QUANTUM BENCH PRESS MANUAL

www.quantumcrossfit.com ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Alastair MacNicol is an elite powerlifter competing in the 220 pound class. As of the publishing of this manual, September 2015, he holds the Canadian deadlift record at 760 as well as best lifts of 645 in the squat, 402 in the bench press and an 1802 total. He’s currently ranked in the top 20 all time by powerlifting watch and has competed in and medalled at some of the most prestigious international competitions including the WPC World Championships and Raw Unity. He did his first meet in 2009 where he totaled 1315, since then he has competed in over 30 competitions and slowly improved his performance through hard work and relentlessly striving to optimizing his technique and training methods. Alastair holds a degree in Health Studies from Queens University and works as a coach at Quantum Crossfit where he shares his love for fitness and runs the powerlifting program.

Peter Roberts is an in-demand strength & conditioning expert and nutrition coach in Toronto, Canada, based out of his home gym Quantum CrossFit. Since 2007, he's coached hundreds of successful clients to achieve their long-term fitness and health goals, specializing in helping athletes improve weaknesses, imbalances and technique limitations so they can hit personal bests and stay injury free. He also posts useful content and consults through PeterRobertsCoaching.com

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 2 BEFORE YOU START

Prerequisite: Being Able to Row Before we get started with the bench press, you’ll need to be able to perform a proper row. As you’ll see in this manual, you must haev a great deal of upper back strength in order to maintain an ideal shoulder position in the bench press. Strength Test: 6-8 reps of chest to bar bodyweight row with horizontal body, with two second pause at the top of each rep.

Start with your body relatively Finish with the chest touching the You’re not able to touch the chest horizontal. bar and the body straight. to the bar.

Even if you’re able to touch the chest to the bar, you might still have a problem. The shoulders must stay back and down during the row. If they elevate/hike up toward the ears at all during the row, this is incorrect and must be fixed. Otherwise, you will never have the ability to fully control your shoulder position in the bench press.

How to Build Strength in the Upper Back: Phase 1 The key with all of the following drills is that you feel the exercises in the right muscles and that you maintain perfect form. If you let yourself cheat the movement you will never build muscle and strength where you need it. You’ll only continue to exacerbate the strength imbalance that’s keeping your upper back weak.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 3 Start with isolation exercises. The upper back is a major weak point for most people and it will take most people 4-12 weeks (sometimes more) to build this up sufficiently. Our favourite drills to start are (click for a video demonstration): ● Back Flys with band or cables ● A’s ● Single arm band or cable retractions (if you’re really having trouble isolating the muscles) ● Dumbbell, cable or band external rotations ● Single arm band or cable rows ● Lat Pull Downs

If you need extra work in this area, pick 2-4 exercises and perform 2-3 sets of 10-20 reps 2-3 times per week. We like to see a client able to do cable back flies with 10% of their max bench press for 10 reps with a slow tempo and perfect form.

How to Build Strength in the Upper Back: Phase 2 Once you can feel these muscles working and have some basic strength, you can start to do more complex exercises. The exercises listed below are all good options if you can perform them properly (click for a video demonstration): ● Bent-over barbell rows ● Single arm dumbbell rows ● Hand-over-hand rope pulls ● Ring Rows When you’re ready for phase 2, pick one or two exercises from the list above. Do 2-3 sets of 6-12 reps with quality and control at the top position (where the arm is bent and the dumbbell or barbell is as close to the chest as it will get, where applicable). Then pick one or two exercises from the Phase 1 list and do 2-3 sets of 8-15 reps with proper form. Doing this twice a week is a great starting point, and adding a few easy sets of the Phase 1 drills into your daily warm-ups can really help lock the motor pattern down.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 4 Mobility Requirements If you just can’t seem to master being able to do a row all the way to your chest, you may have a mobility problem. In order to perform a bench press you need to be able to keep the shoulders back while bringing the bar to the chest. This requires mid-back strength, but also enough mobility in the shoulder. Mobility & Control Test: PVC to Chest Drill (great for practicing basic bench technique).

Hold a PVC or dowel in your bench Pull the PVC in toward your chest. It’s a fault if the shoulder moves press grip and squeeze the It should touch the chest without even a little in this exercise. shoulder blade together hard. causing any movement in the shoulder.

