Pressing Matters: The Bench Press

 By far, this is the singular most popular and widely referenced exercise around any gym or fitness culture. Start up a conversation with someone about going to the gym and the first question after, “Oh? You lift?” is, “Whaddaya bench?” It usually goes somewhere along those lines. More for guys than gals, it seems. In spite of the love and draw of this movement there are still a number of mistakes in the form. Some of which can land the person doing them in hot and painful water. From my own experience, years back, as I was doing triples with 315, my left shoulder came apart. That bar landed on my chest and rolled onto my throat.

That one event, the injury and the bar on my throat, scared me. It scared me more than the injury hurt. Let me assure you, it hurt like nothing else. The failure of my shoulder was due to my form. Thanks to my using poor form, my shoulders were not properly supported by either my musculature or by other bones the way they should have been. That is why my left shoulder came apart.

Today, we are going to detail the proper form and technique for bench pressing. I am not going to go through that kind of pain again, nor am I going to sit by and not say anything that could prevent you from the same.

I am not a doctor. Talk to your physician and make certain that your body is ready for the stress that you are about to put it under.

As Boromir has so elegantly pointed out, you do not just flop onto the bench, heft the bar, and go to town. There is technique to the bench press. Far more than I had imagined prior to tearing my shoulder apart. When you stop to think about it, the shoulder is a rather tenuous joint that is held together in a precarious manner.

Let’s take a quick look, not an in-depth or medically technical one, but a basic understanding-style look at the shoulder here. The construction of the joint is ball in socket. This allows for an enormous range of movement. Along the flexibility and range of movement comes the higher risk of injury. The joint is held together and stabilized by four muscles and tendons. This group is known as the rotator cuff. It often takes the brunt of injuries.

The image here, from Stack, shows the muscles used in this exercise and how they encapsulate the shoulder. It all comes out to be a very impressive package.

The form used, the way one moves the weight while under it is what we have come to. We don’t just flop on the bench, no. There are preferred points of contact that will be on the bench. Those points include the upper back, shoulders, head, and your glutes. Your feet are on the floor and pressing firmly down and slightly out. How far out and at what angle is up to you. Still, try to keep your heels close to being under your knees. Squeeze your glutes some.

 With your upper back on the bench you will squeeze your shoulder blades together. Flexing your upper back stabilizes your entire back, shoulder, and chest region. This is the solid foundation from which you will move the earth.

Grip the bar firmly. I prefer a narrower grip at shoulders width. For someone of my height and long arms this is an anomaly. Competitive lifters with my build will go for a wider grip. This is to shorten the vertical range of motion that the bar must move in to complete a repetition. You will also see the wider grip used with barrel-chested lifters, again for the same reason of shortening the distance needed to move the weight. Still, I like to lift with my grip at just outside of my shoulder width.

Back flexed? Check

Grip firm? Check

Feet planted? Check

Butt on the bench? Check

Unrack the bar and bring it over your chest. As you begin to lower the weights your shoulders could move in a variety of angles. The strongest angle is where your upper-arms come down alongside your torso and, when at your sides, are at a 45-degree angle to your centerline. Imagine that there is a straight line down the middle of your body. Just a perfectly straight line. The line from the tips of your elbows to your shoulders and going on to intersect with that centerline should be about 45 degrees from the centerline. The positions the shoulder joints to be best supported by the muscles of the shoulders, the chest, back, and along the sides of your body. In order, these muscles are the deltoids, pectoralis, rhomboids, and latissimus dorsi.

You have unracked the weight and have lowered it toward your chest. The bar should not hit you with a thump, thud, or hard impact. You must have enough control over the weight to stop its decent so that the bar just lightly touches your shirt. The bar will make contact, and you should be aware of this light contact, just above your diaphragm.

At this point you can hold the weight here for two seconds before pressing it up, just to increase the intensity, or immediately press the bar upwards. Once the bar reaches the top position, pause. Do not lock your elbows at the top of the repetition as this will later cause problems for you, rather keep your elbows slightly flexed.

