My bench (opinions welcome)

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

Good morning,

I have problems with my bench.
In short, I am not sure I know what to do. I've been training for almost 18 months now, and I think I've got a pretty clear mental picture of how to perform the other lifts. My weights are totally unimpressive, but at least I am convinced I know what to do when I go under a bar in the squat rack, or how to set-up for a deadlift.

But when I comes to the bench, I still haven't developed a solid, reliable mental pattern for the movement. I find the bench complicated, and I have difficulties keeping track of all the parts of my body involved in the lift.

For this reason, I would be very grateful if people could have a look at my bench videos, and give an opinion on what they see. The videos were shot yesterday, the weight is 160 pounds. I felt they were actually decent sets, an improvement compared to my usually confused sets. But the fact is, I have no idea what a good set feels like, so I'm not really sure yesterday' session was any better than the others.


rear view: http://vimeo.com/16385524
front view: http://vimeo.com/16385679
from the right: http://vimeo.com/16385834
from the left: http://vimeo.com/16385974

Many thanks,

IPB

[Steve Hill]

1) Your head position is too far behind the bar. Eyes should be just in front of the bar. Your head position is putting you too close to the rack when you are pressing.
2) You need to set up your head position FIRST. Quit fucking around with the tippy-toe crap and all the back arching when you first lie down on the bench. Just relax, get your head in position. THEN grip. THEN foot position and arch (without moving your head from the position you placed it at initially.
3) You are brining the bar down far too low on your chest. Should be about 1.5" or so from the line of your shoulders (which is hard to spot on your own, so get a spotter to help you with that).


It's not a complicated movement. You are making ti complicated, mainly with all the gymnastics you're doing before you even lift the bar off.

[Adam M]

To be fair it's not that bad, wouldn't worry about just get stronger and it tends to fix itself. The main I can see is you seem to slipping all over the place, probably due to the bench material, so maybe buy a thin grippy yoga mat/rubber material to place under you.

Also stop watching/reading Dave Tate stuff and elitefts most likely and just get in the gym and train, if you want a bigger bench you have to get bigger unless you have freak gentics. Don't use form as an excuse for being weak! If you've been training for 18 months you need to re-evaluate and stop doing whatever you're doing. If you really have trouble with bench (spotters as well, the reason why I just press and dip instead of bench) you could just do weighted dips-there is no technique involved, just pure pressing strength.

[msingh]

Is it just me or is that bench too narrow? How are you supposed to keep shoulders down when they're not touching the bench at any time?

[MazdaMatt]

It's not a complicated movement.

Don't be so quick to say this... some people bench naturally, others, such as myself, suck at it. I'd say a deadlift is not a complicated movement, but we see streams of bad deadlift videos on this site all the time.

[Steve Hill]

Is it just me or is that bench too narrow? How are you supposed to keep shoulders down when they're not touching the bench at any time?

It's just you. The bench is fine.

[Steve Hill]

Don't be so quick to say this... some people bench naturally, others, such as myself, suck at it. I'd say a deadlift is not a complicated movement, but we see streams of bad deadlift videos on this site all the time.

The deadlift involves more joint angle movement / coordination / timing than a bench press, in addition to requiring balance, making it a more complicated movement.

The bench press, OTOH, is a very simple movement, albeit the most dangerous lift in the gym.

Don't mistake ability with complexity.

At the SS:BBT cert, Rip starts off the bench press gym session with "This is the most simple lift we teach," so I'm kinda quoting here.

It's a simple lift. People MAKE it complicated.

[MazdaMatt]

I suppose one can't mix up "simple" and "easy"... very different words. I just wish it were as easy as it is simple... I need a damn coach.

[gzt]

Besides what everybody else said, you look fine. I think you need to get used to pushing hard against the weight and need to get stronger. These looked like easy sets of five.

[IlPrincipeBrutto]

Hello again,

thanks for taking the time to have a look at my bench. I would like to comment about some of the points raised.

- Feet. I used to put the head first, and the feet last. But then, watching other videos, I realised that I was keeping an uneven feet position, one way in front than the other. I now prefer to set-up the feet first, and the head last. This way, I know my position will be symmetrical.

- Regarding the head; yes, I go further behind the bar than recommended in the book, and I do this to compensate the fact that the uprights of the bench slope backwards. Once I have extended my arms, just before taking the bar off the hooks, the bar is in the right position, relative to my eyes. If I started with the bar over my eyes, it would be way too far behind when I try to take it off the hooks. This also leads me to the next point: spotters.

- I can't rely on spotters. Sometimes, on Sunday mornings, there isn't anyone in the gym at all, so I have do it all myself. Same goes for the bench: that's what is available, I have to work with that.

- I have not watched or read Dave Tate or EliteFTS material. The fact that it looks like I have it's just coincidence.

- The ones in the video are my Texas Method volume sets. The intensity set is 175. In case you wonder what the hell I'm doing on TM with such a light bench, the answer is: time. If I was still on linear progression, I would need to take quite a few minutes between working sets. This would make the workout too long, which is not practical as I go to the gym before work. With TM, there is only one very long session, the volume one, which I can do on Sundays.

- Yes, I need to get stronger. I'm getting there, only very, very slowly. I know I'm weak, but I can only do what I can.


Thanks again,


IPB