Anyone care to comment on my form? It’s quite a poor show from me and I think usually it is better. I think it’s better to look at first few reps than all. I fail suddenly even though I should have got a few more just because I lose my positioning. I do find it hard to keep very tight for many reps - I suspect most would also have this to a degree.
The bench is a very crappy one though and that definitely doesn’t help.[/quote]
Posted this in the Westside thread but I realise it’s not exactly WS related so I thought I’d ask here.
Also to add I think an element of why I’m not very tight is that I wasn’t sure how the slingshot was going to help. My max for a single is about 115kg and I thought it’d be a lot heavier and thus somewhat easier to stay tighter. I was a bit shocked on how easy the first couple of reps were so I was going far quicker than I thought.
Get higher up onto your traps. You’re losing your tightness after the first rep. Look at the difference between the first and second rep. Go watch Dave Tates So You Think You Can Bench on youtube, then reasses your shit.
Why don’t you fix what you know is wrong and then repost a video?
Tightness, have the bar follow a path, stop loosing basic positioning during the set when having higher reps, pause on the chest, check where your head is at (bounces up and down), use your legs (you’re pretty unstable) etc.
[quote]308smk wrote:
Get higher up onto your traps. You’re losing your tightness after the first rep. Look at the difference between the first and second rep. Go watch Dave Tates So You Think You Can Bench on youtube, then reasses your shit.
Also, why the slingshot?[/quote]
How do I go about getting higher up on my traps? I think you’re very much right but I’m just not sure how to do it. Because I get a bigger arch than before this is more of an issue as it can go from big arch to little arch whereas before it was little arch so I just stayed about there.
I have seen the videos many times although I will watch again. I’m not sure there’s anything specific there to my issues. That was a bad set I must admit. I will try get a better one to reassess. I posted it just because it was only video I had and I wanted some idea of my problems - in this video they are just more amplified than usual I’d argue.
Pausing it does help and I’ve done some very good (IMO) form on paused singles. However, that’s pause and single. It’s harder but easier in terms of form I find. The issue is staying that way without a pause and 3+ reps.
On your first rep, your arch was about where it should have been. Then on the second rep, you lose all your tightness and your arch goes to shit. Anything specific? Tightness dude, you need more of it. You’re all floppy.
Focus on getting tight as fuck and pushing your traps into the pad with your legs. Hold your air in your belly. Take a weight that you can hit for a moderately hard triple, focus on staying tight for all 3 reps. Take a new video and ditch the slingshot for it because its going to change your form a bit vs no slingshot.
Main things are your arch and staying tight. Also, why not grip wider?
[quote]308smk wrote:
On your first rep, your arch was about where it should have been. Then on the second rep, you lose all your tightness and your arch goes to shit. Anything specific? Tightness dude, you need more of it. You’re all floppy.
Focus on getting tight as fuck and pushing your traps into the pad with your legs. Hold your air in your belly. Take a weight that you can hit for a moderately hard triple, focus on staying tight for all 3 reps. Take a new video and ditch the slingshot for it because its going to change your form a bit vs no slingshot.
Main things are your arch and staying tight. Also, why not grip wider?[/quote]
Yes it’s the tightness but I just can’t get it to click. Like a while back it was A LOT worse and things just clicked and suddenly I was tighter and could use leg drive well. So I have made improvements just I need that click again to get even tighter. I don’t know what it is really. That’s the issue.
In terms of gripping wider that was just a max effort on medium-grip. When I compete I’d probably use wider grip but I kind of prefer the feel of a narrower grip and not too wide.
my god that fucking song in the background took 50# off MY bench!! lol
Yeah man stay tight. Drop weight if you have to. on the tightness… set up like you normall would. Have your buddy use his knee to push on your knee. You should not move, odd are you will. NOW, set up for a bench. Push with your legs as if you are trying to slide off the bench then tense up as if your buddy was gonna punch you in the nuts as hard as he can while you are set up. then have him try the knee thing again. you will be much tighter. When you start getting loose, think of getting punched in the junk tight.
The issue I have though is more of staying tight after the first rep. Correct me if I’m wrong - and maybe that video doesn’t really show it well - but usually my first rep is rather tight. I have had a friend do that test before and I’ve done quite well. My problem is that after that first rep it all just seems to collapse. That’s my issue and I’m not sure what to do about it.
I try to readjust a little and get tighter/pull shoulders back etc. but once you lose it it’s hard to try get back to it.
Do you think doing more paused benching would be helpful in this? Because what I found was when I did pause benching I felt a lot tighter because the explosion was more controlled.
