Advice on bench pressing needed

[Jadenwind]

I have a question and a bit of a problem. I'm going to be frank about it. I learned how to bench press from watching a man. I noticed that when they bring the bar to their chest the bar sits right about where their nipples are. My problem: I am well endowed and i'm not entirely sure where the bar is suppose to touch. Bringing the bar down in the same place as a man would mean I wouldn't be getting it as low as possible. It's not like the bar lingers for long on your chest, but I can't imagine it's the most comfortable thing in the world. Since we started i've just done what is comfortable, which is right beneath my breasts. Is that going to throw everything off and have me lifting incorrectly? Google has been no help for me.

[Corrie]

Depends on your anthropometry, but near your nipples is probably too high. I bet he flares his elbows out too? Probably more of a bodybuilder style to "hit the chest" harder.

You want to be a bit lower on the sternum, an inch or two down your body from the point the bar is over when you are in lockout.

[Les Hahn]

It really depends on your grip width and arm position (elbows tucked vs flared for instance). With a closer grip and elbow tuck, you will be touching lower on chest than someone who flares their elbows more/uses a wider grip. How much you arch can also effect this.

Using the SS method of benching, most people will be benching around the nipple line. In my case, I think it was a little higher. Using my preferred setup for benching, I usually touch at the bottom of my sternum/top of the gut. Mess around with your grip width/arm placement and see what works best for you.

Either way, you don't really want to be sinking the bar. Control at the bottom is important. I still have SS 2nd edition, but I think Mark says in there that you should imagine touching a small piece of glass on your chest. You need to touch it, but not crash down and break it. So even if you are limiting your ROM a little by touching on the top of your breasts, the bar shouldn't sink in so far that it is painful.

If it were me, and I was benching more using the nipple line touch point, I would do that. The more you can bench, the better. Other people will disagree of course.

I hope this helps!

[Les Hahn]

Woot! I just broke 3k posts!

[xcardiobunny]

Ok, I thought I aim for the nipple area, but after rewatching my bench clip the bar does come down right below to where Corrie described. This was on a max effort lift, not sure if it makes a difference. Also noticed that being well-endowed doesn't make much difference in a sports-bra lying down on the bench as far as height goes.

[Dastardly]

I am not sure if you understood from calladors post. But grip width is the key here. However wide you grip is governs the "touch" position on your chest. A wider grip means you touch closer to your face and a narrower grip means you touch nearer your belly. The constant being, vertical forearms (viewed from every direction) - which you should adhere to whatever your grip width.

The typical SS setup is fairly wide grip and a very moderate arch in the back. But to bring the "touch" position lower, you can narrow grip and try to arch a little more. Try to focus any extreme arching effort in your thoracic spine rather than your lumbar.

P.S

in b4, "this thread is useless without pics"