If you lack shoulder mobility , it will be impossible to bring the bar to the chest without compromising your shoulder position, as seen in the “bad” example above. The shoulder will either hike up to the ears or else it will translate forward toward the chest slightly. Here are our favourite mobility drills for getting your shoulder into the right position for benching. Click on each one to watch a video demonstration. ● Shoulder setting with dumbbell ● Bully stretch 1 ● Bully stretch 2 ● Self massage on upper traps ● Self massage on pec ● Self massage on front deltoid

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 5 How to Start Improving Your Mobility ● Do 6-15 minutes of mobility work per day, picking the drills from the previous list that seem to have the biggest impact on your ability to get into a better bench position. More time is better, and a little bit every day is worth more than doing a whole lot once a week. ● To do some extra prep, spend time doing your 2-3 favourite mobility drills the night before a bench workout, for at least 6-8 minutes or more. ● In the morning prior to a bench workout, spend a few minutes doing these same drills. ● As part of your warm-up in a workout requiring bench press, do a couple sets of cable back flys and cable external rotations to activate those muscles. These sets should only be done to 70% fatigue or less with a moderate weight, and not to all out failure. The idea is to “wake-up” the muscles, not to overly fatigue them before the workout where you need them to be fresh. ● Use common sense. Ease into stretches, don’t force anything, and if it feels weird, STOP.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 6 THE SET-UP

THE KEY THREE 1. Create shoulder tension (scapula down and together) 2. Keep the bar deep in the palm. “Knuckles Up” 3. Select the foot placement that’s best for driving your upper back into the bench.

SHOULDER TENSION The Basics

The first step to a good bench press is a strong set up. We want to create a strong and stable platform through the shoulders so we can do our bench pressing from a solid position. This allows for more weight to be lifted and is safer at the same time. Two birds with one stone! You want to draw the shoulder blades down and pinch them together. You then want to drive your traps (upper back) into the bench and think about getting as high onto them as possible. Try this drill (pictured on the next page) to practice: squeeze the shoulder blades together and set the feet on the bench. Then raise the hips so you can feel all your weight sitting on yours traps. This is the feeling you want to recreate with your feet on the ground.

Shoulder blades are Shoulder blades are not Shoulder blades are together but together & down. together. are hiked up toward the ear. QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 7 Many lifters have trouble setting their shoulders “down and together” without shrugging the shoulders up toward the ears. If you have this issue, try practicing band pull-aparts, either with no resistance to lear n the movement, or with a band. Focusing on keeping the shoulder blades retracted and down.

Put your feet up on a bench and feel how To perform a band pull apart, Squeeze the shoulder blades your weight shifts on the upper back/traps. start with the arms at chest together as tightly as possible This is the feeling you want to recreate height gripping a band palms and be sure not to let them throughout the bench press. down. hike up toward the ears.

Setting the Shoulders

There are essentially three ways to set yourself on a bench: 1. lay flat and set the shoulders, set the feet before or after

[Video] Minna Pajulahti sets ups by laying flat and setting the shoulders for 198x2 [Video] James Henderson presses 600x3 by laying back and setting his shoulders.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 8 2. feet on the bench, set the shoulders then set the feet [Video} Konstantin Konstantinovs places his feet on the bench to set his shoulders and press 584

3. swing through, set the feet and then swing through to set the shoulders

[Video] Kiril Sarychev using the swing through to press 719. [Video] Jennifer Thompson uses a less aggressive version of the swing through to press 315 There are obviously slight variations for personal preference but ultimately the set up will be based around one of these methods. None are necessarily better than any other, but one may feel more comfortable or allow you to get a tighter setup. If you’re not sure, try all three and see which one feels the best.

FOOT POSITION The Basics When we set the feet for a bench press, we want to use our leg position to create tension and stabilize the movement. We also want to be able to use a strong leg drive to assist with the press. However, especially for a competitive lifter, we

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 9 don’t want the butt to rise off the bench. We’re going to achieve this by keeping the knees below the hips For shorter lifters, their knees will tend to already be below their hips. In this case a good place to start is with the feet flat on the floor out in front of them. For taller lifters, if the feet are too far out in front they will tend to slide or the hips will rise off the bench. In order to get the knee below hip position you can either:

Getting Set: Option 1 If your hip mobility is good, keeping the feet flat on the floor, work the feet back towards your shoulders trying to get them directly under or slightly behind your knees and as wide as possible.

