Bench press technique

[Mirat]

Hi guys,
I've been benching for quite a few years, managed to work up to 130kgx3 @87kg bodyweight in last December. Later on, I stopped lifting for 4 months and my bench went down to a miserable 80kgx5. I restarted training 1.5 months ago and I expected that getting my bench back up to where it was would be smooth sailing but I was wrong. I'm currently at 102.5kgx5 and progress slowed down a lot, so I figured out it might be a technique issue since I'm eating and sleeping a lot and training hard. I took a video today attempting 105kg and only got 3 reps, but I was surprised by how bad my technique looked:
YouTube
Here are the flaws I noticed (correct me if i'm wrong)
1- I'm lifting my head at every lockout (this is easy to fix)
2- Except for the first rep, I'm not controlling the eccentric part of the movement at all and losing my tightness
3- I've always benched with only my toes touching the ground, does that contribute to making me instable ?

If you notice any other problem with my technique feel free to tell me.
All these problems can be eliminated if I use a lighter load, but I'd like some tips to keep my form correct at maximal weights.
Thanks in advance.

[Mirat]

[Brooke Haubenstricker]

Hey, Mirat!

Good observations! During the descent, there are a few things happening.

First, your grip looks a tad narrow. I'd widen it a finger width or two. (Have a buddy watch your forearms when you're warming up. When the bar is resting on your chest, your forearms should be vertical.)

Second, as you said, you're relaxing, as you said, so the bar is bouncing off of your chest. Stay tight and controlled and gently touch your chest, as if there's a thin sheet of glass laying across your chest that you don't want to break. (If you're unable to touch your chest in a more controlled manner then you'll have to deload.)

Third, your elbows are behind the bar when it reaches your chest. Tuck them in closer to your sides so they "lead" the bar down to your chest. This is a better position to press from at the bottom. Third, a minor form error, but your wrists are bending quite a bit. Try to keep them more straight during the descent and ascent. Thinking about punching the ceiling on the ascent can help with that, or you could look into getting wrist wraps.

Fourth, you’re right, your neck should be relaxed during the entire set (your head shouldn’t be coming off of or being driven into the bench.)

As far as the feet go, the Starting Strength method of benching has flat feet on the floor to maximize contact and encourage a horizontal leg drive instead of a vertical leg drive. More advanced benching techniques would have less foot contact with the floor, with the feet under the butt, to encourage a higher back arch and shorten the ROM. Wouldn't hurt to mess around with your foot position to see if you could get more leg drive out of a less extreme foot position (plus the stress increase from the slightly longer ROM wouldn't hurt).

What does your bench programming look like right now? Are you still running an LP?

[Mirat]

Hey, Mirat!

Good observations! During the descent, there are a few things happening.

First, your grip looks a tad narrow. I'd widen it a finger width or two. (Have a buddy watch your forearms when you're warming up. When the bar is resting on your chest, your forearms should be vertical.)

Second, as you said, you're relaxing, as you said, so the bar is bouncing off of your chest. Stay tight and controlled and gently touch your chest, as if there's a thin sheet of glass laying across your chest that you don't want to break. (If you're unable to touch your chest in a more controlled manner then you'll have to deload.)

Third, your elbows are behind the bar when it reaches your chest. Tuck them in closer to your sides so they "lead" the bar down to your chest. This is a better position to press from at the bottom. Third, a minor form error, but your wrists are bending quite a bit. Try to keep them more straight during the descent and ascent. Thinking about punching the ceiling on the ascent can help with that, or you could look into getting wrist wraps.

Fourth, you’re right, your neck should be relaxed during the entire set (your head shouldn’t be coming off of or being driven into the bench.)

As far as the feet go, the Starting Strength method of benching has flat feet on the floor to maximize contact and encourage a horizontal leg drive instead of a vertical leg drive. More advanced benching techniques would have less foot contact with the floor, with the feet under the butt, to encourage a higher back arch and shorten the ROM. Wouldn't hurt to mess around with your foot position to see if you could get more leg drive out of a less extreme foot position (plus the stress increase from the slightly longer ROM wouldn't hurt).

What does your bench programming look like right now? Are you still running an LP?

Hey, thanks a lot for the tips, especially about the elbows, didn't notice this one.
I can't really do starting strength anymore because of some pretty bad damage I did to my patellar tendons in the past (so no squats).
My plan is to compete in a bench-only meet in about a year or less, and I still love to deadlift so I'm currently training with very high frequency (6/week) with 3 days devoted to the bench press and 3 days devoted to the deadlift. I didn't have any recovery issues in the beginning (I'm currently in holidays and pretty much unlimited sleep and food) but I think I trained my triceps way too hard last session with the ez-bar triceps extension that Rip advocates (the one with shoulder flexion) so they were a bit sore today when I benched (this might explain why I suddenly struggled to lockout the last rep)

[Mirat]

Oh, and was the bar descent speed okay in the first rep or should it be even slower ?