The issue I have though is more of staying tight after the first rep. Correct me if I’m wrong - and maybe that video doesn’t really show it well - but usually my first rep is rather tight. I have had a friend do that test before and I’ve done quite well. My problem is that after that first rep it all just seems to collapse. That’s my issue and I’m not sure what to do about it.
I try to readjust a little and get tighter/pull shoulders back etc. but once you lose it it’s hard to try get back to it.
Do you think doing more paused benching would be helpful in this? Because what I found was when I did pause benching I felt a lot tighter because the explosion was more controlled.[/quote]
OK so I would say to forget about reps for now, plus you’ll prolly be able to handle heavier weight which is always good. so you stay tight on rep one. Do just 2 reps, when you can stay tight for 2, start doing 3 etc. Soon you’ll be repping shit and staying tight. Honestly tho You will get a little loose regardless. The key is to not totally break down and end up benching like some fucking retard gym rat. but yeah, most people think they are tight and aren’t. Hard to say without being there.
I did notice in your video that your feet were close together and you were on your toes. Maybe widen your feet and or go flat footed. Also squeeze your ass. This helped me one keep my butt on the bench when shit got heavier but made me tighter than I was. hope this helps, and good luck on your benching dude.
I have thought about going wider with my feet and flat footed it’s just that when I tried it before I found it very difficult to get any leg drive out of it so I stuck to what I knew because I could use leg drive the way I bench now.
Will give it a go; do you think that may be an issue?
[quote]michael_xyz wrote:
I have thought about going wider with my feet and flat footed it’s just that when I tried it before I found it very difficult to get any leg drive out of it so I stuck to what I knew because I could use leg drive the way I bench now.
Will give it a go; do you think that may be an issue?[/quote]
Think of it this way. You are not happy with your present set up. Try something new. It might be the ticket, it may not. but try something. Also remember to keep your feet pointed straight and drive your HEELS into the floor. If you try to leg drive with feet angled out to the side it doesn’t work. Maybe that was your problem before? When doing it feet straight away from the bench your quads will be tight, you’ll get better arch and you’ll prolly be tighter. Give it a shot next time you get around a bench. You don’t have to use heavy weight, hell do it with 135. You’ll be able to try things and tweak here and there to get the most out of it.
…thats just cheating, isnt it? youre bringing your chest higher up to the starting position of the bar by arching your back, thus making your ROM shorter. why would you do that? also, that slingshot thing makes it easier to press, right?
because when youre coming down with it, that ribbon thing wants to go back up so you have a spring to your press almost… maybe im wrong, but… i think thats absolutely terrible. but then again, maybe i’m wrong. ive always gone completely flat back, touch your nipples with the bar, and flat stable feet on the ground.
[quote]iStandOnMyHands wrote:
…thats just cheating, isnt it? youre bringing your chest higher up to the starting position of the bar by arching your back, thus making your ROM shorter. why would you do that? also, that slingshot thing makes it easier to press, right?
because when youre coming down with it, that ribbon thing wants to go back up so you have a spring to your press almost… maybe im wrong, but… i think thats absolutely terrible. but then again, maybe i’m wrong. ive always gone completely flat back, touch your nipples with the bar, and flat stable feet on the ground. [/quote]
not sure if troll or just new to the powerlifting forum
[quote]iStandOnMyHands wrote:
…thats just cheating, isnt it? youre bringing your chest higher up to the starting position of the bar by arching your back, thus making your ROM shorter. why would you do that? also, that slingshot thing makes it easier to press, right?
because when youre coming down with it, that ribbon thing wants to go back up so you have a spring to your press almost… maybe im wrong, but… i think thats absolutely terrible. but then again, maybe i’m wrong. ive always gone completely flat back, touch your nipples with the bar, and flat stable feet on the ground. [/quote]
[quote]iStandOnMyHands wrote:
…thats just cheating, isnt it? youre bringing your chest higher up to the starting position of the bar by arching your back, thus making your ROM shorter. why would you do that? also, that slingshot thing makes it easier to press, right?
because when youre coming down with it, that ribbon thing wants to go back up so you have a spring to your press almost… maybe im wrong, but… i think thats absolutely terrible. but then again, maybe i’m wrong. ive always gone completely flat back, touch your nipples with the bar, and flat stable feet on the ground. [/quote]
not sure if troll or just new to the powerlifting forum[/quote]
im sorry guys. im new to powerlifting… i just watched this, i see why im wrong.