While you are bench pressing you will want to coordinate your shoes with your workout top. No, not really. Nobody gives a fig about your outfit. You should coordinate your breathing. Inhale as deep as you can at the top of the repetition. Hold your breath without forcing it on the decent. Exhale on the pressing portion. Breathe again with the weight in the top position.

A spotter, someone you trust implicitly, is a highly suggested thing. When my shoulder came apart, I was alone. Nobody was even in the gym with me. Believe me, you do not want to get caught under a bar with more weight than you can press or a with a shoulder injury.

Use a weight with which you can do three sets of 8 to 10 repetitions with if you are just starting our or adjusting your form. Practice your form adjustments and make them a regular habit prior to attempting a 1-rep maximum.

Whether you are new to the gym or not, I hope that this helps you out.

Lift safe and lift smart.

You Don't Know Squat

You don’t know squat. That is about to change.

I am not a physician, so please talk to your doctor. Make sure that you are, in fact, healthy enough to start lifting weights if you are not already doing so.

The squat is far more technical than most people give it credit for. Over the years, the squat has been heralded as perhaps the one exercise that many would do if they were in a position or place that restricted their movements. If they were unable to do much, the one exercise would be the squat. At higher repetitions, it makes for an amazing aerobic technique. 315 squats are the cardio-vascular equivalent of running one mile. The difference being, if done by dropping butt-to-ankles, you are getting a fuller range of muscular engagement than if you were out running or jogging that mile.

Under weight, squats have the tremendous attribute of engaging most of the muscles in your body. By doing this, the body will respond by increasing the release of testosterone, growth hormone, and cortisol. I have an earlier article about how compound exercises trigger this biochemical release and you can find it here.

The first question I hear is about how squats affects the knees. I have been squatting heavy on and off for a little more than 20 years. In my experience and through reading multiple sports science studies, with the proper form, squats will not negatively affect your knees.

The key is with proper form.

The first thing you must do is find your stance. You must know how wide apart your heels must be and what angle your feet should be at. This is paramount. Without finding the base-stance, you are going to hurt yourself eventually.

How do you find your stance? This was taught to me by a powerlifting coach way back when at a place in Cedar Hill, Texas. The gym is no longer there, but John Tyree, my former coach, still is. He is running a few places around there and Duncanville, Texas.

Anyway, to find your stance, this is what you do. John came to me one afternoon and what he said confused the daylights out of me. “Put your hands on the back of your head and squat down. All the way down.”

That is just what I did. He did it, too. There are the two of us, just about sitting on our heels, and I was thankful I didn’t have spurs. “What’s this about, John?”

“Check your feet. Waddle around and get comfortable,” was how he responded.

Afterwards, we just kind of talked for a few minutes. He finally told me that this was his way of helping me find my squat stance. Once my feet were wide enough apart and angled in such a way that I could stay in one position and talk, that was my squat stance.

Back at the mirror, I squatted down and studied my stance. I thought about it and looked at it from every angle I could before shouldering any weight.

This is what you should do first.

Find your stance.

The second thing is to find the most ideal place to set the bar on your shoulders and neck. I am referring to back squats and not front squats. Typically, most people, myself included, begin by placing the bar high on the neck and shoulders. Let’s look at these pictures found at T-Nation.

Take note where the bar is placed and where this gent has placed his hands. Technically, this is not a bad position. You can flex your traps up against the bar while pulling your scapulae – shoulder blades – back and into each other.

Where you place your hands will have more impact on the stability of your upper body. The closer in to your shoulders you place your hands, the tighter your shoulders will be. This allows you to engage your latissimus dorsi to stabilize your upper body when squatting. Back in the day, I appeared lackadaisical in my squats due to my hand position. I would take an awkwardly wide hand position and flop my hands over the bar. It must have looked as if I were just hanging out with the barbell across my shoulders. Somewhere along the line, I narrowed my grip. I am experimenting now, consciously, with my hand placement. This does not seem to change how the exercise is performed. 