Option 1A: Feet flat on the floor, Option 1A: For a taller lifter Option 1B: A taller lifter should feet under the knees. This is a whose knees come to rest above change his/her foot position so the good option for a shorter lifter the hips, this position isn’t as knees are placed lower than the whose knees come to rest below effective since it can cause the hips while driving into the floor. the hips. feet to slide and the hips to come off the bench.

Getting Set: Option 2 If you are not as mobile, you can kick the feet back and balance on the balls of the feet with your heels elevated. This will allow you to get your feet back further without the same mobility requirements. If you are lifting in the gym, this is a matter of preference. However, if you are a competitive lifter, be aware Option 2: Heels off the floor, feet back well behind the knees. This is that certain federations require the suitable for a taller or shorter lifter. foot to be flat while pressing. If you

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 10 plan to compete in one of these meets you cannot use the method of benching on the toes. Instead you’ll have to experiment with a variation that keeps your feet flat on the ground.

LEG DRIVE “Leg drive” describes using a push from the legs to improve body position and stability, and to assist in pressing the bar. For those with a particularly large back arch, leg drive will play less of a roll. If we think of the leg drive on a scale of 0-10, with a big arch you’re basically at a 10 then whole time in order to stabilize and maintain the high arch. Leg drive should be achieved by pressing the heels towards the floor. This engages the hamstrings and glutes, instead of the quads, and keeps the hips from coming off the bench. It also drives you back into the bench to put more pressure on your traps and help bring the chest up to meet the bar. If you are less arched, the leg drive can be more helpful. At the start you want to be around a 5-6 out of 10. As the bar lowers you increase the amount of leg drive to a 7, 8, 9, until it touches your chest, at which point you increase all the way up to 10 to help initiate the press off the chest.

HAND PLACEMENT You have some options regarding where to grip the bar. In competition, the max legal width is 81cm between the fingers. We’ll take that as a maximum possible grip width. You can also bring your grip in closer, but the bar has to touch the chest which is very awkward if your hands are inside your shoulders. Therefore we can take a shoulder width grip as the minimum grip width. Of course, there are a whole range of positions in between. As a rule of thumb, the wider your grip, the more difficult it is to get t,he bar off the chest, but the easier it is to lock it out. Conversely the closer the grip, the easier it is to press off the chest but the harder it is to lock out. You can experiment with bringing your hands in or out slightly to take advantage of that. For example, if your lockout is weak bringing the hands out slightly might allow you to circumvent this weakness and press a little heavier. If you’re not sure where to start, we recommend finding the position in which your forearms are perpendicular to the floor when the bar is on your chest. In this position the bar will be stacked directly over your wrists which will be stacked over your elbows. This typically gives you the strongest position to press from.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 11 Widest legal grip for the sport of powerlifting. Narrowest comfortable grip.

One quick way to find this placement is to measure the distance between the outside edge of both acromion processes (right where the collar bone connects to the shoulder) and multiply the distance by 2. This gives you a good place to start in terms of hand placement. You can play with gripping from the index finger to the pinky finger on these marks to find where your forearms are closest to straight up and down.

GRIP DEPTH AND WRIST POSITION When gripping the bar, one mistake lifters tend to make is to hold the bar high in the hand, near the fingers. In this position, as soon as weight is added, the wrists will roll back. This places the bar behind the forearm and turns the press into a quasi triceps extension. This is inefficient and can put a lot of stress on the wrists. Instead, work the bar deep into the palm of the hand and hold it across the meaty part by your thumb. This position keeps the wrists straight with the bar stacked over them, instead of behind them, and allows for the most direct transfer of force from the elbows to the wrists to the bar. This position might feel a little awkward at first because the hands will be slightly rotated but a little practice should alleviate that.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 12 Another way to think about this is to keep the knuckles punched up towards the ceiling after unracking the bar. The cue “knuckles up” can be helpful to ensure you keep the wrist straight and the bar in the correct position during a set.

Knuckles back. Bad leverage at the wrist as it tilts Knuckles up. Wrists neutral. back. Bar is gripped up toward the fingers. Bar is gripped deep in the palm.

