pausing during bench

[aviation2]

how long are you suppose to pause with bar at chest on bench press

[Dude-Man]

i don't get what you're saying. if it's a competition, you pause until they give you the lift command. If you're just doing sets, as long as you don't bounce it off your chest you're doing fine.

[)(PimP JuicE)(]

i used to bounce it a year ago, but i started stopping about 1 in away from chest. what does anyone else think?

[goodtobeapimp]

I've lifted in a few comps and won.. Don't bother pausing if your going raw.. I've never been to a raw meet that makes you pause, nor would I do it. IMO that's asking for an injury. With a shirt most of the time all you have to do is touch. Most shirts that people use are wicked. It's a task to touch your chest with it on most of the time.

[qccat]

i wouldn't stop before touching your chest especially if you are using heavy weight, it will just hurt your lift. Pausing is for competition mostly, although if you want to do it, the pause is 1 to 2 seconds

[bermich]

i used to bounce it a year ago, but i started stopping about 1 in away from chest. what does anyone else think?

If you cant get past a certain amount of weight, you usually would slow down your benching. Do NOT let it touch your chest. Bring the weight down slower than normal and push it up slower than normal. This will eliminate momentum and cause your muscles to work harder at the weight they are already acustomed to. Eventually, you will be able to add 10 lbs of weight and then blast it up without a proble. Where as before, that extra 10lbs was not able to be benched.

BTW. IMO, pausing is bad on the wrists and elbows. Too much weight to try to push up at a dead stall.

[qccat]

but if you are training to bench in a meet...you MUST not only touch your chest, but pause until you get the lift command

[Brian D]

The pause depends on the fed,raw,ipf,usapl,etc find a meet first read the rules about
the pause,and train it from there,I dont find it very difficult to figure it out once I get to a meet and listen to the rules,I have competed in different feds,just watch a couple calls on different lifters before you and youll get the hang of it.