Bench Press for Knuckle Draggers

[juanderlei]

Let me start by saying that I'm not a big fan of flat, incline or decline barbell press, but they are necessary at times in order to change up your workout.

Anyway, I have long ass arms, and I've always been taught (and agree) that your arms should not come down much past 90 degrees in order to reduce stress on your anterior delts, etc.

In order to achieve this, I place one of those inflatable rubber things that you balance on when exercising (about 6" thick) on my chest and stop the bar right when it makes contact with the rubber thing.

Even though I strongly believe that this is the safest way to bench press with a barbell, I feel that areas of my pectoral development are lacking as a result of this partial range of motion.

For those of you with experience with training, exercise physiology, etc. what are your thoughts on this?

Should I:

1. Continue doing what I'm doing and make up this partial development with other exercises

2. Take the skirt off and bench like a Goddamn man

3. Use the "partial method" for heavier weight days and switch to a full range of motion when working with lighter weights (10 reps +)

Not sure if it's necessary to mention, but I'm 6' and currently 215lbs at approx 9% BF.

Thanks in advance for your input!

 

[lweaver]

Are you able to press your chest upward and get a high arch when you bench?

 

[juanderlei]

Are you able to press your chest upward and get a high arch when you bench?

EDIT:

I do arch my back, but I still seem to be in a very vulnerable position.

I should have someone video tape my bench press both warming up and using an arch with heavier weighs on working sets.

Great point and thanks for posting...

 

[_cato_]

What else, if anything, do you do for your chest?

And what do you mean by putting "stress" on your anterior delt? Does consistently benching to your chest injure your shoulder(s)? Or are you saying that too much of the tension/emphasis for your liking is moved to your anterior delt, as opposed to your chest, as you descend past the 90 degrees point?

Also, have you tried bands/reverse bands/chains etc? All of those techniques results in less tension at the bottom of the movement but still allow you to work the movement in the lower range.

 

[juanderlei]

...

 

[juanderlei]

What else, if anything, do you do for your chest?

And what do you mean by putting "stress" on your anterior delt? Does consistently benching to your chest injure your shoulder(s)? Or are you saying that too much of the tension/emphasis for your liking is moved to your anterior delt, as opposed to your chest, as you descend past the 90 degrees point?

Also, have you tried bands/reverse bands/chains etc? All of those techniques results in less tension at the bottom of the movement but still allow you to work the movement in the lower range.

I prefer dumbbells for pressing movements, but I also use the barbell usually for two 8 - 12 week periods out of the year, purely to change up my routine.

And yes, if you look at the starting position (with the bar touching your chest) right after completing the negative portion of the movement, a person with long arms is in a much more vulnerable position in terms of shoulder strain than a person with short arms. The further down your arms have to come to touch the bar to your chest, the greater the negative angle placed on both your chest and shoulders, which increases the opportunity for pain and/or injury.

Not sure if I'm explaining that in the best way or not...

From a mechanical perspective, you have much less strength in such a compromising starting position, but I believe it can also be dangerous, especially when getting into heavier weights.

Thanks for your post and I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on my reply...

 

[juanderlei]

What else, if anything, do you do for your chest?

And what do you mean by putting "stress" on your anterior delt? Does consistently benching to your chest injure your shoulder(s)? Or are you saying that too much of the tension/emphasis for your liking is moved to your anterior delt, as opposed to your chest, as you descend past the 90 degrees point?

Also, have you tried bands/reverse bands/chains etc? All of those techniques results in less tension at the bottom of the movement but still allow you to work the movement in the lower range.

To answer your other questions, my chest workouts typically consist of either BB or DB flat and incline presses, cable flyes and incline pushups.

I have used bands, etc. with no problem, and I've never had any serious issues as a result of "full range of motion benching", but then again I've never really benched in that manner, except for a few competitions I've entered in the past.

 

[StevenM23]

I have super long arms man And it's no problem , make sure to Arch ur back a little , and put the back of ur shoulders in, try a narrower grip and go all the way down or what ur doing is kind of working out ur chest but mainly doing shoulders man , Man Up haha

 

[_cato_]

Do you go all the way down with the dumbells, or do you stop those at 90 degrees also?

I don't disagree that there is more tension on the shoulder at the bottom few inches of the movement, but I think there's a difference between more tension on the shoulder and increased risk of injury. And yes there is a significant stretch going on at that portion, but stretch is required for maximal contraction. All movements have strong and weak points and mechanically advantageous and unadvantageous positions. I don't think that the shoulder being in a mechanically unadvantageous position is a good excuse to not do the movement.

On the other hand, the detail we haven't discussed here is grip width. Most sources seem to agree that benching with a wide grip and/or with excessive flare of the elbows actually increases the risk of shoulder injury, despite being mechanically advantageous overall in the sense that a wide grip allows you to bench more weight (and usually emphasize the chest more). In your specific case, I think putting a blanket statement that people with long arms can't bench to their chest because it's very risky, is highly dependent on grip width. Even if your arms are extremely long relative to your torso (which is all that matters, not the absolute length, just the ratio) you can probably still bench to your chest comfortably with a close grip (which I'm defining as hands being as close to the smooth part as possibly, while still being on the knurling).

Getting back on track to your initial questions, I think this quote by you is important:

"I have used bands, etc. with no problem, and I've never had any serious issues as a result of "full range of motion benching", but then again I've never really benched in that manner, except for a few competitions I've entered in the past."

I don't think there's any 100% need to bench to your chest, unless you are powerlifting. That said, you are essentially looking for ways to increase your chest growth so obviously you want to change something in what you're doing for chest. Based on what you said, I don't see any reason not to at least try full range benching for 6-8 weeks and closely monitor the results. If it doesn't help then don't do it anymore if you don't like it. If you're a bit leary, you could either use one of the accommodating resistance methods I listed earlier, or start off benching with a close or close/medium grip. I really think you are overblowing the chance of injury though. Many people bench to their chest often with no problems. Again, most problems seem to stem from using very wide grips. Even if you were going to have a problem, it's not so precarious that you're all of a sudden going to just rip your anterior delt out of the blue because of it. There will most likely be many warning signs before anything serious happens.

If you do decide to do it, I'd advise you to take it slow, since you are probably quite a bit weaker in the bottom ROM given that you don't train it.

 

[_cato_]

Another thing you might try is floor presses, which are pretty inline with what you already like to do, but would allow you to use a barbell.