Thumbless Grip The thumbless grip (sometimes nicknamed the “suicide grip”) involves the lifter gripping the bar without wrapping the thumbs around. This will often feel better because it automatically sets the bar lower in the hand and closer to the wrist joint, especially if the lifter makes the common mistake of holding the bar too high in the hand. However, if you are holding the bar in the correct place already, the thumbless grip doesn’t provide any advantage. Additionally, a thumbs around grip is safer (it’s nicknamed the “suicide grip” for a reason). For this reason we recommend learning to perfect the thumbs around grip.

Reverse Grip The reverse grip is another grip variation. With this grip the bar is held with the hands supinated (rotated with the thumbs away from each other). This is very rare to see.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 13 A reverse grip will be easier on the shoulders because they can be more externally rotated, but will require more triceps strength to lock out. Another down side is that the bar will have to touch the lifter’s chest at a lower point with this grip variation. This results in a longer moment arm (physics term the describes worse leverage) between the shoulders and the bar, so it is ultimately less efficient for lifting maximal loads. A reverse grip may allow a lifter with a shoulder injury to press pain free and can be useful in that situation. However, a lifter with healthy shoulders who is able to use a conventional grip should do so as it will be more effective.

Thumbless aka suicide grip. Reverse grip.

YOUR EYES There are a couple of options regarding what to do with your head during a bench press. The first method is to keep the head in contact with the bench and focus the eyes on a point on the ceiling. This gives you a consistent reference point and makes it easier to keep the shoulders retracted. It’s also worth noting that certain powerlifting federations require that the head remain in contact with the bench during the lift. The second method is to raise the head during the press. This method is used by some lifters with a lower touch point to raise the upper abdomen up towards the bar and decrease the range of motion. Once the press is initiated, the lifter will drive their head back into the bench. We recommend the first option for most lifters. It has fewer moving parts and is easier to stay consistent with. Plus, for those with competitive aspirations it’s legal in every federation. The biggest drawback to the raised head style is that it is requires a certain amount of upper back rounding to achieve. For most lifters, this will cause the shoulders to lose tightness and the shoulder blades to come out of position. While some lifters can maintain a tight shoulder position while raising the head, many lifters cannot and end up compromising their upper back tightness.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 14 Bar is behind the shoulders. Bar is directly vertical Bar is over the chest and slightly to the shoulders. in from of the shoulders.

UNRACKING CORRECTLY Finally, we need to unrack the bar before we can press. One of the most common errors we see is lifters who unrack too high. They naturally want to stop the bar over their eyes but this puts them in a wildly inefficient position with the bar behind the shoulders. This position is weaker and will force a longer and less efficient bar path (photo on next page). Instead the lifter should bring the bar out directly over the shoulders. This is the strongest and most stable position to be in. Here the bar sits in a strong position right over the shoulder joint and will enable to lifter to more easily maintain proper shoulder and elbow position in the lowering phase of the lift. Some lifters like to take the bar out slightly further, setting up almost directly over their sternum so they can descend straight down instead of tucking. To find the best place for you, take the empty bar and move it back and forth between these different positions. What you should find is at one spot the bar feels “weightless”. This is typically the place you are most stable and strongest in, and is an ideal unracking position to start with. When handing off to yourself, there are a couple mistakes we often see new lifters making. They tend to have the bar rolled to the back of the hooks and they set themselves far down the bench with their eyes or even forehead directly under the bar. The result is that when they go to unrack, they have to swing the bar way out to get it in position. This is a lot of wasted effort and usually results in them losing at least some (if not all) upper back tightness. The other fault is they set up too far underneath the bar. When they unrack, they are so close to the hooks that they bang into them during the press. This forces the lifter to either alter their ideal bar-path and press with the bar over the stomach, or risk throwing off their press by catching the bench uprights on the way up.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 15 1

Bar starts over the forehead forcing the lifter Bar starts nose/mouth to minimize the distance have to unrack the bar with a larger movement. covered while unracking, making it easier to maintain a good shoulder position.

Instead the lifter should roll the bar to the front of the hooks and set up with the bar directly over their nose/mouth area. This will keep the bar close enough to the shoulders that it can be unracked with minimal effort while maintaining good shoulder position, as well as still providing enough space from the hooks to avoid the risk of contact during the press.

