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Originally Posted by
PVC
The "SS-way" to unrack the barbell is to push it upwards against the rack until your elbows are straight, and then pull the bar over to the correct spot over your chest.
In the Bench Press Cure video, Dave specifically says to avoid doing this because it causes you to lose tightness in your upper back. He wants you to bring the bar straight from the rack into its starting position by pulling it forwards and pushing it upwards at the same time.
As a novice on SS who has been having trouble with the bench press, I was just wondering if I should be attempting what Dave recommends or if I should stick to the way it's described in SS. I'm not planning on abandoning the SS-form of the bench press for Dave's, but I found a lot of his advice to be useful and I'm planning on trying some of it. For example: his tightness cues; holding the bar for two full seconds before starting your reps to make sure your body is set; chalking the bar to see if it's touching the same spot on your chest for each rep. However, I'm still not sure about the specific cue I mentioned earlier, if anyone wants to help me out.