# Technical Benching Issues



## Joliver (Mar 29, 2014)

If you are having problems with your bench, it could be a technical issue.  It could also be that you aren't strong enough to press the weight, but play my game here....lets assume it is a technical issue.   

Technical issues seem to be the toughest to understand for most guys, but it is the easiest fix.  You can sit down with a good PL bencher and he will pack pounds onto your bench with his knowledge--no gained strength--just a conversation.  So lets talk about it.

Problem number 1:  People don't know what it means to set up and get tight.  The bench press is a full body lift.  If you don't believe it, your opinion doesn't matter because you are a shitty bencher.  This isn't bodybuilding and focusing on isolating the "benching muscles" isn't a goal.  Back to the full body lift thing.  How is it a full body lift?  Its called kinetic linking.

What is kinetic linking?  

It is when you are tight enough on the bench that power application in a particular direction transfers the force up your rigid frame into the bar that has just touched your chest.  Translation:  You push with the "dug in" heels of your feet driving your arch up, and your upper back and shoulders into the bench as you press the weight.  If you don't have leg drive, or don't use it, you are leaving serious pounds on the table.  

How do I get tight?

Well, the simplest way to tell you how to do it is like this:  Lie down on the bench and put your feet on it to create a wrestler's bridge (like you see Steelers4life doing to set up).  Pull your shoulders back.  Your foundation to press should be your upper traps. Arched back (not hyper-arched--back cramp will get you if you do), butt firmly on the bench, and feet firmly on the floor. Nothing should move. There shouldn't be anything loose when you prepare to bench. 

Your set up should be uncomfortable.  It shouldn't feel good or natural.  If you ask me to set up 10 consecutive times for a PR bench, I would be sweating like hell.  My coach used to come up to me and knock the hell out of my legs to see if I moved after I was set up.  

Problem #2:  Your active bench technique is garbage.  This is not a bodybuilding movement!!!  I am going to lay out a few steps at the for benching that would most likely help anyone.  They still help me today.

1) From the start to the finish of the bench, you must squeeze the bar tightly.

2) Do not push up on the bar to take it out of the rack. Use a spotter to carry it out to you, and use your lats to pull it like you would a dumbbell pullover. Never push up. You will blow your set up. You cannot re-set after you break. You may as well put the weight back in the rack.  

3) Once the weight is unracked, let it settle for a second in your hand.  Eliminate bar inertia--DON'T FIGHT THE BAR'S MOMENTUM ON THE WAY DOWN.  If you do, enjoy your shoulders for today...they won't be there tomorrow.  Plus, you will be out of your groove, and most likely miss the lift anyway.  Let the bar settle.  

4) Do not flare your elbows like a bodybuilding press.  You aren't trying to build your pecs.  Moderately tuck you elbows.  How much?  I can't tell you that because I don't know the length of your humerus bone.  

5) Know where the force is coming from and keep the bar in that line.  Your force will be transmitted through the elbow up the forearm into the wrist and hand.  Keep the wrist in line with the elbow.  Less joint will be cushioning your force transmission (this is the same reason you don't want soft soled shoes in the squat or DL).  This takes a lot of practice.  I bet I can search videos of the best benchers around and see them violating this rule.  They all know it and admit it.  If they still fight the tendency to get out of line...you will have to as well.  It also protects the wrist once you get into the big weights.  

6) Lower the bar with your lats.  If you don't know how to do this, there is no way for me to explain it other than telling you to do it.  You should always be training your lats in the same plane as your bench anyway, so this should be second nature to you after some practice.  

7)  Find the point on your torso where you are comfortable bringing the bar to that includes the least shoulder rotation. A good way to test for this position is to decline press. Fill your belly full of air, and press to different touch points. You will ultimately find a point where you are comfortable and have minimal shoulder movement. Try to recreate that position on the flat bench.

8) Once you have received the press command, or you have touched the chest, you will simultaneously fire your pressing muscles with slight external rotation and push your heels into the ground like you are trying to slide your body off the top of the bench.  During the press, you must "spread the bar" and as you approach the top of the lift,  "break the bar", like a pencil, away from your body.  

This is not an all-inclusive bench press lifts.  These are just a few best practices that should get you started down the road of PL benching.  

As always, if you have any questions, feel free to PM me (or POB about any personal problems--he loves that).


----------



## PillarofBalance (Mar 29, 2014)

#6 is the hardest thing to learn IMO. I still have issues with it from time to time. Best thing I have found to help develop that motor pattern is the dicenzo row.  Basically you go to a cable station and Row a lat pulldown bar into your sternum right where you bring the bar.


----------



## heavydeads83 (Mar 29, 2014)

this goes back to where I've always got confused watching guys like spoto and then that bench with their lower body really relaxed and loose looking.  I don't understand how they're strong enough to bench the kind of weight they do without using a little hip drive.  when I bench my feet are tucked way in up under me and i try to drive my heels to the floor when i press.


----------



## Joliver (Mar 29, 2014)

heavydeads83 said:


> this goes back to where I've always got confused watching guys like spoto and then that bench with their lower body really relaxed and loose looking.  I don't understand how they're strong enough to bench the kind of weight they do without using a little hip drive.  when I bench my feet are tucked way in up under me and i try to drive my heels to the floor when i press.



If you watch Spoto's legs on his record attempt, you can see them going crazy.  When he sets up, he has a pretty good arch in his back for a big man.  You don't want to be so pronounced with your leg drive that you breakdown your set-up.  That said...Spoto is a beast and when he presses, its like watching a hydraulic jack pump.


