Need help with flat bench

[Stephen73ta]

For some reason or another whenever I am on flat barbell bench it hurts my outer chest and shoulders to touch the bar to my chest. I usually tend to stop about 3 inches from my chest. However yesterday while I was doing some negatives the overload caused me to lower the weight more than usual. This caused me great pain!

What can I do to increase my flexibility on bench? I always stretch before and after lifting. Maybe I'm not doing something right. Any ideas?

I also feel that if I was able to lower the weight all the way I would be able to increase my bench.

[BigD33]

When I bench, i stop when my elbows/arms are at a 90 degree angle....If i touch my chest, I feel fine while lifting but the pain in my shoulders the next few days, or even up to a week, is very bad. I have heard that it depends on your body. I would suggest not doing anything that hurts that much during or afterwards. When I do Dumbells, Itend to not have as much pain. I am no expert, but I "feel your pain"....

[Noles12]

Have you tried a lower weight? When i first started working out i couldnt touch my chest because it hurt but i lowered the weight and it helped. Just lower your weight and gradually increase. It definitely helps to go all the way to your chest.

[quarry206]

well actually though wildly thought correct. negitives have been proven to have no benifit to muscle nerves. and in fact the only link they have is to injury..

so if you were doing negitives and went past a normal point then ya not only are u not use to the weight in that range, but you are also doing an unsave act anyways..

my advise, don't do negitives again, anybody that says they work its in their mind,

[remotely queued]

i had a gym teacher back in high school that was all about them. she had some powerlifting record for or. state back in the eighties.

[(1*)]

don't go all the way down. too much for shoulders.
and try dumbells. better range and movement for shoulders plus your stabalizers are worked.

[strength_addict14]

don't go all the way down. too much for shoulders.
and try dumbells. better range and movement for shoulders plus your stabalizers are worked.

If you advise not to go all the way down.....why would you then suggest a better range of motion with dumbells?

[topnotch]

you can go all the way down...a few questions...do you bench bb style or powerlifting style? BB style is elbows straight out which puts more strain on things and is very common to cause injuries...best way is to put elbows approximately at a 45 degree angle with the body and flare up at top...Touching your chest sometimes is mental, but just slowly work your flexibility...as someone above stated, lower the weight at first...also i would never recommend stretching before you bench...use adequate warmups for bench press, but dont stretch until after your workout

[(1*)]

If you advise not to go all the way down.....why would you then suggest a better range of motion with dumbells?

because with dumbells your arms move freely and with a barbell they don't, therefore you put too much stress on the shoulders and it takes away from the chest.

and yes, you can go all the way down with a bar if you want but the possibilty for problems is much greater.

[remotely queued]

you can go all the way down...a few questions...do you bench bb style or powerlifting style? BB style is elbows straight out which puts more strain on things and is very common to cause injuries...best way is to put elbows approximately at a 45 degree angle with the body and flare up at top...Touching your chest sometimes is mental, but just slowly work your flexibility...as someone above stated, lower the weight at first...also i would never recommend stretching before you bench...use adequate warmups for bench press, but dont stretch until after your workout

why no stretching?

[topnotch]

stretching can lead to injury...it's great to stretch after...make sure to do lots of warmups first though when you bench press...some people think it's stupid, but start out w/ the bar and do it around 15x...do 95lbs for 12 for a couple sets...then 135 for around 8...then keep goin up til you get to your worksets....this will prime your cns and will warm the muscles and get blood flowing to help prevent injury

[Jfew44]

I like to put my elbows at a point in between 45 and 90 degrees. If I'm out at 90, my shoulders hurt and I don't feel a pump in my chest. Some advice: Don't do negatives unless you are very experienced and have an experienced spotter. I don't use them at all, but I know some do with great success.

[topnotch]

Negatives can be good but as Jfew said...only if your very experienced...so many programs I see out there has beginners doing negatives and that's crazy

[jfalco]

I can't bring a bar all the way to my chest. Doesn't matter if it has any weight on it. I tore some cartilige in both shoulders when I was 14 years old, and since then my range of motion has been limited, esp. in my left shoulder. With dumb bells I can go all the way down to where they would touch my chest. The freedom of movement make a big difference.

[(1*)]

I can't bring a bar all the way to my chest. Doesn't matter if it has any weight on it. I tore some cartilige in both shoulders when I was 14 years old, and since then my range of motion has been limited, esp. in my left shoulder. With dumb bells I can go all the way down to where they would touch my chest. The freedom of movement make a big difference.

this is exactly the kind of thing i was refering to.. i learned this after devloping bilateral shoulder issues due to going too heavy on the bar. then i went to dumbells and as far as a reagular flat bench i now prefer dumbells way more than the bar. i feel they did more for muscle growth than the bar did.

