest, i don't bounce it off my chest like some people

i feel like not lowering all the way, is similar to not squatting *** to grass, you need to get the transfer of the weight to the other muscles in order to support the movement back up

when i lower it half-way, i feel like my elbows are being used as breaks. we all know what happens to breaks (they wear out)
 
According to Rippetoe, the bar should touch the chest, but in a "touch and go" fashion, which means that you go low enough but you don't bounce the weight off your chest. I suppose almost everyone should be flexible enough to do this.

As Lol said, I believe the most common reason for bad shoulders is flared out elbows while bench pressing.
 
<div>
(9to5lifter @ Oct. 23 2008,3:51)</div><div id="QUOTEHEAD">QUOTE</div><div id="QUOTE">According to Rippetoe, the bar should touch the chest, but in a &quot;touch and go&quot; fashion, which means that you go low enough but you don't bounce the weight off your chest. I suppose almost everyone should be flexible enough to do this.

As Lol said, I believe the most common reason for bad shoulders is flared out elbows while bench pressing.</div>
I do touch and go, and I think like Rippletoe... when the bar is coming down, I mentally engage myself to think about the bar going back up. Sometimes, I have a bounce, but my form stays pretty good most of the time!
 
I personally feel it helps a lot to follow Rippetoe's advice and take a mental picture of the bar in the lockout position and instead of looking at the bar going down and up, keep staring at the ceiling until the image is the same of the &quot;picture&quot; I took. It sounds BS, but when I put it to practice I was amazed by how effective it felt to me.
 
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