Common Bench Pressing Mistakes -- Joseph Lucero (2021)

 

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Before we begin discussing pressing precision, let's look at some of the common mistakes lifters make when attempting to elevate their bench press numbers. 

1) Excessive Pressing. 

To achieve mastery of a movement, some say the amount of practice necessary should quantify to about 10,000 hours of work. Although this could be true for traditional movements such as catching, throwing, and jumping, none of those are as resistance-heavy as the bench press. Think about the goal. If you're looking to be the heaviest bencher and are looking at this standard of mastery, that's a ton of work to be accomplished, which, in turn, could jeopardize your body. 

If you extended this deadline of mastery over the course of years, though, it might not seem as bad. But with many lifters . . . they want to achieve their goals and they want to hit them fast! This brings me to a conversation I have had with many lifters. I am often met with this: 

"I bench about three times a week to elevate my pressing performance." 

If you're already in a program, have a coach, or are a coach and this is your mindset for pressing performance, that's totally fine. In that case YOU are the expert. My advice reflects my experience and my expertise with lifting. Keep an open mind and take what knowledge will help you meet your goals.  

To get back to "pressing three times a week" . . . my thought is that this is not wise, for many reasons. In general, the point of training is to improve, and that happens through the breakdown and muscular disruption your create during every session. With training, the goal is to prescribe various sets, reps, and total volume to elicit a metabolic trigger for growth and development. 

Some lifters who train at this frequency, benching three times a week, are disrupting their muscles to such an extent that they can't recover! Now, if you were to do a day of bench pressing, and then two to three days later, work on other variations of your bench pressing such as dynamic and explosive lifting -- that would be a much more successful approach. 

The heavier benchers will tell you that of the four weeks in a month, they will use three of them to build up the intensity and bench heavy once a week. This is followed by a deload week to recover and rejunenate the body. If you think about that even further, of the thirty days in a month, only three days are dedicated to heavy benching! That means 10% of the month you should be focusing on lifting heavy and improving your press. 

What does that mean to the other 90% of the month? You have two options: drugs and whooers. NO. One, work dynamic and explosive training for your bench press. Or, two, work on other groups that could aid your bench press ability, such as isolation of the anterior deltoids, triceps, and other various posterior muscle groups that support the descending phase of your bench press. This leads me to the next point . . . 

In addition to the growth and development of our prime and synergistic muscle groups, we must consider the opposing forces that help to generate successful movement. These work in harmony with the agonist muscles -- the antagonist muscles. 

What opposes the pectoralis major? 

The latissimus dorsi and various fibers of the trapezius muscle. 

What opposes the anterior deltoid? 

The posterior deltoid. 

What opposes the triceps brachii? 

The biceps brachii. 

These antagonist and antagonist muscles help with the ascending and descending phase of the bench press for pressing precision. Making sure to work on both ends of your press will elevate your performance. 

2) Bouncing the Iron. 

A letter from your sternum: "Cut that out!" 

A key phrase I want us to become familiar with is elastic potentiation. It has been thrown around in scientific research on kinetics, mainly describing the ability of our body to absord energy during various parts of movement. 

The way to further describe this is to discuss the bench press during the descending phase (eccentric), and the ascending phase (concentric). When the bar is approaching the chest, the muscle begins to stretch, and if done properly, this will allow a level of potential energy to become absorbed in the musculature. This allows the energy to be used during the concentric phase ofthe movement. 

We will continue to discuss this topic later, during the five tips towards pressing precision (in Part Two here) . . . here's a sneak peak . . . 

Many times, we see a flock of athletes huddle around the platform to watch their teammates blast the heavy iron for bench press glory, and when they do so they want to bounce the bench press by destroying the sternum. Now, I am all about the "risk versus reward" complex, but this definitely sounds like more risk than reward. 

Plus, to see an athlete control the iron with success must mean they are either a scientific guru learning to exploit elastic potentiation of just an overall badass. The goal of this discussion is to promote both! 

We want you to be successful using scientific intervention, coupled with the intestinal fortitude to destroy all those in your path. 

3) Wider-than-Wide Bench Pressing Grip. 

Excessive pressing and blasting your sternum are frustrating to see, but to each their own. However, the hardest thing for me to witness is the widest of wide-grip benching that enguls social media. Now, as I enter this discussion, understant that if you are this person, that's up to you. Most people I have seen with this mindset are usually in various bench press suits. In the sport of equipped powerlifting, it seems necessary to promote a wide bench as the stitching would best benefit someone with a wide grip on the bar. So, don't get me wrong, there is a time and a place, and I certainly respect that. I really find it concerning to see the widest of bench pressing occurring 365 days a year. 

If your program is offering waves of training to promote close grip, normal grip, and wider grip, that can be beneficial for cycles of training. But when you start to widen your grip just to reduce the range of motion for your bench, it sounds like you're possibly upset that you're losing progress with your press, or that you're finding the easy way out. 

We discussed this earlier with the controversial topic of pressing through either the sagittal plane or transverse plane. {I'll put that in a later part}. Yes, you could end up performing the movement in both planes during a single rep, but I feel that biomechanically the more true you are to tucking in your elbows, the better leverage can be displaced on the body so that you're able to engage the pecs, triceps, and deltoids efficiently and safely. Once you work with a wider grip your elbows can struggle to stay close. Also, there's seems to be a tremendous amount of pressure on the sternoclavicular and acromioclavicular joints. 

I have had two sprain either one of these joints and have a hard time with recovery due to a wider press Maybe it's time to change your grip and improve the ability of your musculature to accept more of the load. Plus, the reduction of your range of motion could limit your growth and development to keep you at your smallest of size. 

Aren't you ready to put slabs of beef on your chest-plate to protect you during warfare? 

Now, with all things considered and enough buildup, let's dive into what I believe are the top five tips for elevating your current bench press . . . 

in Part Two. 

Enjoy Your Lifting!