Bench Pressing – The most important exercise in the world
Posted by Will Heffernan on February 24, 2009
Sully and I were talking about why it is that he benches like a lady boy…actually that’s not fair…some lady boys bench a lot more than Sully does.
Garret was still in the gym before we left for the evening…and he was asking about scap positioning.
Denise said
You said that the wrong way you meant to say you would rather see guys benching your way with 100kg instead of benching body building style with 150kg
Will Heffernan said
Actually what I was getting at is that if you improve your technique you could handle far more load. More load equals better.
Denise said
Oh and Garret impressive acting there
Michael Sullivan said
I would like to thank Huge Jaktman for taking the time out to explain his bench press set up and pressing technique.
I am going to try some light technique work for my bench press and see if I can get some lat involvement. Well done Will.
Michael Sullivan said
http://community.staleytraining.com/Dano/photos/show/128
Will Heffernan said
That guy is totally jakt indeed.
Lyle said
Yeah, yeah, blah, blah, blah.
But how much do you bench?
Will Heffernan said
Personal Best = 190kg. Recent Best = 180kg.
Lyle said
So about bodyweight then.
thefightgeek said
As per usual, I’m the slow one …
When you say bench isn’t so much about sports specific strength but neural stimulation/training effect … what exactly do you mean? How does that benefit me? I just assumed there was a reasonable transfer over to sport.
Anyway, a little while ago I started doing benches like you’ve suggested and my bench numbers initially dropped a lot but now they’re slowly improving. Now it’s the only exercise where I’m not hitting your ‘balanced athlete’ numbers … But at the moment I’m still only repping a little over my bodyweight, so I’ve got a long way to go
Will Heffernan said
That’s OK…I’m used to dealing with the mentally challenged.
When you say bench isn’t so much about sports specific strength but neural stimulation/training effect … what exactly do you mean?
Well what I was getting at is that in reality very little work that you do in the gym is actually ’sport specific’…unless your sport is weightlifting or powerlifting…what you are looking for is to do work/training with the best carry over into your sport.
How does that benefit me? I just assumed there was a reasonable transfer over to sport.
What you are looking for from benching as we were discussing this exercise in particular to obviously optimise your upper body development and the way in which all the muscles in your upper body work together.
Anyway, a little while ago I started doing benches like you’ve suggested and my bench numbers initially dropped a lot but now they’re slowly improving. Now it’s the only exercise where I’m not hitting your ‘balanced athlete’ numbers … But at the moment I’m still only repping a little over my bodyweight, so I’ve got a long way to go.
I think their is almost a ceiling when benching ‘bodybuilding style’…I say this because a lot of guys that I’ve seen over the last 20 years seem to plateau using this style at a little under 1.5x bodyweight. Just the mechanics of that style of lifting creates this ceiling. I’ve had a lot of these guys switch to the style of benching that I use and have had a lot of them drop off significantly initially before climbing steadily past their past personal bests. Does that answer your question? If not…let me know and I will have another crack at explaining myself.
thefightgeek said
thanks for that … I’m glad it’s normal to drop off initially when doing this other style of benching. I’ll be persistent with it and see how much progress I can make over the next six months.
Cheers!
garrett said
Denise your so nice .
Denise said
Thanks Garrett I try my best
Lisa said
17th second – “i know this is a bit off topic” lol
zarro said
Those were some good video’s. One thing that helped me figure out how to use my lats was overhead pressing. This helped because at the bottom of an overhead press, you can’t really start extending your elbows or you’d knock yourself in the chin. So you have to use your lats to get the bar started going up and over your head in a good arc then you start extending the elbows. Will, good job on these.
Will Heffernan said
Thanks for the feedback mate. I’ll make time to get around to adjusting your program this week as well.
Michael Sullivan said
Agreed that this was will best video for 4 reasons:
1. good camera work/angles
2. decent sound
3. proper demonstration and explanation of the technique
4. he was sober
Adrienl said
hey willwould it be possible for you to give me a quick couple of ideas for this problem i have with the bench.
Basically i setup as well as i can focusing on basics of shoulderblades back and down and arching the back. The problem occurs when i attempt to get the bar to touch my sternum. Basically to touch it feels like my my shoulderblades slide up the bench and my elbow swings up toward my shoulders. Would you see this as a technique issue (ie not enough arch or grip is too wide/narrow) or is it more likely flexibilty. If it helps i am probably just as strong in the db bench press as i stop right at the point where this rotation occurs.
Thanks as always for your time
Will Heffernan said
Adrienl said
hey will
would it be possible for you to give me a quick couple of ideas for this problem i have with the bench.
Yes.
Basically i setup as well as i can focusing on basics of shoulder blades back and down and arching the back. The problem occurs when i attempt to get the bar to touch my sternum. Basically to touch it feels like my my shoulder blades slide up the bench and my elbow swings up toward my shoulders.
Does this happen no matter what the weight? We need to work out whether it is a technique issue or a mobility issue.
Would you see this as a technique issue (ie not enough arch or grip is too wide/narrow) or is it more likely flexibilty.
I should always read entire posts before I start replying.
If it helps i am probably just as strong in the db bench press as i stop right at the point where this rotation occurs.
Thanks that doesn’t help me one bit.
Make a video and send it to me or better still make a video…post it online and send me a link.
Thanks as always for your time