Monday, July 11, 2011

A Tip For Pressing

One tip I learned from powerlifting was to keep the "elbows tucked" when bench pressing. Another tip, learned from a world-class powerlifter and bench press specialist in Japan (which I saw again in Pavel Tsatsouline's "The Naked Warrior"), was to drive the shoulders toward the feet while pressing. In Squat Rx #22, I gave the tip to "Do The Fonzie".

All of these tips, functionally, serve to externally rotate the arm, and engage the lats and triceps into your press and support the extended arm, and can be simplified to the instruction to bend the bar in an upside-down "U" while pressing. It isn't something that anyone should over-apply - for many, a resultant pressure on the outside of the palms is enough to engage the lats and tris. It works for both bench and overhead presses, and is more easily learned with a barbell than dumbbells or kettlebells.


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"Bend The Bar"
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8 comments:

  1. Mark ReifkindJuly 11, 2011 at 6:43 AM

    great tip, it also creates the most stability for the shoulder possible.

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  2. BorisJuly 11, 2011 at 4:13 PM

    YES! Thanks Rif.

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  3. Derrick BlantonJuly 11, 2011 at 5:49 PM

    Hey Boris, Martin Rooney uses a variation on this while overhead pressing. He takes a false grip, and really tucks the elbows, crushing the tri's into the lats. I tried it and it feels awesome, plus my lateral delts were FRIED the next day.

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  4. BorisJuly 11, 2011 at 8:55 PM

    Yes, a false grip would help there, but you'd be sacrificing a little safety. Probably fine overhead though - it's a lot easier to dodge falling barbell when you're on your feet than when you're on a bench.

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  5. EstebanJuly 11, 2011 at 11:30 PM

    Wow, that sounds like such a simple tip that could be the answer to my bench woes. I look forward to trying it out tomorrow. Thanks Boris.

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  6. Pete BushJuly 12, 2011 at 2:21 PM

    The trick is to flare the elbows out once you get the bar moving with all that extra lat/tricep pop, otherwise the tendency is for the elbows to stay back and then fall behind the wrists. No big deal until you have heavy weight on there and the you can't recover.

    I have been a competitive powerlifter for twenty years and have tucked the elbows for ten years or more. I have recently had to shy away from very much tuck at all. The stress has led to bone spurs (not from tucking, but from lifting)and the tuck position just hurts to damn much anymore.

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  7. Fred CiprianoJuly 14, 2011 at 11:09 PM

    This is just the tip I needed to start progressing again. I've been stalled for 3 weeks! Thanks!

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  8. BorisJuly 15, 2011 at 8:42 AM

    Thanks everyone. Let me know how it goes.

    Pete,
    I've known PLers and BBers that have problems who bench on either side of the elbows-in/elbows-out continuum. Probably shying away from heavy, heavy benching in general is the answer when it comes to shoulder-health longevity but, then again, I don't know that my bench could have ever been considered "heavy, heavy"... ;)

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