Questions on Bench Technique

Training Powerlifting
21

[quote]dez6485 wrote:
brauny96 wrote:
I never heard of you KurtMondaugen… if what he is doing is not working for him, he’ll figure it out on his own not working for him then he’ll figure it out on his own, you dont need tto be a fucking dick, cuz what you said sure wasnt tough love.
…
I would say dankind, IMO I think you shoild do less pressing movements, it might help, but I could be wrong…

i know you’re young, so im not going to attempt to rip into your self esteem, but NOTHING “KurtMondaugen” said in his post was out of line. i dont follow Dankid around on this site, so i dont know what the hell he does, but it sounds like ‘Kurt’ delivered him some sound advice. it wouldnt be smart to decide to discredit something someone on here says simply because youve never heard of them, or maybe theyre new to the site or whatever. if i remember correctly, as of a couple years ago there was something like 700,000 registered members on this site! i dont know about you, but if i sat thinking all day, i could maybe remember about 10-15 names of posters that i know are always giving solid advice when i see their posts. certainly, that does not mean that there are only 10-15 peeps on here worth of handing out advice.

there are also the internet warriors that i feel honestly dont ever lift, workout of any type, but sit on here and spew bullshit. anyone that doesnt have their head up their ass should be able to tell who they are when they come across them. from “Kurt’s” post, it doesnt seem like he falls in the latter category, so even though youve never “heard of him” try just giving him the benefit of the doubt. (especially since you close your post by basically summarizing what Kurt wrote, in saying “stop pressing so damn much” [in relation to your other lifting])[/quote]

I understand that, and theres no reason to lighten up because Im young, all I am saying is, you dont have to be a dick to get the point across, and I dont think TYPE2B is Dankind, because 2B is very arrogant and I dont see Dankind acting that way, so I guess in my eyes, I dont see a reason to rip him a new asshole Maybe I am just too much of a nice guy in life.

22

yea well, i just dont think this guy Kurt was really out of line. i read his post a couple of times before i originally posted, and i just read it again, and other than detecting some frustration with dankid, i dont really see anything wrong there. but you coming in with your “ive never heard of you” and calling him a “fucking dick” makes you look like a bit of a dufus, especially since, again, Kurt’s advice looked GOOD!

its actually the same kind of thing im telling my little brother right now, hes a senior in HS and taking weight training class. hes been in the gym with me for a while prior to this, and ive told him to be careful in that class for a few reasons: i dont want some dipshit that doesnt know what hes doing teaching him bad form or something (as was the case when i took the class!), and i dont want him getting stuck with some straight from muscle and fit bullshit routine doing 40 sets of chest and 3 sets of t-bar rows. sure enough, teacher has the kids doing 3 days of weights, 2 cardio. m/w/f weights, tu/th cardio. workout 1 mon, workout 2 wed, workout 3 fri. workout 1- upper body- 2 chest exercises, 2 shoulder exercises, bi’s and tri’s…WHAT THE FUCK? all this pressing and no pulling! there is no back work in the fucking routine the teacher gave them! its stupid! like i said though, i havent followed Dankid, but apparently Kurt has seen more of his posts and sees that he is not balancing his pressing with his rowing/back work. its solid advice.

23

I know it wasn’t what you originally asked dankid, but for what it’s worth, more scapular stability brought my bench up from your neighborhood to 315 in about 5 months. I think thats pretty cool, you should try it.

24

[quote]matsm21 wrote:
StrengthDawg wrote:
dankid wrote:
I just have a few questions on the little things when it comes to benching technique. And i’ll be lifting RAW the whole time.

  1. Does anyone ever experience sliding around on the bench. I get my shoulders tucked and get arched, but then when I unrack the weight I have a tendancy to slide back toward the supports. Im not sure if its that my shirt and the bench are just slick, or if its a tecynique problem.

(as a side note, I tried something I saw on another site and it seemed to help. Before I even touched the bar, I put my feet up on the bench and do a hip thrust. Then I just lower my feet but try to keep this position with my upper body. It seemed to help keep me very stable, but i’ll have to try it when it comes time to max.)

