Just when I thought that my form was perfect on everything I did. I found a few things I could do to potentially improve the form on my Bench Press.

1.) My grip is too wide!

I had a feeling. All this time my hands are usually placed on the rings of the bar. This is actually too wide and I have been emphasizing the pectorals over my triceps/shoulders. I have weak triceps compared to my Chest.



See where the rings are? Thats where I usually put my grip at. Next time I am going to try putting both of my hands in the middle part between the ring and the solid part.

2.) I could use a better grip



My wrist usually tires out on the bench press. So I am gonna try lifting next time with the palms at the back of the bar rather then on the bottom of the bar.

3.) I dont' drive with my legs.

"This technique should be practiced with an empty bar before attempting it during a regular set. Start by planting your feet flat on the floor with your knees bent about 80 degrees. This angle is very important as it is what allows you to push with your legs. Lower the empty bar to your chest. The moment you start to push the bar back up, push hard with your legs as though you are trying to slide your body up the bench."

4.) Haven't worked supporting muscles

This should be fixed with my new west-side program I am on. The max effort upperbody days has me doing a dumbbell floor press which hits my triceps good and a rear delt fly; a muscle I never worked before.

My next Max-effort upperbody day; or even my repetition body day thats coming up soon; I will tell you guys how it went.

Just goes to show you- You can still learn alot about a simple lift.

A couple of things-

We never have "perfect" form on anything...'specially when it gets heavy. Our form can always be better. Or at the very least, we should never assume our form is perfect.

A lot is two words. It is incorrectly spelled as alot.

I think leg drive is very not emphasized enough. That's a great point to bring up.

it seems you're after getting weight up, so I hope you're tucking the elbows, arching your back and pushing your belly out to decrease the ROM..

I second what EVO said. Form is never perfect. Also as you progress you will use different techniques on the same exercise to train lagging body parts or weaker areas in your ROM.

I've always purposely used a wide grip to really hit the pectorals and I don't arch my back at all.

I have noticed if I really want to put up a little more weight moving my hands in helps a little.

What's the point of my post? I have no idea...just thinking out loud

Are you trying to compete?

The reason that I ask is that if you are not, the best form on a BP is to not do them!

Radical idea, I know. The measuring stick of absolute strength for lifters nationwide is their "bench" (hey dude, what's your bench?). It's kind of a virtual **** measuring contest.

The problem with it is the mechanics are HORRIBLE for the shoulder, and just about everyone I see in my gym doing them rotates his shoulder when he gets up, nursing the pain and wincing, but then gets right back on the bench for more sets.

Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over, each time expecting a different result. If so many people wind up with shoulder injuries and they are avid bench pressers, why don't they make the connection?

There are better ways to develop a muscular chest!

/rant_over

Tuck in elbows like this:



My elbows are way out; I never tuck in my elbows... Thanks ^thats #5

I think I'm starting to figure this out.

What I consider a close-grip bench (and feels much more natural/fluid) is in actuality "good" bench form, and the other thing is just a way to feel weak and/or injure my shoulders/rotators. Hmm. Sounds about right.

elbows don't have to be at the sides of the body (that is very hard with a wide grip) but they shouldn't be flared (sticking straight out, like 90 degrees angle between the upper arm and the torso, there should be more like about a 45 degree, but this will vary)

YouTube - EliteFTS.com - Bench Press Exercise index DVD promo

There's a lot more if you look for articles on Elitefts.

That was a good video. I'll try that also.

I practiced my new form today on a repetition Upper body day from west-side. It was kinda odd feeling since I never done it. It didn't feel like the leg drive did anything either.

However, I felt alot stronger; the weights felt easier and the range of motion was alot shorter. I never had my shoulders pinched to the bench and my back arched. My lowerback is a little bit sore from that but I think it is something that will go away after a few more bench press workouts. I won't know for sure until my Max upper body day. My last ME upperbody day I only got 180 pounds for 1 rep (when I was suppose to get it 3-5 times) after my warmup.

??Benching has never caused me any shoulder pain.

What's up with the backlash against bench press? Jeez it's just an exercise. People get so uptight about it. I don't see people who like it or are strong on it getting hung up on it, just people who don't like it or it's not their best lift

People that are going to bench no matter what:

Athletes

People that might be swayed away from benching:

Everyone else.

If people don't want to bench that's fine-- there are other methods of chest development like JP said. The backlash as you've noted is just a response to the excess baggage that comes along with talking about benching, which comes from the popularity of equating bench numbers to **** length.

In this case though, Jman is an athlete and he's just going to bench no matter what.

Note that I asked if he is competing. Obviously if you are competing, you have a good reason to do them. If you are just trying to get fit, there are much better alternatives that don't have the long term damaging effects on the shoulders.

It's not for lack of strength. I could pop out a couple reps with 315 personally. Not great, but I was definitely not suffering from bench-envy.

Like Lei pointed out, it has become a measure of strength, and if I were preparing an athlete for his sport, rarely if ever would that exercise come up.