Just got back from a good chest workout and I’m a bit steamed. I just finished my last set of barbell bench press and one of the personal trainers walks up to me and says " Hey man, You should never ever bring the bar all the way down to your chest or your elbows past the 90 degree position because you could really fuck up your shoulders.
Well, this would have to be the first time I have ever heard that one. I like to come down to my chest because I feel a good stretch at the bottom position and I have never experienced any shoulder issues. Maybe it’s just an issue of how others like to perform the standard bench press, but I have never been told to stop the bar before you get to the chest.
Should I slap this trainer upside the head next time I see him or say hey, you were absolutely correct in what you were telling me. I feel I am pretty knowledgeable about performing exercises with proper form,but I could be wrong on this one. I’m just curious to how others perform barbell bench. Do you stop before the chest? Do you go all the way down to a good stretch chest touch position? Maybe I just don’t take advice very well, but i am pretty pissed off right now. Thoughts?
You should probably kick him in the nuts next time you see him, but make sure it’s hard enough to prevent him from reproducing in order to prevent him from ever fouling the earth with another little shit like him.
If you have pre-existing shoulder problems, then yeah, may not be the best idea.
Next time, ask him how he throws a baseball or football without bringing the arm back that far. And that has much more power behind it than benching. If he has half a brain, he’ll understand what you’re saying.
He was probably giving the advice because he is the type that will overload the bar, come down fast and bounce off his chest rolling his shoulders trying to get the bar off his pussy ass.
I guess I could eat his shoe, kick him in the nuts and slap him upside the head, but after that…I may be in some trouble considering he is about 6’2 240 and I am 6’ 195. I was about 90% sure I was correct on this one anyway, but I appreciate all the back up. It just pisses me off that some of these trainers think they know it all just because they wear the badge. I calmly walked away the first time, but next time I will have to tell him why I disagree and hope I don’t throw his ego off too much.
[quote]AzCats wrote:
I guess I could eat his shoe, kick him in the nuts and slap him upside the head, but after that…I may be in some trouble considering he is about 6’2 240 and I am 6’ 195. I was about 90% sure I was correct on this one anyway, but I appreciate all the back up. It just pisses me off that some of these trainers think they know it all just because they wear the badge. I calmly walked away the first time, but next time I will have to tell him why I disagree and hope I don’t throw his ego off too much.[/quote]
It also depends on the bench form. If it’s “iron cross” elbows at 90 degrees from the torso form, then yeah, bringing the bar all the way down can be rough on the shoulders. If you’re using a “semi tucked” elbows at roughly 45 degrees from the torso form, then there is no danger in bringing the bar all the way down. Heck, the majority of BB’ers actually only do the bottom portion of the bench (from the chest up to 1/2-2/3 of the way up).
Next time tell him to go watch some videos of Ronnie Coleman, Justin Harris, Branch Warren, Kevin Levrone, or any number of other pros benching. If he comes back and admits that he was wrong, he is open to learning and was just misinformed (he’ll probably thank you in this case). If he continues to insist that he’s right, then he’s just an idiot and isn’t worth wasting your energy on.
Ronnie touches his chest before even hitting 90 degrees, ha.
I know personally, I have shoulder problems from poor scapula-training early in my days of working out.
I touch the bar to my chest, but usually come down with negatives every time, because there is discomfort when I come past 90 degrees sometimes.
Some trainers are adamant about never coming past 90, whether it’s shoulder press, bench, etc, but as long as you’re doing an equal balance of push/pull exercises you should be fine.
But yes, I have been told that before as well, and it’s not fun being corrected by someone who’s wrong.
[quote]AzCats wrote:
I guess I could eat his shoe, kick him in the nuts and slap him upside the head, but after that…I may be in some trouble considering he is about 6’2 240 and I am 6’ 195. I was about 90% sure I was correct on this one anyway, but I appreciate all the back up. It just pisses me off that some of these trainers think they know it all just because they wear the badge. I calmly walked away the first time, but next time I will have to tell him why I disagree and hope I don’t throw his ego off too much.[/quote]
Dude aren’t you in Mexico? Secondly no matter his size, kick him in the nuts, throw in a Falcon punch and teabag the SOB. As long as its a controlled tap to the chest, I see it as getting a good stretch at the bottom. Yip, you can’t mess with a guy that wears a shirt 3 sizes smaller than what he should wear that has the words “Personal Trainer” on it. I was doing rack pulls today (because I felt like it) and worked up to a 455 and a soyboy trainer with a cute little XS small shirt approached me to tell me not to hyper extend my low back. “Yeah, Okay” and put Ricky Ross back in my head.
Next set my form was the same and he looked away in disgust. Mofucka! I’m humping the bar and tightening the glutes. I’m not some high school punk trying to rip off his arms. He was a solid 180lbs with cute little arms and no signs of back development. The audacity! You are not alone brother!
My friend gave me this same bad advices the other day. I don’t argue. I just say personally for me if the bar doesn’t touch my chest, it doesn’t count.
This is why we end up maxing out on the same weight on the flat barbell bench but I destroy him by over 100 lbs on all the Hammer Strength machines. Partial reps are easy.
If you use a powerlifting stance you can limit the range of motion so that you hit around 90 degrees. Honestly, I feel like it would be harder to stop in the middle of the air, and I feel like that would be some pretty intense strain on your elbows, so I would just stick to what you know is right.
[quote]AzAthlete008 wrote:
Why even bother to make sense out of something like this??? I would laugh it off and not think twice about it…Where do you train?[/quote]
Yes, I live in Mexico and workout at a local Gym owned by an an American.
You are correct, I really shouldn’t try to make sense out of it and just try to laugh it off. Maybe it’s the fact the other people were around when he was throwing his crap my way and I just kind of took it. It’s like getting sucker punched and walking away. it’s really not that big of a deal, but at the time I felt like i was ready to crack. I’m not going to try to convince him that he was wrong because i would be wasting my time. I’m just gonna continue to keep benching the way I have been for years and disregard his comments next time.
I see people doing exercises wrong all the time, but I never walk up to them and tell them what they are doing wrong unless they ask. if he brings his shit my way again, I will just tell him that i disagree and explain why. it does make me feel better after reading the posts above though.