Stats time!

[Bear943]

Bear, I know about losing the tightness, that's annoying. That is because the lifter is usually already set himself up for the lift, but when he lifts off by himself without a spotter, the upper body tightness disappears. You could consider what I did to eliminate this issue, by pulling yourself into the bar like doing an incline pull up, then straight away arch down until head and upper back touch the bench, and immediately lift off without wasting any time in between. Just an idea though.

Well the rack is probably 80kgs, and is quite easy to push around to adjust its location slightly.

No worries about the weights, nothing will happen. I mean, unless you are rack pulling 800lbs and truly slamming the weights down on the safety bars, not much worry there.

Rage, I think it's bodysolid pro power rack, maybe like 1000 SGD ( at that time?) Bench I'm not sure but it was quite cheap considering how great the bench is.

cowed77, the grip has been working very well for me. I could however name many powerlifters with narrower grip and almost one foot taller than me. I could also name lifters with wider grips than me. I have used this grip for years. If a grip is working well and it is the lifter's natural grip ( and strongest grip according to the lifter), then go ahead. Other than the usual glaring form issues, other elements in a lifter's training is pretty much up to him to utilise.

I set up the way you described albeit with less arch but the moment I lift the weight out by myself, the tightness is compromised to a certain degree.
Also I think your grip is fine. Its a matter of finding out what's most comfortable for you. I am 1.76m tall but I take a much narrower grip something like the chap in the Rippetoe picture.

 

[cowed77]

Ah... Nice nice. Just tot it might place too much strain on ur shoulders.

I set up like wat u said. Safety at a ht where if I dun arch, bar will rest and just barely miss my chest.
However I set the racking point abit lower, cos if it's too high, I might hv trouble puttin the bar back on last reps.
Not ideal, but it is wat it is haha.

I haven't really given much tot to my shoulder blades so far, but wat I picked up these few days are, close and low into the bench?

 

[Bear943]

Ah... Nice nice. Just tot it might place too much strain on ur shoulders.

I set up like wat u said. Safety at a ht where if I dun arch, bar will rest and just barely miss my chest.
However I set the racking point abit lower, cos if it's too high, I might hv trouble puttin the bar back on last reps.
Not ideal, but it is wat it is haha.

I haven't really given much tot to my shoulder blades so far, but wat I picked up these few days are, close and low into the bench?

for me the safety is marginally lower than my chest now the bloody thing grew haha. so if fail it would be on the chest and I roll it an inch away and it will be on the pins.
yup shoulder blades together and into the bench.

 

[cowed77]

Better the boobs, than the belly bear!

 

[jctan77]

:
cowed77, the grip has been working very well for me. I could however name many powerlifters with narrower grip and almost one foot taller than me. I could also name lifters with wider grips than me. I have used this grip for years. If a grip is working well and it is the lifter's natural grip ( and strongest grip according to the lifter), then go ahead. Other than the usual glaring form issues, other elements in a lifter's training is pretty much up to him to utilise.

Again, quoting Mr. Rippetoe's remark on wide grip...

"If you take a very very very wide grip, you'll reduce the travel that the bar has to make off the chest, but you'll also reduce the distance the humerus to travel around the shoulder join. This is why this very wide grip is favored by people who like to brag about their bench press ... without having actually to do the full amount of work that an actual honest bench press grip would entail."

 

[rundymc]

You be trippin.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with his grip. You grip where you are most comfortable.

 

[Bear943]

jctan77, do tell that to all powerlifters who do that.

By the way, I thought it would be refreshing for us guys since I am posting a touch-chest, paused bench, considering the many guys who never touch chest.

By the way I am also cheating by arching, if you wish to mention that, however you did not.

Pls enlighten.

different strokes for different folks man. I see nothing wrong with your grip, if itis good for you stick with it. I touch my chest when I flat bench, makes it easier to gauge progress knowing that the adding weight did not shorten my ROM but it may not be necessary for some given that they also got decent size from not touching. Of course there are champs at my gym who do 2 inch ROM with 3 plts in the Smith and give me the eye haha

 

[cowed77]

There is one in my gym with too tight singlet and tights walkin around with oversized lats too heh heh.

