The chest press is undoubtedly one of the most popular exercises in the world. Unfortunately, it is very common to observe inappropriate technique, which can lead to injury when using heavier loads. If you want to avoid “shooting in the shoulders” after a few months of doing the wrong range of motion, read this article and expand your chest in the process.
Elbows set “wide”
Many people work with their hands holding them too wide (the angle between the shoulders and the torso is about 90 degrees). By exercising in this way, you engage the deltoid muscles to a greater extent and not the chest. What’s more, you put a lot of pressure on the shoulder and elbow joint, which can result in injury after some time.
So how do you position your hands correctly? Here are some tips:
– grab the barbell in such a way as if you wanted to “break it inwards”
– the lower phase of movement should end at the sternum, i.e. we go down the barbell a little lower, we do not “rest” it on the chest
– the angle of the body between the shoulders and the torso should be about 45 degrees
– a grip at a distance of about 75-81 cm will result in greater involvement of the chest muscles, while a narrow grip engages the triceps muscle of the arm to a greater extent.
Bouncing the bar off the cage
You probably smiled under your breath when you imagined what it must look like, but it’s not funny! More than once, when belaying exercisers, I have seen someone even knock the barbell out of the chest (or abdomen). I don’t think I need to explain here that performing such a movement is simply self-deception, because in this way the person makes the exercise easier and the chest work is negligible.
You don’t pull your shoulder blades
Many gym adepts, especially beginners, perceive the bench press in a zero-one system, i.e. lie down – squeeze. Many people do not pay attention to the technique and forget to pull the shoulder blades together and place them “down” when taking the position, and thus:
– the chest does less work
– the path to squeeze the weight becomes longer
– shoulders are overloaded, which increases the risk of injury
A solid position will allow you to maintain the perfect mechanics of the entire movement and results in the proper development of individual muscle groups.
Starting position
The basis for solid work in this exercise is to properly lie down on the bench. The main mistake is to “spoil” the position of the pulled shoulder blades, which causes us to lose tension in the upper part of the back. How to remedy this:
– take the barbell off the rack, which is set so that you don’t have to take your shoulders off the bench,
– ask your training partner to remove the barbell from the rack
Stabilization of the body before bench press
When you take the barbell off, don’t start the lowering phase right away, because your body may lose stability and the bench press phase may be “disrupted”. Take off the weight, then stabilize your body for 1-2 seconds.