Dead spots

[Sicilian30]

hey guys wanted to get some input on this. I was training last week and asked one of the trainers at my gym to spot me on bench. Well he made a comment that I have one of the worse "dead spots" he as ever seen.
On my last reps going to negative failure, I would get the weight up exactly half way and I couldn't push anymore at that point, it is like my muscles would lock. Now once he got me just a few inches past that point, then I had the strength back to push up the weight again, come back down and same thing. I mean I know what negative failure is, this obviously is not. But he was explaining to me that most guys "dead spots" are usually getting the weight off their chest or just trying to get the weight to the point to where you have to bring it back down again. Mine was exactly at the half way point.
My question after all of this explaination is......
Is this normal? What can I do to prevent this? Can I? Is this a good thing? What does it mean? I mean does it mean that my muscles are growing????
I asked him, and he couldn't give me any explanation except, "you have one of the worst "dead spots" I have seen.
I mean WTF does this mean?

[mishon1]

your not alone the same thing happens to me when i go til failure. when i hit the half way its ass and im stuck.

[Sicilian30]

So obviously you guys have the same problem.. whew.. dude had me worried. No diesel, the guy was a good spotter that is why I listened to him, he is a trainer at the gym and he didn't "make me struggle" as you said (I just had a visual on that) LOL.
Thanks for the replies guys..

[FromFleshtoSteel]

every guy i have ever spotted, including myself and my training partner have a deadspot at the halfway point. don't sweat it bro

[Sicilian30]

Aww thanks paisan (Diesel)...

[Terinox]

I see that with my friend. When he's on the bench, he has that sticking point right in the middle of the rep. I have to nudge it just a little bit to give him that extra go ahead to fully be able to push it out. I'm the opposite though, I usually fail at my chest, i get it off about 1 inch off the chest, and i can feel it coming back down

I think it's quite normal, seen this happen a lot

[VEGETA990]

I stick in the middle of the rep too.

As for preventing it, I would say to try to isolate your pecs. The bench press is not just pecs, your shoulders are also doing a lot. When you bring the bar down to your chest, if your elbows go beyond 90 degrees, your shoulders are kicking in and moving the weight. If you are one of those guys who bounces it off your chest, thats just that much less yours pecs are doing. Then at the top of the press, the last few inches where you "lock it out" you are using the top part of your shoulders (I forget what they are called, across from your colar bone) as well, and there is less stress on the pec.

Try for a few weeks not to bring the bar to your chest and not to "lock it out." The pecs should respond nicely because if you do that you will be able to use more weight.

Of course you will have people telling you that you are cheating. I will actually be surprised if I don't get torn in half by everyone for posting this.

[CrazyRussian]

i get the same thing...it is natural i guess, but what helped me somewhat get over it was i would go over to like a squat rack or something and put those saftey bars like a inch or two below that "dead" spot and i would do like 3x8 or something with the bench, you just stop below that dead spot and you can kind of work through it, but that is the transition from just pecs to more in your tri's, so give that a try, it worked for me...do it on your chest days after bench press.