 

[jctan77]

Thanks Bear for the quote, the posting seems to be deleted or else will be missing another point.

Let me share again, quoting from Mr Rippetoe...
What was shown here...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58671737@N07/5380173347/

... is more of Bridging.

[QUOTE="Starting Strength - 2nd Ed" book]

"Bridging - the intentional heaving of the hips clear of contact with the bench - occurs as the lifter attempts to increase the chest height by using the lower body to steepen the angle of the upper back on the bench. Bridging takes work away from the target muscles by making the movement mechanically easier."

To learn how to arch correctly: "... imagine someone shoving a hand under your low back as you keep your butt in contact with it (see picture below).... It must be kept in mind that you cannot raise your butt up off of the bench..."

[/QUOTE]

 

[rundymc]

It's called leg drive.

Armwrestler benches with the three powerlifting bench form essentials:
1) good arch: protects shoulders, lowers ROM, tends to add a few pounds due to better leverages.
2) tight setup: you don't bench that much without it.
3) leg drive: driving your heels into the floor, squeezing your glutes. This helps get the bar off the chest by providing favourable leverage at that part of ROM.

He is not lifting his ass off the bench.

 

[rundymc]

To add:
Even if he was bridging, the lift would still be highly impressive since:
1)That's a shyte load of weight
2)Bridging screws your form up, kills your tightness. This means you're essentially muscling up the weight.

 

[Bear943]

Thanks Bear for the quote, the posting seems to be deleted or else will be missing another point.

Let me share again, quoting from Mr Rippetoe...
What was shown here...
... is more of Bridging.

Dude, honestly get over it. There is nothing wrong with armwrestler's grip, set up etc. His arse was not off the bench, he was not 'bridging'. His bench was pretty darn good and legit. Rippetoe knows a whole lot but he is not the know all and end all authority for everything to do with weight training. In any case at the risk of sounding cliche, how much do you bench(full ROM,as in touch the chest and full lock out)???

 

[jctan77]

Dude, honestly get over it. There is nothing wrong with armwrestler's grip, set up etc. His arse was not off the bench, he was not 'bridging'. His bench was pretty darn good and legit. Rippetoe knows a whole lot but he is not the know all and end all authority for everything to do with weight training. In any case at the risk of sounding cliche, how much do you bench(full ROM,as in touch the chest and full lock out)???

Me bench? Not yet, in process of picking up from books, videos, webpages and forums. Saw some discrepancy here, so posted to sort out the confusions

 

[jctan77]

It's called leg drive.

Armwrestler benches with the three powerlifting bench form essentials:
1) good arch: protects shoulders, lowers ROM, tends to add a few pounds due to better leverages.
2) tight setup: you don't bench that much without it.
3) leg drive: driving your heels into the floor, squeezing your glutes. This helps get the bar off the chest by providing favourable leverage at that part of ROM.

He is not lifting his ass off the bench.

To add:
Even if he was bridging, the lift would still be highly impressive since:
1)That's a shyte load of weight
2)Bridging screws your form up, kills your tightness. This means you're essentially muscling up the weight.

Thanks rundy, very informative indeed!

 

[Bear943]

Me bench? Not yet, in process of picking up from books, videos, webpages and forums. Saw some discrepancy here, so posted to sort out the confusions

And you are picking apart armwrestler's form??? Honestly you wont learn anything by just reading books, websites etc you should start getting under the bar and work from there improving your form and stuff.

 

[galapogos]

I don't see anything wrong with questioning anyone's form. If it's correct, the truth will come to light, as we have seen now. If it's wrong, then the questioning was correct to begin with.

Let's not discourage people from questioning things legitimately, no matter what training level they're at. There's a difference between trolling/flaming, and questioning. In this case, I don't think it's the former.