Bar is behind the shoulders. Bar is directly vertical Bar is over the chest and slightly to the shoulders. in from of the shoulders. Hand-offs A partner hand off can be used to more easily unrack the bar. When getting a hand off, the goal should be to get the bar from the hooks to your starting position with as little effort as possible, and without losing shoulder position. Therefore, a good hand off should lift the bar only enough to allow it to clear the hooks and gently ease the weight into the lifter’s hands in their start position. This way, the lifter can

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 16 maintain their tightly retracted shoulder blades and have the weight settle in their hands so they’re stable and ready to press. A hand off should NOT yank the bar up so high it pulls the lifter’s shoulders out of position and/or dump it unceremoniously in the lifter’s hands such that all the weight comes crashing down on them at once. A hand off should also NOT grab/touch/finger the bar midway through the lift and “help” the lifter complete the rep. Your rep doesn’t count if someone else touched the bar, no matter how much they say “it was all your bro”. For the competitive lifter, almost all competitions will have a hand off person on the platform. Some federations will allow you to bring your own while others will require you to use the one provided. Be careful as there’s no telling what kind of hand off you’ll get from someone you’ve never met.

How High to Set the Hooks When setting the hooks for a bench press, if they’re too high you won’t be able to keep your shoulders retracted while unracking the bar. If they’re too low you have to do a quasi bench press from slightly behind your shoulders to get the bar out and in position to start your set. As a rule of thumb aim to set the hooks at a point where you get about 2 inches of clearance when you unrack. Lie down on the bench and set yourself as tightly as you would for a max bench. Then straighten the arms while keeping the shoulders tightly pulled back and get a feel for where the hooks will need to be positioned to get your 2 inches of clearance..

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 17 THE DESCENT THE KEY THREE 1. Forearms vertical. Keep elbows under the bar. 2. Maintain tension between shoulder blades. 3. Touch in the right spot for your body type, between the bottom of the pecs and top of abdomen.

ELBOW & WRIST POSITION Once you have the bar in the correct start position, we need to lower it to the chest. The most important thing during the descent is to keep the elbows under the bar. In this position, the forearms are perpendicular to the floor and the bar is stacked on top of the wrists and elbows. This gives you the most stable and strongest position to drive from once you start the press. If the bar gets out in front or behind the elbows, the lifter will have an unnecessary moment arm that must be overcome in order to complete the press. Adding extra work is unproductive, and we don’t want to do that! We find that the easiest way to keep proper alignment is to think about “leading” with the elbows. The elbows initiate the movement and everything else (forearms, wrist and bar) just comes along for the ride. Their position shouldn’t change during the movement.

Bar in perfect position. Bar too high on the chest, elbows Bar to low on the chest. Your too flared out. This is very hard on leverage here is poor. the shoulders.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 18 We like to use the cue” lead with the elbows” or “pull the elbows straight down to the floor.”

WHERE TO TOUCH THE BAR One of the biggest issues we see with lifters is not knowing where to touch the bar to the chest or touching in an inefficient spot. With newer lifters, the bar path on the way down tends to resemble a baby deer learning to walk. The bar is shaking all over the place and in a set of five reps, the bar will touch the chest in five different spots. A lot of this will be fixed with practice and consistency. However, you want to touch in the same spot every time for efficiency and safety. The earlier you can figure out how to do that, the better. Aside from simply trying to bring the bar down to the same point each time you can rub a little chalk on the middle of the bar. Each time you touch you’ll leave a faint chalk line on your shirt (make sure to wear a dark colour). When you finish a set, you should see only one line. If you see multiple lines you know you’re not as consistent as you need to be. This can be a useful feedback tool. The actual spot that you want to touch will vary slightly lifter to lifter. Typically, you are looking to hit somewhere between the bottom of the pecs (about the nipple line) to the upper abdomen. This will depend on comfort and the length of your arms. Shorter armed lifters can touch higher while longer armed lifters will need to touch a little lower.

Touch the bar somewhere between this range. And Touching too low/high be 100% consistent with the touch point. In the bench press, the shoulder represents the fulcrum of the movement. The closer we can keep the bar to over the shoulders ,the stronger we’ll be. However, we can’t bring the bar down in a straight line without causing shoulder impingement so we have to tuck the elbows and touch below the shoulder joint. Too high and you risk a shoulder injury, too low and you’ll be in a weak position to press. One of the biggest mistakes lifters make is touching too low - they dump the bar onto their belly. In this position, the bar is very far away from the shoulders so a tremendous amount of leverage is required to bring it back into position. In addition, this touch position is often

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 19 the result of over tucking the elbows. A huge elbow tuck makes it harder to keep the elbows under the bar and the lifter can lose the important vertical forearm position. On the flip side, the other mistake lifters often make is to bring the bar straight down like a guillotine onto their clavicles with the elbows flared way out to the sides. This position is very unsafe for the shoulder joint and doesn’t allow for the same amount of pec recruitment at the bottom. Once again, the lifter should endeavour to touch somewhere between the bottom of the chest and top of the sternum.

