So, for those who didn’t catch my other thread, I’m super thin, 6’1" and am pretty new to lifting.
I read a couple articles on T-Nation about taller lifters. Granted, I’m not really tall, but I lean in that direction. Mostly, I found the articles unhelpful; a lot of complaining, not much help. One of the articles said taller guys tend to feel their bench press a lot more in the arms than in the chest, and this is definitely the case for me, especially when the bar gets midway up and higher.
My question is, is there anything wrong with just doing partial reps for bench, keeping the bar going between my chest and about midway, maybe going for the full lock out every other rep (or maybe locking out on the last rep and holding it for a few seconds longer than normal)? It seems reasonable, I’d just like some more experienced opinions.
For context, I do two upper body days a week starting with a compound lift and then doing assistance lifts to supplement. I bench on one, and do military presses on the other. So I don’t think I lose anything doing more partial reps on the bench, but I think it might help me get more out of my bench press for what the exercise is designed for. I haven’t started doing this yet, so let me know if I am off in my thinking or if its worth trying out.
Of course you’re going to feel the pecs more at the bottom, they’re stretched out at that point and they have to change your arm angle from parallel to the floor to perpendicular. That doesn’t mean the top part isn’t still contributing stress to the pec. Grip position changes how much each muscle is hit (wider grip hits pecs more).
I see no reason to only do partial reps for someone at your level. A lot of people don’t lock out (they stop maybe an inch or 2 below lockout) to keep constant tension on the muscles. But only going halfway up, for a beginner? No
Your pretty new to lifting, just do the lifts normally. Partial reps have there place. Honestly, you’re not experienced enough to know what there place is.
[quote]Hattusili wrote:
My question is, is there anything wrong with just doing partial reps for bench, keeping the bar going between my chest and about midway, maybe going for the full lock out every other rep (or maybe locking out on the last rep and holding it for a few seconds longer than normal)? It seems reasonable, I’d just like some more experienced opinions.
[/quote]
This is a good technique to get a pump and to increase TUT in the chest. BUT, I sense that you’re relatively new and could do with getting stronger at bench pressing first. What do you currently bench for a single/triple/set of 5 or whatever?
I think you’ll be fine mate in terms of stimulating the chest, however as the guy above said, you could do with getting a stronger bench. You could move the proper bench press to tricep day so you still get the benefits of a strong bench press (and bench like a powerlifter), and on chest day use dumbbell bench presses with a lot of pre and post fatigue techniques
[quote]Hattusili wrote:
My question is, is there anything wrong with just doing partial reps for bench, keeping the bar going between my chest and about midway, maybe going for the full lock out every other rep (or maybe locking out on the last rep and holding it for a few seconds longer than normal)? It seems reasonable, I’d just like some more experienced opinions.[/quote]
It’s not that partial reps or specific training techniques are “wrong”, but they’re not appropriate at this time. They’d be a band-aid solution for what’s really a bigger issue (no pun intended, teehee).
Different people will have different leverages, for sure, but beyond playing around with grip width, elbow tuck, and maybe arch/leg placement, there’s not too much you need to worry about. Sure, try out something like floor presses or one or two-count pauses at the bottom position when benching, but you also need to just invest a bit more time in the basics. For reference, what weights are you currently using on the flat bench and overhead press?
You don’t need to “get more out of the bench” because you’re not getting anything, yet. To repeat what I said in your other thread, work up to flat benching 225 for 1-2 and 135 for 12-15, while gaining bodyweight, and then re-evaluate your muscular development.
That’s really all it’s going to take before you start using special exercises or fine tuning your upper pecs.
Im almost 6’6" and I fully agree that I feel more work in my arms then chest on a bench press.
To remedy this I use dumb bells instead of a barbell and get a really good full stretch at the bottom of the rep. Also try this before each set of flat bench, get a few plates, maybe 3- 10 pound and stack them up, get on an incline bench and sandwich the stack between both hands and press away from your chest making sure to really contract hard at the top of the rep. This seems to activate my chest muscles a bit more when I switch to flat bench.
Hope this helps
Just be careul about relying on what you “feel”. You don’t necessarily need to feel an exercise to be getting stronger in that movement. Developing a pump does not necessarily mean you will be getting stronger in that movement/muscles.
At your stage I would say you are best to complete the whole movement to develop your strength over the whole movement. You wouldn’t want to start having to do board presses in the future because you neglected the end of range movement when you were beginning.
6’3- similar issue with the bench. It tends to work my arms and shoulders more. To really focus on pecs I have to use lighter weight and alter my position otherwise as was stated above heavy dumbell work. If you’re as thin as you’ve made me belive focus on compound moves and get stronger before you begin to use specialized techniques.
As a beginner I often used to think something pretty similar, thing is though, FEEL alone can be deceptive. Pull-overs for example give me a great FEEL for building/helping to build strength in my lats etc, though, I ain’t going to be ditching pull-ups & rows etc in favour of just doing pull-overs.
My advice would be, stick with the regular full-rom benching & (if you fancy) add in a few high-rep sets of db incline chest presses to finish off your chest.
Once you’ve benched your way out of the beginner zone, you can then re-evaluate your approach somwhat more objectively.