 

[rundymc]

I didn't read it as a mere question. It sounded like jctan was trying to discount armwrestler's bench. Refer to the post where he pulls up Rip talking about a wide grip being a copout, and you'll see where I'm coming from.

 

[galapogos]

Perhaps if one isn't so quick to judge on the intents of people who reply, he might see some value to the questions being asked. I've re-read what jctan posted - it was merely a picture of Rippetoe's recommended bench setup, followed by an excerpt from what I can only assume is Starting Strength. No snide comment from jctan. No interpretation on his part. Purely Rippetoe. Now I can't speak for everyone, but I for one would like to know what Rippetoe, or any other established coach/athlete would have to say about grip or any other relevant topic. So, I thought those were pretty appropriate and interesting comments. I would think anyone interested in improving their knowledge would applaud the information sharing, regardless of how much they can bench.

 

[Armwrestler]

Lol I deleted my one post due to not wishing to start any argument. However, since Bear quoted me while I was deleting, this sparked the above responses.

1st, I have to admit that I do not understand bridging still. I assume it means lifting ass off bench? Well no way did that happen, the last time that happened was with 111kg I believe (ass off by 1cm), many months ago.

Thanks rundy and Bear for the words.

Galapagos, hey there, I remember you. I agree with your words. However, forgive me for wishing to disagree slightly about jctan77's intent in his posts (I don't mean his actual intent, it could also be how viewers would view the post intent to be).

The post intent seemingly appeared to be (I definitely do not mean it was intentional by the way, jc) just posting a picture of Mark Rip's ideal grip width right after someone asked me if my grip was optimal. I followed by stating something like "yep, lifting is a flexible thing, there's no rules dictating this or that, powerlifters have varying grip widths. my grip's working well to me" or something that meant that. JC then again quoted a very wide grip picture with a quote and stated "again...quoting mr rippetoe's remark on wide grip.." That left me with nothing to say, because whatever I say, JC might post more quotes to contradict (and I won't get anywhere by arguing back because I think Mark's the real deal, so as long as Mark is quoted within or out of context, I couldn't possibly disagree with mark). So if JC wished to portray a curious intent to my style, he should instead have responded by saying "ic, but I still don't get it. Mark's very accomplished and he discourages very wide grip, but you seem like you know what you're doing too, so could you elaborate further?" Then I would have responded back with more information.

In addition, the quote from Mark was about people using wide grip are people who want to lift more and be braggers, so JC's intention all pointed out towards a negative and not too constructive direction.

Then JC takes one more step to state that I bridge (without clear evidence or without even asking me if I did that). I guess the progression of "fault discovery" which led from my grip to stating that I bridge (instead of questioning whether i truly bridge), made Bear943 and rundy (and me , haha) question the intention.

JC, I am glad rundy helped you. Well everyone starts somewhere, stay strong.

Cheers galapogos, rundy, bear, jc. thanks gala for trying to facilitate the discussion.

 

[jctan77]

Just finish off first round of Starting Strength book last week, and video a few rounds. Everything are still fresh in mind.*

I could have censored the word "bragger" but I didn't, because those were exact words from the video, and I believe that Mr Rippetoe put it this way is his style to emphasize a very important point to novice. Sorry if it offended anyone, or let anyone misunderstood my intention.*

As for the bridging, I didn't exactly stated that you did it, and rundy has corrected this point. I am truly impress that he pointed out this very small yet impacting detail I, as a novice, have missed. In fact the words used were "... is more of Bridging.", I mean that it looks 90% like it to me in a novice's eye by comparing the picture in Starting Strength book. I could have wrote "is Bridging." instead if I am very sure of what you are doing. *

I try not to ask any question to challenge but those questions you mentioned are exactly those questions I intend to ask. But because I am aware that I am a novice or even worse, and have checked that you start weight lifting since your 17 birthday years back, chances of getting a "read the stickies" type of reply are high, at least is what I think.*