KEEPING TENSION & COILING THE SPRING We want to control the bar on the way down and build tension in the muscles so the lifter is ready to explode with the bar off the chest. If the lifter is loose and lets the bar come crashing down into them they won’t have the necessary muscle tension to press and they’ll get stapled. You want to think about pulling the bar into your chest like a reverse row. Similar to leg drive, you want to feel like you’re building tension the whole way down, as if your body was a huge spring that’s being coiled tighter and tighter until the bar touches the chest at which point you explode and uncoil. Most of this tension should be created by squeezing the shoulder blades together even harder and using the horizontal drive from your legs to push your upper back harder into the pad and lift your chest up towards the bar.

Keeping the Chest Tall You want to keep your chest as high as possible during the bench. This is largely the result of good leg drive and maintaining tension on the way down. A big chest will reduce the range of motion in the lift, allowing you to lift heavier. It also let’s helps you maintain tension in your upper back more effectively so it’s easier to squeeze the shoulder blades together and down vs. letting the shoulders roll forward. This puts the shoulder in a safer position and also a more effective position for handling big weights. As a mental cue, some lifters find it helpful to think about reaching the chest up to meet the bar rather than simply letting the bar come to the chest.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 20 TOUCHING THE BAR There are a couple ways to touch the bar to your chest. The first, and most common method, is to keep tension through the arms and lightly touch the bar to your chest and press (if you are in competition, you hold the bar motionless on the chest and wait for the “press” command). It should feel no different than if you stopped the bar a half inch above your chest. All the weight is still through your arms, shoulders and upper back. The second method is to allow the bar to “rest” on the chest. The weight will be transferred in part to the sternum. You then use your legs to drive the body back into the weight and initiate the press. This technique can be effective to allow you to essentially “push press” the bar off your chest but you must be careful to make sure you don’t relax the arms, shoulders and upper back. You still need to remain tight! If you lose tension in your upper body you won’t be able to properly press once you get the weight moving. You want to think about allowing some, but not all of the weight to rest on the body, while the remainder is carried by the arms and shoulders as it would be in the more conventional touch. The “push press” method can be effective if you are touching the bar lower on your sternum where you have less muscle to press with. Using the legs to drive the bar back over the shoulders can circumvent the inherent disadvantage of this position. We don’t recommend the second method for recreational or beginner lifters. There are some competitive lifters who prefer it, but most use the first method.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 21 THE ASCENT THE KEY THREE 1. Lead with the elbows/flare the elbows out to create a “J” path with the bar. 2. Maintain tension between the shoulder blades. 3. Maintain leg drive.

“J” PATH Once we begin the press, the goal is to get the bar over the shoulders as quickly as possible. This puts the lifter in the position of best leverage. In order to do this, the initial movement off the chest is going to be up and slightly back. Once the bar is over the shoulders, the lifter will press straight up. The bar path will resemble a “J” with the first part being curved off the chest until the bar is over the shoulder joint and then straight up.

The bar comes up and slightly back The bar is pushed too far toward The bar is pushed too far toward toward the lifter’s head, causing a the lifter’s face and is no longer on the lifters hips, also causing poor “J-shape” bar path. top of the elbows. This causes poor leverage. leverage.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 22 ELBOWS In previous sections, we discussed the value of “leading with the elbows” to keep the bar directly over top of them. The same principles apply here. During the press, the lifter still needs the movement to come from the elbows. If the hands and wrists move back towards the shoulders while the elbows remain behind the lifter ends up in a triceps extension position with a max bench load. It should be fairly obvious that attempting to do a skull-crusher with your heaviest bench isn’t a good idea! If the elbows are only a little in front, the bar will stall and the lifter will miss. If they are dramatically in front, the bar will come crashing down towards the lifter’s face. Both results are bad. Avoid them by maintaining proper alignment between the bar, forearms and elbows. This means that the “J” path should start with the elbows flaring out towards the shoulders in order to get the bar in the proper line.