[Jfew44]

I actually feel the opposite. My chest never grew to it's potential until I incorporated flat and incline barbell bench to my chest routine. Everyone's body is different though..

[higherdesire]

well actually though wildly thought correct. negitives have been proven to have no benifit to muscle nerves. and in fact the only link they have is to injury..

so if you were doing negitives and went past a normal point then ya not only are u not use to the weight in that range, but you are also doing an unsave act anyways..

my advise, don't do negitives again, anybody that says they work its in their mind,

All muscles are a fibrous contractile so the stress is in the contraction not the release. I agree 100%.

[higherdesire]

Oh, and do you do shoulder warm ups prior to benching? It helps. I use one of those rubber band thingees with handles. Tie it about mid chest high, hold you elbow in close to your side, and pull it out from close to your body rotated out away form your body repeatedly. Warms up the rotators.

I have shoulder problems sometimes and have to rest them between sets by putting my hands on something where they can rest just above shoulder hieght.. I will sit at the preacher seat if noone is using it and rest them by putting my elbows on the bench. Immediate relief to my shoulders. I do not decrease wieght as a result. Good luck

[Adreja]

I would say go on the cross trainer first and get some blood pumping (about 5min) then stretch a little bit but not too much. Included in stretching is 20 pushups get the pecs started and then start with a very low weight so you can do say 15 reps. From there slowly increase. By doing it that way i have gotten my bench from 90kg up to 190kg or 198pounds to 418pounds. Mind you i am on Tren and test. Mmmmmm tren i love tren ;-)

[tbody66]

I've always gone through a full range of motion, not touching the chest seems to be counter-productive to the purpose. I'm very confused by the forum to have completely diametrically opposed viewpoints to the exact same idea, negatives for example, there have been several powerlifting and strength coaches who do advise to perform the negatives. I've been lifting for 18 years and my bench jumped by 30 pounds within a month when I started incorporating negatives and even heavy "bumps" into my routine, where I put more weight on and just lock the bar out with weights I could never think of lifting or even performing negatives with. Maybe this is only a psychological factor, but had a strength trainer suggest them to me when I was in Iraq. I always lower the weight slow on every rep, about a 4-0-1 tempo, and have found that to produce much more growth than dropping the weight and only concentrating on the contraction. I believe that was from a Charles Poloquin article which did state that two thirds of the size and strength of a muscle are developed during the eccentric (negative) portion of the exercise. I am also a firm believer in never stretching a cold muscle.

[Dont wanna be old]

This may be a dumb question . When you lower the weight how do you push off ? Watching power lifters you see them pushing off with the feet , arching back , shoulders flat on bench . If you watch enough people you will see different techniques . Imagine yourself as you lift .
Pain is fear leaving your body !

[i_make_you_fit]

Well i tend to agree with those that unless you are powerlifting you only need to lower the bar to a 90 degree (arms parallel with the floor) I'm in a constant discussion with a fellow gym buddy about the proper form technique. I was actually going to post a survy to find out how many people benched the 90 degree method opposed to the touching your chest method! Most would believe that you have to touch your chest to get the benefits from the lift but I disagree. As far as negatives are concerned, I don't see a problem doing negatives once in a while but would not recommend doing them for every workout. I would also agree with doing 5-7 minutes of some sort of cardio prior to any workout. I myself like to do rotator cuff exercises as part of my warm up prior to my bench and I always will do a warm up set before I get my actual weighted workout started.

So I'd like to ask how many of you out there Bench Press by completely lowering the bar to your chest and how many bench by lowering the bar to the 90degree plane?

[kickinit]

For some reason or another whenever I am on flat barbell bench it hurts my outer chest and shoulders to touch the bar to my chest. I usually tend to stop about 3 inches from my chest. However yesterday while I was doing some negatives the overload caused me to lower the weight more than usual. This caused me great pain!

What can I do to increase my flexibility on bench? I always stretch before and after lifting. Maybe I'm not doing something right. Any ideas?

I also feel that if I was able to lower the weight all the way I would be able to increase my bench.

Yeah this has came up, but depriving yourself of full movement from the start will put you in risk of doing anything outside those perticular perimeters so meaning anything where it puts the weight in those 3 inchs your probably going to hurt yourself.

Make sure you do a good warmup with moderate to light weight and get the FULL motion, besides the lockout which just does wear and tear on your elbows.

Start light and go heavy and get full range of movement with slow/steady/full movements.

[Russasaur]

Make sure you warm up your shoulders up. I messed mine up before.