Stronger Back = Painless Bench

So, I couldn’t bench pain-free (or, at least, crackle-free) for the past many years…

About a year ago, despite a very strong chin-up, my shoulders still crackled when benching…

Forward to nowadays: got much stronger on 1A rows (with a bit of momentum I can do 100 x12, w/o, 80 x~20, from about 65 x10) (and NO, I’m not bragging, because I know these numbers are very low)… I noticed that the last time I benched, I would very strongly contract every muscle around the shoulder (lats, teres etc.), and this allowed me to bench pain- and crackle-free.

WOo-hoo!

(this is a "bench press tip, so it belongs in the PL forum, thank you)

[quote]Sterneneisen wrote:
So, I couldn’t bench pain-free (or, at least, crackle-free) for the past many years…

About a year ago, despite a very strong chin-up, my shoulders still crackled when benching…

Forward to nowadays: got much stronger on 1A rows (with a bit of momentum I can do 100 x12, w/o, 80 x~20, from about 65 x10) (and NO, I’m not bragging, because I know these numbers are very low)… I noticed that the last time I benched, I would very strongly contract every muscle around the shoulder (lats, teres etc.), and this allowed me to bench pain- and crackle-free.

WOo-hoo!

(this is a "bench press tip, so it belongs in the PL forum, thank you)[/quote]
I couldn’t agree more to the back strength=better bench. I use the traditional elbow against lat technique with big arch.