Bar in perfect position. Forearms are tilting toward the Forearms are slightly tilting away Forearms are vertical. Elbows head causing poor leverage. from the head & the bar drifts are under the bar. toward the hips.

FAULT #1: THE TRANSITION One of the more common places to miss a bench press is at the transition point between the initial drive off the chest and when the bar is directly over the shoulders. This point usually occurs a couple inches off the chest and usually happens because the lifter has pressed the bar straight up instead of up and back. In this situation, the way to fight through is to focus on flaring the elbows out hard towards the shoulders. This brings the bar back toward the shoulders into the proper path so the lift can be completed.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 23 LEG DRIVE Once the bar starts to move upward, a lot of lifters focus solely on their upper bodies and the bar, but forget about their legs. Your legs create stability and support for your whole body during a bench press, and as explained earlier, good use of leg drive will assist you in pressing the bar. As mentioned in the previous section, the leg drive will either be constant (with a big arch) or function as an increasing scale, reaching 10 once the press is initiated. What is key to avoid is driving hard with the legs on the way down and off the chest and then letting the tension slack as the bar begins to ascend. You want to keep the heels pressed firmly towards the ground for the whole press, creating as much leg drive as possible on the way up.

FAULT #2: LOSS OF SHOULDER POSITION When focusing too hard on “push the bar away from you,” there is a tendency in many lifters to roll their shoulders forward (because they’re thinking push). As a result, they lose their shoulder blade position - as we saw with the PVC drill video on page 5. This leads to a collapsed chest, an increased range of motion and a weak position mid press. The result is the bar gets stuck and the lifter failing the repetition. You want to maintain the shoulders back and chest up position throughout the movement. Instead of thinking about “pushing the bar away from you” , think about “driving your body away from the bar”. This shift in focus often makes it easier to maintain optimal position throughout the press. While you want to keep the shoulders in an optimal position throughout the press, sometimes things don’t go as planned and they roll out anyway. In this situation the way to fix it is to focus on driving the shoulders back into the bench as opposed to worrying about pressing the bar away from you. If you’re close to finishing the press and you reset the shoulders, the elbows will lock out of their own accord. For technique purposes, when working on shoulder position, it’s better to work with multiple sets of fewer reps. During high rep sets where there is more fatigue, it can be very difficult to maintain (or reset) a good shoulder position - especially if this is a current weakness for the lifter. For this reason sets of low reps are better, there’s less fatigue so you can do more quality reps to help groove the right movement pattern. Once the lifter becomes proficient at maintaining this position, they can move into sets of higher reps.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 24 EQUIPMENT WRIST WRAPS The most ubiquitous piece of equipment for the bench press is a wrist wrap. The wrap is wound tightly around the wrist to provide support to the wrist and help keep it straight during a heavy press. When wrapping your wrists, you want to “cast” them. Instead of wrapping around the wrist you want to work the wrap up over the heel of your hand to create a “cast” that locks your wrist in place. This will provide the maximum amount of support and make it easier to keep the wrists from rolling back. Wrist wraps come from lengths as short as 6” to as long as 36” and from very stretchy to very stiff. It’s a matter of preference, but typically the heavier the weight being pressed the more a lifter will benefit from a “heavy duty” wrap which tends to be a bit longer and stiffer.

BELT A belt can also be used during a bench press. Unlike during a squat or deadlift, there’s no clear performance improvement from belting up. Some lifters prefer it as cueing tool because it reminds them to keep their abs braced tightly during the press. Some find it helps support an arch while others actually feel a thicker belt gets in the way and prevents them from arching as well. For this reason, there’s no clear cut answer to which is better. Some lifters like it while others don’t. If you’re interested try both ways and see which you prefer.

SHOES Footwear is less of an issue with the bench press than for squatting or deadlifting. There isn’t a performance advantage to one type of footwear over another so a lot of it comes down to preference. Typically running shoes work just fine, while some lifters prefer boots, wrestling shoes or even Olympic shoes. With a wider foot placement, you want to ensure your shoe has a good tread so you get lots of traction. Having your feet slide out while trying to use leg drive will mess up your set. For those competing in competitions that require the foot to be flat on the floor an Olympic shoe with a raised heel can be worn to mimic the heels elevated position that some lifters prefer while still adhering to the rules.

QUANTUM BENCH PRESS GUIDE 25