Cues/drills to fix an uneven bench

[Corrie]

Hi all,
I've been training a friend for a few weeks now and things are going well but her bench press seems to be having issues.

The issue is that her bench comes down fairly unevenly. We first noticed it when some of her reps were touching the safety rail on the right side but not the left side. I started watching as closely as I could and it looks like her right elbow would flare a bit more than the left and it results in the bar being a bit lower on the right side and further towards her belly button on the left side.

Any idea what I can do here? I tried to get her to "spread the bar" with her hands as a cue to keep everything tight and while it seemed to work for a few light reps it didn't seem to be the right way to fix it.

[Paul Horn]

I see this all the time, and, as you noticed, it typically involves an elbow flaring out as the lifter drives the bar up off the chest. You have to keep cueing her to tuck her elbows. Start with a light weight she can do perfectly and work up from there. Make sure she's bringing the bar down low enough on the chest/sternum. She has to learn how it feels to drive up with the elbows a little closer to the ribs. Demand perfection. That's the only approach I've found that works. Perhaps some of the other coaches will weigh in with their tips.

[D.W.]

A friend of mine i "coached" had the same problem. Especially when it got hard the bar would go uneven on the way up.

In my limited experience i would say that incorrect movement patterns are only corrected by a lot of correct reps.

I told him to lower the weight by 10-20% and to do several sets. The sets were ended as soon as he started to become uneven. We increased the weight slowly until he was stronger than before.

So my tip: Lots of sets at a lighter weight with smaller number of reps. Slowly increasing the weight over the weeks and "transporting" the good pattern into the heavier weights.