This is the vid from Saturday's bench of 300lbs. I feel like it was a shit show.The girl videoing did not get my feet and the guy spotting threw me off when he reached for the bar. Good help is hard to find these days. lol All i keep hearing from people who see it is that I am not tight. I thought I was? Maybe I don't know what tight is. I also did not like the way I bounced the bar off my chest. I would have liked the transition to be smoother.
Wed light bench day was as follows:
flat bench
135x12
185x10
205x6-5 sets
205x8
135x30 <--I think that will count as cardio
incline bench
135x12
185x8
225x6
245x2
225x5
135x12
pull overs (haven't done them since to '80's)
4 sets 70x10
body weight dips four sets 12
Now the questions. 205 seemed too light for sets of six. I could have easily done 10 to 12 on the fist sets. should I just stop at 6 to leave gas in the tank for the up coming sets? Should I have done more sets of 205x6 until 6 reps was pushing it? What am i supposed to be doing to get/feel tight (please don't say Kegel Exercises) Saturday is heavy bench. Should I stay with the singles at 95% or is it better to do doubles or triples on occasion at a slightly lighter weight.
Thanks
Rocco
Rocco,
That bench looked ok. Not great but not horrible either. Out of the 3 Powerlifts bench is the most technical lift and there is a large learning curve in learning how to bench for strength vs benching like everyone else.
You were not tight enough. The way your upper body moved on the un rack shows you could have gotten tighter. It also shows why it's better to let the spotter lift the bar to you. Secondly, from what I can see of your feet they were moving throughout the lift which will waste some kinetic energy. Now you may move a but during an extremely heavy attempt at or close to your sticking point but IMO I saw too much movement. Not sloppy but definitely worth it to keep working on your set up.
Another thing I noticed was the bar path. It didn't come down as straight as it could have. It starts higher up in your chest, during the eccentric it curves down towards the lower part and touches around sternum area, then in the concentric portion it curves back towards your upper chest. Try working in as straight a bar path as possible.
The transition from eccentric to concentric on bench is important bc it can help you complete a lift you would've missed. As you come down imagine your chest and pecs are stretching along with some other musculature. Soon as the bar touches the chest you need to explode upwards with everything you have. Be explosive. For raw lifters the first 1-3in off the chest is the usually sticking point and having good force production could break through that part of the ROM. This is why paused bench press is so good. You pause on the chest for a 1-5ct then explode upwards.
Recommendations:
1) keep working on the setup. If you want material to read lemme know and I'll link some
2) work in a straight bar path
3) work on transitioning from the eccentric to concentric and add in some paused bench reps in your training
4) strengthen the primary movers at the bottom to help break your weak points ie triceps, delts, lats, and upper back muscles
5) the more reps you do with better form the better your form gets. Obvious but ppl don't think of it. PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE
the good news in all of this you ask? Well even if the spotter didn't touch the bar you had that lift. It had pretty damned good speed for being a heavy bench. And considering the few form tweaks above, once you improve those you should easily add another 10-30lbs easy to your max bench.
I'd do the latter lol
<---inside joke, everyone else can go along with their life.
