bench press question.

[gevoudane]

Why bench with your knees bent? If your legs were straight wouldnt you benefit more?

 

[LatFlare]

No

 

[TehWeak1]

I am legit interested in knowing how you came to consider that?

 

[boingyman]

wut?

 

[frango]

just look at good powerlifters doing the bench press pressing tons.

they bent their legs as it is the optimal set up position to press more weight.

arch your back a little, maintain your ass on the bench, retract scapulas and you will see your knees will be better of bent, and naturally hill help you press the bar up.

 

[frango]

i was talking about more than 90 degree bent knee.

but i see you talking benching with straight legs, like, just lying on the bench. is this it?

the answer is that your need stability.
quoting marilia coutinho: stability is the mother of strenght.

you dont have stability with you legs straight. they must be bent.

 

[TehWeak1]

Not sure who you are @frango but a friend of Marilia is a friend of mine.

 

[frango]

Not sure who you are @frango but a friend of Marilia is a friend of mine.

im brazilian and live in Brasil.
i only know Marilia from the internet. She gives good advices and i like her insights about training.

 

[boingyman]

OP have you been watching Paralympic bench pressing? That's the only reason I can think of for you to ask this question.

 

[PivotPunch]

I have also a benching question. What are the pro and cons of dumbell benching vs a regular barbell bench?

Meaning especially for strength purposes and carry over to other athletic things.

I have a very weak bench (even compared to my general lack of strength everywhere) and I somehow can't progress. I thought maybe I should try dumbell benching since it eliminates imbalances and it seems overall more straight forward technique wise so that i can just focus on getting stronger

 

[gevoudane]

Wouldn't stability build up from the leg straight position also?

i was talking about more than 90 degree bent knee.

but i see you talking benching with straight legs, like, just lying on the bench. is this it?

the answer is that your need stability.
quoting marilia coutinho: stability is the mother of strenght.

you dont have stability with you legs straight. they must be bent.

 

[frango]

Wouldn't stability build up from the leg straight position also?

the phrase i quoted means that you must be stable to generte strenght. whithout your legs support you tend to bounce and fuck shit up. Your legs and feet pushing against the floor gives you proper stability to press. Thats what they call "leg drive"

this is a commom mistake i see people doing in the gym. They think that they need to generate LOTS of instability so they will be "working they're core". So they squat on medicine balls, they bench press with both feet up on the bench. There is absolute no need to do this. It is not the optimal press stance. Doing this you press less weight and this is not what you want, right?

I mean, if you are trying to press less weight, go ahead.

if you are trying to press more weight to be stronger, dont.

The weight of the bar in your hands is enough unstable and you should try to position yourself to be stable and press.

Try to bench press up to 90% of you max without the help of your legs pressing against the floor and you will just fail. By the way, dont do this, as it might be a recipe for a disaster.

check marilia coutinho website, i think she may have an article about stability there and she explains it better than me. google her name.

 

[gevoudane]

Ok thanks for the info. I'll check her out.

the phrase i quoted means that you must be stable to generte strenght. whithout your legs support you tend to bounce and fuck shit up. Your legs and feet pushing against the floor gives you proper stability to press. Thats what they call "leg drive"

this is a commom mistake i see people doing in the gym. They think that they need to generate LOTS of instability so they will be "working they're core". So they squat on medicine balls, they bench press with both feet up on the bench. There is absolute no need to do this. It is not the optimal press stance. Doing this you press less weight and this is not what you want, right?

I mean, if you are trying to press less weight, go ahead.

if you are trying to press more weight to be stronger, dont.

The weight of the bar in your hands is enough unstable and you should try to position yourself to be stable and press.

Try to bench press up to 90% of you max without the help of your legs pressing against the floor and you will just fail. By the way, dont do this, as it might be a recipe for a disaster.

check marilia coutinho website, i think she may have an article about stability there and she explains it better than me. google her name.

 

[btwrestler119]

I have also a benching question. What are the pro and cons of dumbell benching vs a regular barbell bench?

Meaning especially for strength purposes and carry over to other athletic things.

I have a very weak bench (even compared to my general lack of strength everywhere) and I somehow can't progress. I thought maybe I should try dumbell benching since it eliminates imbalances and it seems overall more straight forward technique wise so that i can just focus on getting stronger

Dumbbell benching has it's place, but shouldn't replace a barbell bench as a main movement. You say you aren't progressing on the bench. What type of programming do you do? How is your form? Maybe give those details and a video of you benching and you'll get some help. My thought is if you aren't progressing on bench, switching to dumbbells isn't going to help, you need to fix whatever is keeping you from progress first.