----------



## ken Sass (Mar 29, 2014)

i really need to find some local pl's and work out with them


----------



## heavydeads83 (Mar 29, 2014)

joliver said:


> If you watch Spoto's legs on his record attempt, you can see them going crazy.  When he sets up, he has a pretty good arch in his back for a big man.  You don't want to be so pronounced with your leg drive that you breakdown your set-up.  That said...Spoto is a beast and when he presses, its like watching a hydraulic jack pump.



he's a beast for sure dude.  He looks a little more tucked back in that one.  Not that there's any close comparison to the two but i've seen Lilly bench with his legs laid out flat footed kind of lazy looking too.  I guess I tuck mine so far back up under me it just looks that way when I see these guys.


----------



## Dtownry (Mar 29, 2014)

This is all very difficult.  Basically I have been told if you aren't exhausted after benching then you aren't doing it correctly.  Still working on it...


----------



## DieYoungStrong (Mar 29, 2014)

Dtownry said:


> This is all very difficult.  Basically I have been told if you aren't exhausted after benching then you aren't doing it correctly.  Still working on it...



You're not alone there Brother!


----------



## Tren4Life (Mar 29, 2014)

This is a perfect road map. Jol where the hell were you last year when I was figuring all this out on my own. 
To go along with the kinetic linking I like to add 1 small thing that I learned as a beginner. Start the lift at your feet. What I mean by that is think heels down. I'm betting that you weren't as tight as you could be and and when you drive your heels down you'll get just a little tighter and the wave of energy you create will transfer right to the bar. 
If you don't believe me try this the next time you are benching. On the way up with a warm up set try thinking left heel down ( or which ever side is your weak side) and see what happens to the bar.

It's kind of like throwing a punch. You start the punch with your back foot. So your brain has to drive your foot down first.


----------



## Assassin32 (Mar 29, 2014)

Well suck my nips, I have no idea what I'm doing on the bench. I love benching heavy, unfortunately, I guess I only do 1 thing correctly when doing it. I do try and keep my butt and feet planted real hard. Other than that all of this is foreign to me. Thanks for the info Jol, awesome tips.


----------



## stonetag (Mar 29, 2014)

Steelers4Life said:


> This is a perfect road map. Jol where the hell were you last year when I was figuring all this out on my own.
> To go along with the kinetic linking I like to add 1 small thing that I learned as a beginner. Start the lift at your feet. What I mean by that is think heels down. I'm betting that you weren't as tight as you could be and and when you drive your heels down you'll get just a little tighter and the wave of energy you create will transfer right to the bar.
> If you don't believe me try this the next time you are benching. On the way up with a warm up set try thinking left heel down ( or which ever side is your weak side) and see what happens to the bar.


You describe that "wave" feeling very well my man. I have felt it. I stomp both right and left foot down a couple of times as if I were trying to get traction. I don't feel right at all if my feet don't feel right. Hard to explain, but after my feet are set, a tightness rolls (wave) up my body right to my hands, which just ratchet tight around the bar. I have a strike against me on the bench, my fucing arms are too long! I'm being positive though, only 282lbs left until I match Spoto's record! LOL

Very informative post as usual Jol!


----------



## Joliver (Mar 29, 2014)

stonetag said:


> You describe that "wave" feeling very well my man. I have felt it. I stomp both right and left foot down a couple of times as if I were trying to get traction. I don't feel right at all if my feet don't feel right. Hard to explain, but after my feet are set, a tightness rolls (wave) up my body right to my hands, which just ratchet tight around the bar. I have a strike against me on the bench, my fucing arms are too long! I'm being positive though, only 282lbs left until I match Spoto's record! LOL
> 
> Very informative post as usual Jol!



Thank you sir.

You know what they say, the last 282lbs are the hardest....lol!  Keep benching big brother!

On a side note, if anyone read this and said "What the fukk am I even doing on a bench?"  that is NOT bad news.  That is possibly good news.  That means everything you have been doing, you may have been doing it inefficiently (I wont say this is true in all cases).  How is that good news?  Because when I finally quit trying to do it on my own and sought the advice of someone who knew what I was doing right and wrong, he made a few changes, and I walked out with a 35lb PR on the bench in one day.  Just making a few good changes can add incredible amounts of weight to your total.  

The importance of technique CANNOT be overstated.


----------



## yeti (Mar 30, 2014)

Here's Brian Carroll going over two setups:




Feet forward set up.


----------



## yeti (Mar 30, 2014)

Feet tucked under.
I tried both and I get the feeling of "tightness" better with the tucked under, but I get more leg drive and strength from the feet forward. Different strokes for different folks


----------



## ECKSRATED (Mar 30, 2014)

Nice post man. 

I can move some pretty decent weight on bench and can never find a good spot for my feet so I can use some leg drive. So I'm kinda like spoto. But no where near his weight.


----------



## AlphaD (Mar 30, 2014)

Excellent post as always Jol.  S4L has really been driving these points into over the last month, and i have to say what a huge difference it has been. Not saying that its been easy, im still a work in progress, but the difference has been enlightening, and actually has injected some energy back into my stagnant workout.  The conversion has me pumped with intensity.......oh very very sore!


----------



## Tren4Life (Mar 30, 2014)

AlphaD said:


> Excellent post as always Jol.  S4L has really been driving these points into over the last month, and i have to say what a huge difference it has been. Not saying that its been easy, im still a work in progress, but the difference has been enlightening, and actually has injected some energy back into my stagnant workout.  The conversion has me pumped with intensity.......oh very very sore!




Your gonna be putting up more than me before long. I can't wait !!!!


----------



## Tren4Life (Oct 21, 2014)

This thread should be a stickey.


----------



## woodswise (Oct 21, 2014)

Thanks for the excellent post Joliver!  I did bench today and was practicing all the things you described (my coach is working on my bench press with me).  It really is very hard to get all those factors working together all at once.


----------

