Critique my bench form

[Trapz]

That is me lifting 130 kgs, I am a bit cynical about my form. Please critique...

[Trapz]

Continue...

[CoopDawg]

we probably need a clean video, i cant tell to much from the pics

[dmaipa]

from the looks of it..it looks like you have your elbows flared out to the side. do your shoulders ever get sore from benching?

[Trapz]

Originally Posted by dmaipa

from the looks of it..it looks like you have your elbows flared out to the side. do your shoulders ever get sore from benching?

Yes, they do!!!

[BendtheBar]

Hi Trapz,

Your arms do appear to be flared a bit, but it's hard to tell.

Check out this video. It might help:

YouTube - How to Bench Press, Get a Big Chest, Add Muscle All Without Wrecking Your Shoulders

YouTube - How to Bench Press, Get a Big Chest, Add Muscle All Without Wrecking Your Shoulders

[dmaipa]

Originally Posted by Trapz

Yes, they do!!!

follow the video btb posted, thats a good place to start. since your arms are flared out to the side you are putting a lot of stress on the shoulder joint which can cause impingement. Another thing to make sure is to warm up/strengthen your rotator cuff, especially now since you've been experiencing pain in your shoulders.

[Trapz]

Originally Posted by dmaipa

follow the video btb posted, thats a good place to start. since your arms are flared out to the side you are putting a lot of stress on the shoulder joint which can cause impingement. Another thing to make sure is to warm up/strengthen your rotator cuff, especially now since you've been experiencing pain in your shoulders.

Actually, I get sore but have never felt pain in my shoulders.
Anyways, thanks for the advice!!!

[MonsterMike]

hard to tell without a video....but try to get up on your traps a little more before you ever start.....take the bar out on your lats, thats where you are going to get the bar off your chest/abs (take a straight lat bar..stand up at a lat machine...pull the bar straight armed down until you feel your lats engaged, thats where the bar should be placed!) you want to make sure your feet are set hard into the ground, the bench is a full body exercise! A lot of people have talked about flaring a lot...now this is true with you, but one mistake people ALWAYS make, is they try to tuck VERY hard with the elbows from the get go....think these 3 things instead 1. break wide (elbows out like you are trying to pull the bar apart, break at the elbows) 2. slide slide slide!!!! (slide the bar to your upper abs/or below the nipple line, keep sqeezing tight and drift!) 3. tuck your elbows to heels (try to drive your elbows down to your heels, let you elbows dictate the bar path NOT your hands, you want to tuck, but ONLY enough to get the bar down and throw it back over your face, you will run into a lot of problems if you tuck too soon) try this...also, watch videos of jason coker, he is the one that taught me all this, his technique is SPOT on.

[Abaddon]

wow, where did you dig up this old thread, Mike?