SportDr

Some serious benching done there, even by the women! Not, they do not go down to the chest, as I have said before once the elbows go beyond parralell, your doing an anterior delt exercise not chest/pectoralis :smoke:

Find the vids here or here

SD

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Truewarrior1

nice. dont like equipped lifts though. on the other note you posted i damaged my shoulder ant. delt benching too low with heavy weights so now i only bench down to a certain height, probably 1 or 2 inches above chest and some of the idiots i get to spot me (i dont ask for their opinion,they bench 1/3 of what i do and bounce it off their chest) always say "nice,but u shud bring it all the way down 2 ure chest".....rant over..continue

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James W

Sport Dr (or anyone else)

From a shoulder health point of view would you say it is best not to go to the chest then? As always there are 2 sides of the argurment i.e. elbows parallel..... or full range of motion, I have always done a full range of motion but I completely understand what you mean when you say all the way to chest involves the anterior delts as i can feel it!

To keep my shoulders in better health would you suggest only benching to parallel?

I have to add that I ususlly do DB bench and with these my elbows only just goes below parallel and as such I feel it more in my chest.

However the gym im in only has DB's up to 40kg so if im doing 6 reps or less they are not heavy enough and i have to do the Barbell.

What are your thoughts?

SportDr

From a shoulder health point of view parralell elbows, or just below is the way to go forwad as your bench weight increases. You will feel it as an increasing pain in the front of your Delt as you go deeper, that isn't muscle screaming its rotator cuff tendons! How deep you go wil depend on when you can feel it starting to get tight and hurt here. It will be close to parralell. Chest is a renowkned RC wrecker, and once damaged, you will have it a long time and not do any upper body work without pain. I know this from Injuring both my subscapular tendons this way, then doing my research and going to conferences on sports injury, then formulating a chest routine around safe exercises that didn't exacerbate my symtoms and allowed recovery.

You can work your shoulders through full ROM using other exercises, and btw the pec wasn't really designed to be utilised at the extreme ROM performed with elbows very dipped, its a pushing muscle and when you push (a primal movement), you have your hands in front. People feeling the need to dip there elbows right down to 'stretch' the chest or work its full 'ROM', may well be causing cumulative damage that they won't feel until its too late. You can hit these fibres just as effectively using much safer exercises, my routine make my chest hurt from shoulder to sternum, top to bottom with DOMS. No fibres are left out because I don't go low enough.

Barbell is fine, but you can use the lighter dumbells to do flys. I would stick to incline flys with your elbows at 90 degrees, do not take your elbows beyond parallel. This will mean you will need a heavier weight than normal flys as it is a shorter (but much safer) lever.

hth

SD

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big

This is just IMO...

Bench press is NOT a chest exercise. It is an upper body exercise (incorporating triceps, chest, delts, even lats). IMO you should use full range of movement (touching the chest or upper abdomen), and use a lighter weight if necessary to achieve this. Your joints will thank you, and you will accurately be able to gauge improvements without worrying about whether you are hitting depth. Plus you will get stronger throughout the whole movement (which is particularly essential if you ever consider competing in powerlifting in the future, as they don't allow half-bench presses to pass in powerlifting).

For you, James, I would be surprised if your 100kg for reps test on bench for American Football will allow you to count half-bench presses.

If you want to work your chest only, do flyes. If you want to do a compound exercise but putting more empasis on your chest, incline press is your friend. Bench is not a chest isolation movement.

All IMO.

For what it's worth, in the videos, the reason they aren't hitting depth is because they are either doing board presses, OR they are using bench shirts and as such are currently unable to touch with the bar. Once it gets to competition time (those who train at NazBar in the video all compete), they will HAVE to touch the bar to the chest.

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James W

Now im back to where I started!! Lol

I guess I need to go to the chest in order to practice for the american football test, however to work my chest better I should stick to flys or incline? and keep elbows at parallel

I should mention that I have previously injured one of the rotator cuff muscles in each shoulder, (playing american football not in they gym)

big

How many reps are you getting in your 100kg test at the moment James?

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James W

10 with it touching the chest but with no pause (as the NFle etc don't require it!)

that is a one off best set, if I did 3 prob 9, 8 , 7

big

What you have for your push day currently is fine IMO.

If I was training you, I'd probably have you do something like this:

Bench - work up to a 3RM or 5RM. Every 3-4 weeks do a 100kg test instead
Incline bench or dips (alternate each week)
Overhead press (change variations each week)
Tricep work
Rotator cuff work

The incline or dips will take care of chest hypertrophy. Use the bench for a combination of explosive power, strength and to improve your 100kg rep test.

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James W

Thanks Big as always seems like really good advice,

I feel like I should be paying you the amount you are helping me out!

James