Bench Press Form Faux Pas

[musketeer]

Considering just how important bench press numbers are to most workout wannabes, it's amazing just how many people get it wrong. Unknowing newbies (and some idiots that have been doing it for years) will do anything to get the weight up, regardless of safety or porductivity. It's almost like the pressure to get 'impressive' results on that particular day is the most important thing; more important than investing in a good workout that will develop a consistant and steady path to a real big bench.

So, what's the thing that you hate to see the most?!

 

[kethnaab]

before this thread goes any further, I would just like to mention that not everyone can or should lower the bar to the chest.

some people (those with shoulder injuries) simply cannot.

 

[musketeer]

before this thread goes any further, I would just like to mention that not everyone can or should lower the bar to the chest.

some people (those with shoulder injuries) simply cannot.

Good point, mate!

I was wondering about mentioning that above, but I figured that it could be discussed here. The above stands; given the fact that the lifter is in good health and is therefore using a partial motion pretty much just for the mechanical advantage in order to lift a heavier weight than he could ever get off his chest.

It's also important to note that advanced powerlifters actually gain an advantage by lowering fully, because the strength of the triceps is a limiting factor. This leads to exercises like board presses and floor presses that eliminate the lower half of the lift.

The two cases above are obviously not the focus of the poll;

With regards to this tread, I'm inspried to mention this guy who came in to the free-weights room and without warmup put 225 on the incline bench and proceded to do 2 sets of 10 reps, lowering the approximately 4 inches on each rep. He increased the impressiveness of the lift by making a hissing noise as load as humanly possible at the beginning of every rep. The reps were so shallow and therefore quick, that it sounded like a snaredrum at the start of a song, and each set was over in about 6 seconds.

 

[silver_shadow]

well, this is not entirely what u were asking about, musketeer, but here's my rant. i hate those guys who insist that u MUST flare ur elbows out and bring the bar down closer to the neck to "build mass"! then they see me with my PL type form (which BTW i believe should be the only one used) and try to "correct" me.

 

[RipStone]

"Bucking" the hips/ arching like an exotic dancer.....not sure what you mean by this one? PLers will have an arch in their low backs and will also have thier legs pointed outwards. Is that what you mean??

BTW, I hate when people use partial ROM. That guy used to be me too, until I learned that I was being a douche bag, lol.

 

[musketeer]

"Bucking" the hips/ arching like an exotic dancer.....not sure what you mean by this one? PLers will have an arch in their low backs and will also have thier legs pointed outwards. Is that what you mean??

BTW, I hate when people use partial ROM. That guy used to be me too, until I learned that I was being a douche bag, lol.

I'm def. not reffering to the legal and well practiced arch of a competitive PLer. More the raising the hips and butt up from the bench in a fuk-thrusting motion as the bar reaches the chest. Appart from seriously affecting the satbilty of the disks in the lower back, this drains all of the stress from the chest and shorteds the ROM considerably. Fair enough if you're doing a new 5RM and your but comes up an inch on the last rep, but bucking and fliping around like a fish just to lift a heavier weight is ridiculous and dangerous.

A few years ago I saw these 3 Sweedish guys (new at my University gym) doing B.P. and their hips were explosively leaving the bench by about 12-14 inches. They were only benching about 245 for a single, but were confidentlty looking over at me with 225 (5x5) like they were the new hot shit. After my 5x5, without a spotter, I casually loaded up 315 and did one of their butt thrusting reps - it was easy because I only had to lower the bar about 5 inches!

 

[Anthrax Invasion]

I think he means people who arch improperly, putting the stress on their cervical spine and raising their ass off the bench.

 

[blut wump]

Since my sticking point is about four inches away from my chest, once I'm past it it'd be silly not to go down to my chest to get some momentum from the thrust back up. I think once I learned to use my lats in the press I lost all fear of touching down.

I see guys who raise their backside well into the air but the one that annoys me is seeing people get nowhere close to locking out. I guess any exhibition of general thrashing about is worth a chuckle.

 

[djeclipse]

My vote is for #1 and 6, I don't know which is worse. Yesterday I saw this roid freek hop on the smithmachine with his GF and proceed to load up the bar and do incline bench moving the bar about 4" up and down each rep. That is bad enough but he is training his GF to do the same. And then there are the kids that load up the bard and have their spotter do all the lifting for them. A lot of the time it's their stronger friend gaoing first and the weaker feind tries to work with the same weight.

About lowering the bar to the neck/abs. I found that I am lowering the bar to near the bottom of my pecs. This seems to be the range of motion for me even with warm up weight (just the bar). Is this wrong?

 

[silver_shadow]

About loweringthe bar to the neck/abs. I found that I am lowering the bar to near the bottom of my pecs. This seems to be the range of motion for me even with warm up weight (just the bar). Is this wrong?

that is correct.... just around the nips.