No Full ROM Benching?

Training Bodybuilding
81

Wow. Now I know where the other thread came from.

[quote]nptitim wrote:
Hey Prof, did you happen to read Poliquin’s article he just posted up, where he referenced some dude in Russia benching 500 something for 8 reps and he made a point to mention that he paused the bar on his chest for 2 reps? Wonder why he did that? I think Poliquin was trying to let everybody know how much easier it is to do that.[/quote]

Poliquin also talks in detail in many of his bodybuilding articles about time under tension. You lose that tension when you rest the bar on your chest.

[quote]
You can’t honestly believe that resting the bar on your chest is resting as in giving your body a break. Is the rib cage designed to support several hundred pounds lying on you? When you pause the bar, or rest the bar if you like, obviously your body is super tight and you are still supporting the bar. You don’t let it sink into your body (although that would not be easier, just super uncomfortable).[/quote]

Okay, since you keep dragging powerlifting into this, how about we bring some bodybuilding in. Do you understand the concept of bodybuilding? In its most basic definition it’s to build lean muscle mass. One of the ways to do this is to exhaust and damage the muscle tissue. What do you think will more thoroughly exhaust the pecs; a paused bench or several reps stopped short of touching the chest keeping the pecs under constant tension? Are you starting to understand?

[quote]
Is pausing at the bottom of a squat easier then just going down and up?

Is pausing at the bottom of a leg press easier than just going down and up?

Are dead hang pull-ups easier than a regular pull-ups with no hang (or rest) at the bottom?

And finally, for clarification, I’ll ask you one more time. How low do you bring the bar down to your chest? If you don’t know the exact answer ballpark it in terms of inches like 1/2 inch, 1 inch, 4 inches, whatever.[/quote]

And since it means so much to you, I will say this. As a one-rep max, I think a paused on the chest rep is more difficult than a rep stopped short of the chest with no pause. But that’s a one-rep max, which many bodybuilders don’t do anyway. As far as being more tiring and harder on the pecs, I think non-paused reps are much more exhausting. Happy?

82

[quote]ocn2000 wrote:
I have been noticing in my gym lately (24 hr fitness) that the guys I see benching do not lower the bar to their chest. They stop 4-6 inches above the chest. I saw I few guys do it, and now it seems that they all do it. Even the guys with spotters. WTF is up with this? I am assuming it must have been a “cool tip” in Muscle in fitness or something for it to be such a trend.[/quote]

useless shit…
easy way to add weight and “think to be strong”…

83

[quote]nptitim wrote:
If he is really just grazing his shirt and touching his chest then fine, he is doing a real bench press. If he is stopping 2 inches or 4 inches short or whatever, then he is not doing a real bench press, he is a doing a partial. Taking 1 inch off the ROM is a partial just like taking 6 inches off it is, you just need to specify how much you are cutting it short. He didn’t mention the shirt grazing thing until much later.

Bottomline is if you don’t touch your chest it is not a bench press.[/quote]

So by your reasoning evrything needs to be qualifyed from a powerlifting prespective. There for if someone goes below the point required in PL comp[ while squatting we should qualify this as an “exceed range of motion squat” or soemthing simialr?

84

I stop the bar a couple of inches before my chest cos i dont have the flexibility to lower it all the way(got shoulder pains when i used too). However im sure a lot of guys do it to lift more weight…deluded or what!!

85

[quote]nptitim wrote:
Z-Man wrote:
I’m going to agree with Prof X on this one, If you are going well below your sticking point, it’s a good bench. For me, I can touch my chest, but it bothers my shoulder, so I’m about 1-2" off my chest even with light weights. I can touch my chest, but why? I have proportionally long arms, and it doesn’t feel quite right.

My sticking point is the top quarter of the range of motion, near lockout. Does that mean I can only come down halfway (past my sticking point) and then say I bench pressed it and it is a “good bench?”[/quote]

If that is your sticking point, you have some problems, you should be able to drive through that point of the lift.

86

I’ve been in and out of this thread for days and haven’t posted anything because I didn’t feel I had anything to add at that point.

I’m gonna stick my neck out here though and say that for bodybuilding purposes full ROM in general is one of the most beaten to death faslehoods ever. I’m not saying one inch reps are the way to go, but some guys have it in their minds that there’s invisible lines at the top and bottom of every movement that if not reached will make your balls shrink and defeat any hope of ever getting bigger or stronger.

I’ll give one example. Paul DeMayo (the late) grew some of the most monstrous quads you will ever see and he did it on genuine partial reps with tons of weight. I can’t remember who got him training that way, but I do remember how it hit me between the eyes when I read it years ago.

Who cares what its called. Full rep, partial rep, 2/3 rep. .723 rep. If it’s working, WHO CARES? I’m not going to be imprisoned by a predetermined text book ROM for the sake of being able to say “I bench, squat, dead X poundage” I do whatever gets me the most stimualtion in the desired amount of work. And it’s different for different exercises.

87

Well. ‘resting’ the bar on your chest makes it harder.

I dont think its resting though, its more of an isometric then anything else.

You cant do as much weight this way, but since you are pausing each rep your chest needs more starting stregnth.

For best gains in chest, sticking to just one method is not going to give maximum results.