Bench Press Form

Training Powerlifting
1

I have a question regarding Bench Press form:

Some months ago I started learning more about the bench press form and felt a million times tighter and a lot stronger and made some great gains just improving my technique. However, a month or so ago I injured my right shoulder more than any other time and couldn’t properly do anything for about 1-2 weeks.

Since then I’ve read a bit more/watched some videos and I read that if you flare your lats out at the bottom and push your shoulders forward then it puts a lot of stress on your front delts which can lead to injuries.

Now when I first started caring more about form I read that you want to push your shoulders back initially but then when the bar is at the bottom you flare your lats forward and keep them tight. I had been doing that to great effect as it helped me feel a lot more stable and stronger.

So I’m confused as which is it - do you keep your shoulders/upper-back back and tight throughout the lift or do you keep them tight and then at the bottom flare your lats forward to press the bar? Looking into it more now some still say to do that. Something I read from Mark Bell said that you want to effectively do a bodybuilding front chest pose which would describe what I used to do. Other sources say you want to keep shoulders back throughout. Keeping them back throughout I feel weaker and less stable as I feel I can’t really keep my lats tight. However, also worried that that may have been the reason I was injured - I don’t know for sure, I can only really speculate.

2

You need to keep the scapula and shoulders retracted for the entire lift. The lats build tension as you ‘row’ the bar down with tucked elbows, and then you release the tension with a burst off the chest through a full body drive - feet in, lats start pushing the bar up then back and overall just huge pressure on the traps - push yourself into the bench.

Releasing the upper back and shoulders forward makes it so that you have like 4 inches farther to go to lockout… This is bad! Also, this creates major internal rotation and can facilitate rotator cuff injuries.

3

Thanks.

See that’s what lately I’ve been reading a bit more about. However, as I said, there are some great powerlifters who seem to say that you should flare your lats to push it out which would mean shoulders coming forward.

4

Here’s an article I wrote on bench form. Hope it helps.

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/the-mindset-behind-a-great-bench-press/

5

[quote]vdizenzo wrote:
Here’s an article I wrote on bench form. Hope it helps.

http://articles.elitefts.com/articles/training-articles/the-mindset-behind-a-great-bench-press/[/quote]

nice article