things that i learned from my trainer (or elsewhere) this week
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canadianlbs
Posts: 5,199 Member
i guess it's kind of all-about-me to start a whole thread about it. but like most of my threads it's not meant as exclusively me. it just maybe sounds a little that way.
anyway. what i learned this week in training was related to bench. just a tiny little subtlety thing, but it has breakthrough status in my mind right now.
drumroll . . . . STRAIGHT WRISTS. the guy has been harping at me. and i thought that i did have straight wrists, with only the tiny little bit of flex that's (i thought) acceptable so as to keep the bar stacked right over my arm bones. well, no. he's been insisting on REALLY straight wrists, like you could lay a ruler across them and touch all the way. i don't even know how to figure out why, but it is significant. with wrists like that i seem to be able to get a much better and more solid 'set' throughout my shoulders and upper back. i guess i could get that without the wrist part, but i'd have to think about it all separately. feels like just thinking about the wrists instantly takes care of a lot of that stuff, no extra mind-work required.
weird but fascinating. i've been wrassling with bench and really haven't found even the bar easy on some days recently. but yesterday i did what he told me to do like a good little soldier and it just progressed me steadily from around 35 pounds all the way up to 62.5 for work sets and amrap.
anyway. what i learned this week in training was related to bench. just a tiny little subtlety thing, but it has breakthrough status in my mind right now.
drumroll . . . . STRAIGHT WRISTS. the guy has been harping at me. and i thought that i did have straight wrists, with only the tiny little bit of flex that's (i thought) acceptable so as to keep the bar stacked right over my arm bones. well, no. he's been insisting on REALLY straight wrists, like you could lay a ruler across them and touch all the way. i don't even know how to figure out why, but it is significant. with wrists like that i seem to be able to get a much better and more solid 'set' throughout my shoulders and upper back. i guess i could get that without the wrist part, but i'd have to think about it all separately. feels like just thinking about the wrists instantly takes care of a lot of that stuff, no extra mind-work required.
weird but fascinating. i've been wrassling with bench and really haven't found even the bar easy on some days recently. but yesterday i did what he told me to do like a good little soldier and it just progressed me steadily from around 35 pounds all the way up to 62.5 for work sets and amrap.
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Thanks for the information. I will be aware of how my wrists are next time.0
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Wow good to know. I get the "keep your wrist straight" call out often from my body flex instructor. I think they are, but I guess they aren't.0
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retirehappy wrote: »Wow good to know. I get the "keep your wrist straight" call out often from my body flex instructor. I think they are, but I guess they aren't.
i found it feels quite different. he's been policing this on the press for me too, and i notice it there in particular. when i roll my hands back something seems to slacken, i'm not quite sure what. but when i have my wrists properly straight it's dramatic. feels like i can physically feel the weight of the bar travelling down my bones and along the rest of my body's angles.
only thing is, when i have a straight wrist i have a little more trouble getting my fingers to close tight round the bar.
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