Although my bench press has been increasing steadily, my form blows. The bench press seems simple, but a lot of factors are involved as most of you know. My issue is leg drive. when i apply leg drive, my ass rises off the bench. How are you supposed to utilize leg drive while benching to prevent this? thanks
What weight can you hit one solid rep while keeping your rear on the bench? Whatever that is 305/310/315 what have you, I would work on increasing your reps with it while maintaining good form. When you can increase that weight to six solid reps with strict form you should nail a higher one rep max with strict form.
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Nice spotter.
Honestly that is really scary to watch. its amazing your doing so much weight at 17 years old. took me till i was 19 to put up that much. but if u wanna work on form start bringing your weight down and keepin your tush planted. your gonna seriosly hurt your back like that.
Man that’s not leg drive… That’s propping yourself up to make the press easier!!
In addition to what’s said in that Robertson article, instead of pushing your feet straight down into the ground. Try and imagine using them as a way to push yourself along the bench.
Try to keep your elbows in too, it helps activate your lats
[quote]ThinkGreen wrote:
Try to keep your elbows in too, it helps activate your lats[/quote]
Useful if you’re in a shirt, but not so much raw. In fact Jim Wendler recently talked about this in a Q&A question on EliteFTS
I don’t quite understand why you do that little hop before the handoff. Plant yourself in one position and STAY. Set the bar before you descend otherwise you’ll be all over the place.
Focus on pulling your shoulders back and driving your traps and hips into the bench. I tend to bench with a big arch and on my toes, but it’s still doable (relatively) flat-backed and on your heels.
I found doing seated militaries and inclines helped me get past the loosey goosey stage.
I think you’ll be able to keep your ass down if you put your heels on the floor and pinched your scaps together more.
After doing that I bet your Bench Max would stay the same or slightly improve.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
Man that’s not leg drive… That’s propping yourself up to make the press easier!!
In addition to what’s said in that Robertson article, instead of pushing your feet straight down into the ground. Try and imagine using them as a way to push yourself along the bench.[/quote]
Along these lines, when your leg drive “kicks in” you should feel your head and upper traps getting pushed into the bench, not your ass coming up.
Leg drive is a hard thing to learn and it takes a lot of time and practice.
thanks for the ideas and suggestions they al seem really good and I’m definately going to put them to use.
I just think its cool you have a bench next to your bed.Thats standard.
[quote]malonetd wrote:
Hanley wrote:
Man that’s not leg drive… That’s propping yourself up to make the press easier!!
In addition to what’s said in that Robertson article, instead of pushing your feet straight down into the ground. Try and imagine using them as a way to push yourself along the bench.
Along these lines, when your leg drive “kicks in” you should feel your head and upper traps getting pushed into the bench, not your ass coming up.
Leg drive is a hard thing to learn and it takes a lot of time and practice.[/quote]
To add to what these guys have said, I didn’t really get the concept of leg drive until I tried what Hanley is suggesting. Think of it as a combination between a Leg Press and a Leg Extension. Dig your feet into the floor, and try to push your ass towards your head. If your traps are dug into the bench, this motion will tighten up your arch.
I think you should do two things. First is practice you set up over and over. Work on pulling your scapula under you, digging your traps into the bench, set your arch, and then stay tight. Second, as mentioned before, lower the weight to a point where you can stay on the bench.
From an ego standpoint this is tough to do, but what you are doing right now is basically an unsupported decline press. You need to drop that habit now before it becomes permanently engrained.
Actually what Modi said reminded me of a good set up tip that we use and has helped all out arches get tighter.
Set up as normal (I prefer the MM set up) then once you get everything planted, try to walk your feet back towards your shoulders bit by bit and attempt to make your balls touch the bench. It’ll be REALLY uncomfortable, but it shoud lock everything in even tighter.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
Actually what Modi said reminded me of a good set up tip that we use and has helped all out arches get tighter.
Set up as normal (I prefer the MM set up) then once you get everything planted, try to walk your feet back towards your shoulders bit by bit and attempt to make your balls touch the bench. It’ll be REALLY uncomfortable, but it shoud lock everything in even tighter.[/quote]
I see what your saying. Next bench workout, I’m going to post a vid and hopefully you guys can critique it a bit.
i agree with hanel bring feet in closer ive cramped my legs up before, i have a guy in my gym who benches like you i just dont get why some people have that problem
[quote]hazarddude334 wrote:
i agree with hanel bring feet in closer ive cramped my legs up before, i have a guy in my gym who benches like you i just dont get why some people have that problem[/quote]
I guess it gradually happend over time without me realizeing it until i finally noticed and new it had to be fixed.
[quote]Hanley wrote:
ThinkGreen wrote:
Try to keep your elbows in too, it helps activate your lats
Useful if you’re in a shirt, but not so much raw. In fact Jim Wendler recently talked about this in a Q&A question on EliteFTS
http://asp.elitefts.com/qa/default.asp?qid=68538&tid=94 [/quote]
Didn’t know this, thanks for the link!
[quote]Hanley wrote:
Actually what Modi said reminded me of a good set up tip that we use and has helped all out arches get tighter.
Set up as normal (I prefer the MM set up) then once you get everything planted, try to walk your feet back towards your shoulders bit by bit and attempt to make your balls touch the bench. It’ll be REALLY uncomfortable, but it shoud lock everything in even tighter.[/quote]
Hmmm, maybe I’m doing it wrong, cause I always touch my balls to the bench, no matter what exercise I’m doing.