I have read up a lot on form for some lifts, but I don’t know if I am benching right. When I bench, I touch the bar about mid-pec, or nipple area.
But when I go to press it up, I end up moving the bar a couple inches up, so that its right below my neck. Is this right? It seems to still work my pecs, but im wondering if it would be better to try to keep the bar over the mid-pec, but it feels kind of weird when I do that.
pressing from the neck actually reduces the amount of work your shoulders do, and hits the pecs harder.
But increases the risk of dying if for any reason you drop the weight. The weight should go straight down, and then straight up.
You shouldn’t concentrate on the actual path of the bar itself.
Look at a fixed point on the ceiling and the bar will travel its natural path.
I got this from Starting Strength, an awesome book which covers the major lifts in incredible detail, if your just starting out, its probably one of the best books you could buy.
Since I always try to bench with an arch and tucked elbows, the bar seems to need to follow more of a J-hook path.
[quote]hardgnr wrote:
You shouldn’t concentrate on the actual path of the bar itself.
Look at a fixed point on the ceiling and the bar will travel its natural path.
I got this from Starting Strength, an awesome book which covers the major lifts in incredible detail, if your just starting out, its probably one of the best books you could buy.[/quote]
I have Starting Strength (the program im using now), but when I stare at the ceiling (or anywhere) the bar touches my chest, then moves over my neck on the way up. It didn’t seem right to me. So I should defienitly not let the bar come over my neck?
[quote]fisch wrote:
I have read up a lot on form for some lifts, but I don’t know if I am benching right. When I bench, I touch the bar about mid-pec, or nipple area.
But when I go to press it up, I end up moving the bar a couple inches up, so that its right below my neck. Is this right? It seems to still work my pecs, but im wondering if it would be better to try to keep the bar over the mid-pec, but it feels kind of weird when I do that.[/quote]
The path you describe sounds fairly close to correct - it isn’t a straight up and down movement, the bar should drift away from the feet as you press up. At lockout it should be 2-4 inches closer to your head than when the bar is at the low point.