🔥 BENCH PRESS FORM ❌WRONG VS ✅RIGHT

✳️When it comes to bench pressing there are a few things that we need to know before adjusting our form. One, the bar does not need to hit your chest when it comes to strength training or hypertrophy as far as competitions I’m not sure. Second, which places into the first is how much you bench and how you do it will strongly depend on your arm length. Shorter arms will have less displacement and less leverage working against the pecs.
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✳️ The first thing you need to do when you bench is stabilize your shoulder blades, I like to “walk” them down and back locking them in places. This will set your shoulder up for smoother and safer movement. Ideally when benching you wants a smooth arch formed by the elbow, this means the pivot point (your shoulder) stayed where it should be during the lifting phases.
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✳️ Next is the bar path, first thing you should note is the bar false towards your nipples not the middle of the chest. So don’t flare your arms out too much keep them to your side about 60 degrees. Again dependent on arm length the bar may stop differently for you. The individual in the picture is going all the way down because he has short arms and this isn’t much lower than parallel.

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Now bar path which people may struggle with often, I know I did. This one is modeled off Bill Kazmaier a elite Powerlifter and strong man. There is no perfect bar path for everyone but this is a general idea of how the bar should move and is backed up by some research if we look closely. The eccentric phase the bar has a smooth curve going towards the chest falling into extension and horizontal abduction. As we can see on the EMG graph on the eccentric phase the pec activity is nice and constant & relatively higher than triceps allowing little disruptions of the bar path. Now when we get to the concentric, there is much more triceps activity, causing the deviation in the bar path as we can see. This is because the concentric phase is much harder and would be inefficient to take the same path as the eccentric.