 

[PivotPunch]

Dumbbell benching has it's place, but shouldn't replace a barbell bench as a main movement. You say you aren't progressing on the bench. What type of programming do you do? How is your form? Maybe give those details and a video of you benching and you'll get some help. My thought is if you aren't progressing on bench, switching to dumbbells isn't going to help, you need to fix whatever is keeping you from progress first.

I do basically my own bastardized version of SS but only 2 times a week for time reasons and since I also box as a hobby meaning I bench only once a week. Another issue is I can only progress in 5kg steps. So yeah I do a lot of things not ideally.
Form wise I notice that it is bad though and I have no feeling where exactly (how high or low) I should place the bar onto my chest. And bench unevenly so I was thinking that maybe the dumbell bench could help with my imbalances.
Should I maybe do one week only bench and one week only OHP if i train only twice a week instead of alternating each workout day?

 

[TehWeak1]

Tough to progress on the bench without focusing on bench a little more. Increasing the volume and intensity will help. Adding a simple assistance exercise might help too.

@PivotPunch what does your set up look like right now? This might help.

 

[btwrestler119]

I do basically my own bastardized version of SS but only 2 times a week for time reasons and since I also box as a hobby meaning I bench only once a week. Another issue is I can only progress in 5kg steps. So yeah I do a lot of things not ideally.
Form wise I notice that it is bad though and I have no feeling where exactly (how high or low) I should place the bar onto my chest. And bench unevenly so I was thinking that maybe the dumbell bench could help with my imbalances.
Should I maybe do one week only bench and one week only OHP if i train only twice a week instead of alternating each workout day?

Record yourself benching, post the video and we can help you with form. It's going to be hard to make a ton of progress benching once a week, what I'd do is do lighter bench or dumbbell bench after OHP on that day, in addition to your bench day.

If you can only progress in 5kg increments then you should focus on rep progression.

For example:

Pick a weight you can do for 8 reps.

Week 1 - 5 sets of 5 at that weight
Week 2 - 5 sets of 6 at that weight
Week 3 - 5 sets of 7 at that weight
Week 4 - 5 sets of 8 at that weight
Week 5 - deload 3 sets of 5 at 50% of 1RM
Week 6 - 5 sets of 5 at week 1-4 weight + 5kg
Week 7 - 5 sets of 6 at week 1-4 weight + 5kg
and so on

 

[KnightTemplar]

I have also a benching question. What are the pro and cons of dumbell benching vs a regular barbell bench?

Meaning especially for strength purposes and carry over to other athletic things.

I have a very weak bench (even compared to my general lack of strength everywhere) and I somehow can't progress. I thought maybe I should try dumbell benching since it eliminates imbalances and it seems overall more straight forward technique wise so that i can just focus on getting stronger

Dumbbells can be easier on the shoulders, especially if you use a neutral grip. Barbells are better for building strength.

If you can barbell bench without causing/aggravating injuries, then do so. If you can't, dumbbells are a decent alternative. But I wouldn't advise switching to DB's just because your barbell bench sucks.

 

[phys_therapy]

As long as you are pain-free, injury-free, and move the weight, that should be your baseline for how to lift a weight. Some people are more comfortable with knees bent, or straight, or resting at the foot of the bench.

Criteria for a competition is different as far as what positioning you should or shouldn't have, but I don't care if a guy sumos 600lb or Romanian's 550lb. The guy who lifted the most weight lifted the most weight.

 

[PivotPunch]

Tough to progress on the bench without focusing on bench a little more. Increasing the volume and intensity will help. Adding a simple assistance exercise might help too.

@PivotPunch what does your set up look like right now? This might help.

I have access to pretty much everything that's standard in a gym but they have no smaller plates than 2.5kg

Record yourself benching, post the video and we can help you with form. It's going to be hard to make a ton of progress benching once a week, what I'd do is do lighter bench or dumbbell bench after OHP on that day, in addition to your bench day.

If you can only progress in 5kg increments then you should focus on rep progression.

For example:

Pick a weight you can do for 8 reps.

Week 1 - 5 sets of 5 at that weight
Week 2 - 5 sets of 6 at that weight
Week 3 - 5 sets of 7 at that weight
Week 4 - 5 sets of 8 at that weight
Week 5 - deload 3 sets of 5 at 50% of 1RM
Week 6 - 5 sets of 5 at week 1-4 weight + 5kg
Week 7 - 5 sets of 6 at week 1-4 weight + 5kg
and so on

If I can I will post a video. Thanks I might try this at least with the bench and maybe OHP as well.

Should I just start using 5x5 on every lift if I lift only twice a week? Basically doing SS but 5x5 and even working up to 5x8 on the bench and OHP? (maybe in the beginning even just the increase from 3x5 to 5x5 will do the trick for the bench and ohp)
And with the eadlift maybe 2x5 instead of 1x5?