bench press form question

neandermagnon

on the later reps in the bench press, there's this tendency I seem to have whereby my shoulders twist a bit so my right shoulder isn't on the bench, and if feels like my right arm is struggling more than my left. although I'm not sure if this is due to my right arm being weaker or my left arm being weaker so my right arm is doing more to compensate. I'm ambidextrous (or at the very least I've never been able to figure out if I'm naturally right or left handed, and usually strength wise both sides of my body are pretty even and I don't want asymmetries to develop) it's possible my right arm is stronger though because of carrying kids I think I carry my kids on my right hip more often than my left hip.

I'm on a deload... just wondering if I should deload to a lighter weight where this doesn't happen, or if I just need to be a bit stricter with my shoulders staying straight

neandermagnon

Just noticed that the opposite is happening with pendlay rows.... i.e. my left shoulder seems to be moving up more than the right and my left arm feels like it's doing more work or getting more tired....



(nothing like posting on MFP between sets lol :drinker: )

Fittreelol

are you locking your shoulder blades into place?

neandermagnon

locked how....? *confused*

maybe i should go re-watch the videos on you tube about it (rippetoe ones)

I'm asking my husband to buy me Starting Strength for my birthday... not sure when it'll arrive because I want the hardcover one becuase of issues with Kindle (they only sell books to people who live in certain geographical areas that doesn't include Bahrain :sad: )

jstout365

also look at the youtube videos for "so you think you can bench press" they have a series of them.

girlie100

could be a internal shoulder rotation problem, do your elbows flair out when you press?

PitBullMom_Liz

I'm going to tack an extra question on. I was looking at some blogs that post lots of pics of female powerlifters, and in a ton of the pictures of the bench press the women's backs are MAJORLY arched. I know I'm supposed to have some arch, but should I be trying to touch my butt to my shoulder blades to get a huge arch?

bumblebums

I'm going to tack an extra question on. I was looking at some blogs that post lots of pics of female powerlifters, and in a ton of the pictures of the bench press the women's backs are MAJORLY arched. I know I'm supposed to have some arch, but should I be trying to touch my butt to my shoulder blades to get a huge arch?

Butt stays on the bench, or it's not a legal lift. Legs stay on the floor. You do not need an excessive arch--what that does is raise your chest up so you are almost doing a decline bench press. In other words, an extreme arch is a sort of cheat to allow you to move the bar over a shorter ROM. You can move a bigger weight but you are not necessarily stronger for it.

Yeah, definitely have an arch, and your shoulder blades should stay glued to the bench throughout. They should be pulled back, too, so that if someone put a pencil behind your shoulder blades, it would stay there. That protects your shoulders from injury.

I believe Tate's video ("so you think you can bench", which jstout mentioned) talks about it in some depth; Starting Strength explains the anatomical reasons for doing it.

Neandermagnon--check your grip, too. If it's too wide or too narrow, that could explain what is happening. The usual advice to "break the bar" applies here especially; external rotation of the arms protects your elbows, wrists and shoulders.

neandermagnon

thanks for the video recommendation... will watch

grip - it is fairly wide, will double check when I watch the videos

will probably have more questions and read this thread again more carefully when I'm less tired.... thanks for the responses

bumblebums

The way to tell you have a proper grip is this: make a video of your bench press (or ask someone to look), and check if your forearms are vertical at the point where the bar makes contact with your chest. If they are not perpendicular to the floor at that point, the grip is not optimal. (People bench with wide or narrow grips for various reasons, but unless you have such reasons, vertical arms are best.) I like Lyle's description:

http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/training/bench-press-technique.html

neandermagnon

thanks for the link will read it hopefully later this evening - been really busy lately (2 part time jobs plus private tutoring!) got 1 hr to eat/rest before going out again.... should be able to buy a phone when I get paid, then I can post videos on here.... yay!!!

my forearms are vertical at the bottom of the lift, so I'm assuming that means my grip doesn't count as wide, even though it looks wide to me. I wasn't doing any back arching or pulling my shoulder blades in, so I'll check those things carefully