The hand position you choose is up to you. Pick your hand width to your comfort based on how you need to balance, breathe, and feel the most comfortable.

So, you’ve selected to place the bar either on the top of your traps or where your traps insert at your scapula, you have your proper stance, and you have your grip width set. Now, you squat, right? Not exactly.

You need to lift the weight off the rack first.

This is about a four-inch squat. Use proper form. Set your stance. Set your grip width. Check yourself. Breathe in. Head up slightly. Shoulders back. Lift.

Alright, head up and shoulders back. These are paramount to your form. Form is as important as breathing.

You will now do several things at once. While the weight is still racked. You have your footing and hand grip set. You are pressing up against the bar at the point you have decided to set it. Before taking the full weight, you will shrug your shoulders up and squeezing them back.

By shrugging up you are bringing your trapezius muscles into play and firming up the back of your neck. If your legs are the foundation and your back – by way of the erector spinae – and abdominal core, you make the pillar that holds your shoulders upright. Your shoulders become the shelf upon which the weight will rest. By squeezing your shoulder blades back, you are locking your upper back in an upright position with your chest forward. By locking your upper back in this position. you prevent yourself from rolling your shoulders forward and hurting yourself.

Your hips also are required to be back. It may feel odd. It may even look a little odd. If, when looking at someone from the side, their hips, spine, and back look like a capital C, or something trying to be one.

While squatting down, imagine you are looking for a seat with your butt. You are reaching back with your butt to find the edge of a seat. This generally helps most squatters to keep their lower back in the proper position. Also, focus on keeping your shoulders up straight.

Why not Box Squats? A box squat uses a box. The squatter descends until touching a box with his or her butt. This is the point at which the ascent begins. The problem is that, with heavier weights, the light tap on the box, becomes a heavier jarring. The heavier and harder that jarring is, the more compression on the spine there is. The more compression on the spine, the more pressure and damage to the cartilage disks between the vertebra. Another issue is that the box limits the range of motion. If the box is too high, then you will not get deep enough in your squat. The result is that you will not fully engage all the leg muscles. Thus, you are stunting your own development in strength, power, and growth.

How deep should I go when squatting? If you are competing, check the rules and guidelines for the organization you are competing with. A rule of thumb is that there is a crease that forms at the point where your thigh and hip bend. This crease must at least meet the horizontal line with your knee. All competitive lifting organizations have a method of alerting the lifter of when the lifter can begin the positive portion of the lift. Do your due diligence to ensure that you are meeting the standards of the organization you are lifting with. For instance, I competed with US Power Lifting Federation (USPLF) and World Association of Bench Pressers and Deadlifters (WABDL). Each one had their own standards for each of the lifts and the range of motion required.

How deep should I go for my own personal training? As deep as your body can go and just a little bit further. That is, until you hit the crease and knee joint alignment described above. If your current range of movement is stiff, allow the weights to stretch you into the range. You know your body. If there is a pain that leans toward injury, stop. Stop immediately. Muscle soreness is one thing. Injury related pain is another.

When you have stood back up, do not lock your knees. While shouldering the weight you should not have your knees locked for any reason. This places undue stress on these important joints. Again, when under weight, do NOT lock your knees.

I mentioned earlier that breathing is a vital detail. At the top of the squat, inhale. While descending you will hold your breath. Hold your breath ONLY while descending, At the bottom of the squat, begin your ascent and begin to exhale. Exhale throughout your ascent. If you still have air to exhale when you reach the top, that is fine. Let the rest out. Taking a few breaths while at the top is fine, too. Sometimes, I inhale and go right into the next rep. Sometimes, it’s one breath and another inhale then squat. Other times, there are a number of huffing and puffing breaths, freight train kind of puffs, before the next repetition.

Quick recap

1.       Find your proper stance and foot width

2.       Hand position on the bar

3.       Place the bar on your back or neck

4.       Lift the weight

5.       Head up, shoulders back and shoulder blades squeezed, hips back

6.       Hips/Thigh crease meets parallel with the knee

7.       Knees flexed

8.       Breathe