Try some chalk on on your shoulders. If your gym shit a brick about chalk but some “stick um spray” made by Mueller. You won’t go anywhere with that stuff.

+1
[/quote]

+2. I always chalk my upper back and shoulders when I bench. The benches at my commercial gym are slippery as glass and it makes it very hard to stay tight without chalk. I just wipe the bench when I’m done.

25

this chalking is something i might even give a try, up to now ive been unaware of it, as ive only been using chalk for deads since about May

26

[quote]ouroboro_s wrote:

+2. I always chalk my upper back and shoulders when I bench. The benches at my commercial gym are slippery as glass and it makes it very hard to stay tight without chalk. I just wipe the bench when I’m done.[/quote]

I’ll give it a try if it still persists to be a problem. I dont know if the technique im using now has fixed the problem, or if its the fact that im only lifting like 80% in the right now. If its still a problem when i get to heavier weights i’ll have to sneak in some chalk or stick em.

27

[quote]dez6485 wrote:
yea well, i just dont think this guy Kurt was really out of line. i read his post a couple of times before i originally posted, and i just read it again, and other than detecting some frustration with dankid, i dont really see anything wrong there. but you coming in with your “ive never heard of you” and calling him a “fucking dick” makes you look like a bit of a dufus, especially since, again, Kurt’s advice looked GOOD!

its actually the same kind of thing im telling my little brother right now, hes a senior in HS and taking weight training class. hes been in the gym with me for a while prior to this, and ive told him to be careful in that class for a few reasons: i dont want some dipshit that doesnt know what hes doing teaching him bad form or something (as was the case when i took the class!), and i dont want him getting stuck with some straight from muscle and fit bullshit routine doing 40 sets of chest and 3 sets of t-bar rows. sure enough, teacher has the kids doing 3 days of weights, 2 cardio. m/w/f weights, tu/th cardio. workout 1 mon, workout 2 wed, workout 3 fri. workout 1- upper body- 2 chest exercises, 2 shoulder exercises, bi’s and tri’s…WHAT THE FUCK? all this pressing and no pulling! there is no back work in the fucking routine the teacher gave them! its stupid! like i said though, i havent followed Dankid, but apparently Kurt has seen more of his posts and sees that he is not balancing his pressing with his rowing/back work. its solid advice. [/quote]

I understand where you are coming from. My weightlifting class in HS had us max out on bench, clean, squat, dips and leg extensions for our grades. Deadlifts were considered “dangerous” and nobody wanted to squat a lot.

And I see that the majority of people in the gym are this way as well. Every day is bench, biceps and shoulders, and everything else is last priority. But these are extremes.

Honestly, how much scapular stability do you think you need?

And what do you think is going to develop this better, some rotator cuff work, or some heavy ass benching and deadlifting?

The best exercise for your upper back and lats is heavy ass deadlifts. Sure you aren’t working them in the same ROM and positions as in a bench press, but for a short period of time, deadlifts will do just fine without rowing.

Im not saying it isn’t important, and for athletes (like football or baseball) stuff like rows is even more important, but for someone interested in getting stronger on bench, squat and deadlift, too much focus on pulling movements isn’t going to be of much benefit and actually may hurt things.

I dont know about you, but after a heavy ass workout doing bench and deadlifts, my lats and upper back are beat. This program is 4 weeks long, only 12 workouts. I highly doubt this is going to be a problem. I’ll go back to hitting some rows, facepulls, and Db cleans when this is over. I dont expect to gain anything in my bench from adding these back in. They will be there just in case.

And as ive said, my pulling strength has always been stronger than my pushing. I was doing pullups with 250lbs for reps, when I was only benching 225 as a max. I was also able to DB snatch 110lbs.

I know what I need to do to bench more, and that is bench more. I need stronger triceps, shoulders and chest, and the best way to get these is benching.

I’d actually go almost as far as to say doing so much pulling in the past was hurting me. Since I dropped it down, and then now am not doing any, my shoulder issues are minimal, and my strength is going up faster.

So I see where you guys are coming from about the scapular stability stuff, but it can easily be blow out of proportion just like the “core” stuff. You know the people that will say oh you can only squat 185 because you have a weak core, so obviously you should just go do some planks. WRONG.