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BENCH PRESS ARCHIVE

Mark K's Bench Press Techniques

<< I have a question about bench press form, particularly hand spacing and target area, ie which part of chest the bar ends up at... Otto>>

Otto, I'll play Keith to Bill's Mick here. In terms of target area, I've often heard that one should bench to either mid-nipple area OR to the BOTTOM of the neck, i.e. the clavicles, bettter known as the collar bone (you know, that bone that Trent Dilford of those Tampa Bay Bucs broke like a stale bread stick yesterday. Getting driven into Astroturf will do that, but I digress.) I've trained like this and it does seem to help - me at least - more than regular benching.

By benching to the collarbone, you keep more emphasis on the mid and upper pec range, an area of work many people need work on. In the book "Cuts" by Robert Kennedy (Perigree Books, 1989), the King Of Venice emphasises "NO BENCHING" but he does advocate "neck presses." Here you take a wide grip and take the bar to the throat instead of the mid-pec range. For me, this really creates great tension and stretch. Try it, you may like it. Maybe Dave can tell us if Vince knows his stuff or not. I only know of him what I've read. He has some interesting philosphies.

By the way, this book is now ten years old, and the chapters sound just like what IOLiners continually discuss: muscle shaping, creative visualization, one-set training, protein, routines, vascularity, contest dieting. What we do is the alpha and the omega - no beginning no end, but a continual learning process.

Rage,
Mark K.
The Polar Bear

PS: I'm a lousy, weak bencher. When I do it, I keep my hands a tad closer than shoulder width. This gives me more leverage to bench a bit heavier and it places more emphasis on my inner pec wall, a continual sticking point.

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Helllo Otto,

I would caution anyone on bench pressing to their neck. Not that it is inherently wrong to do them that way but be careful. It puts a tremendous amount of added stress on the deltoids (not to mention your neck if you lapse in concentration). And if you are trying to develop power in the bench this position isn't the most advantageous one to use. I would recommend a grip a little wider than shoulder width and I believe Bill L. spoke of bringing the bar down accross your nipple line and up in a slight arc. Once you find that groove then I would experiment with other hand spacings and areas of descent.

Guy

P.S. Mark Buddy I am not criticizing you in any way. Just adding a word of caution to others that may not be as supple as yourself.

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About the bar to neck movement: I've never done this as a workout — as a very light warm up/stretch, but not as a set (or three!). I liked this a lot — nice stretch, nice pump to finish off the bench workout. I might add that Dave (knowing my rotator cuff gripe) gave me a little cautionary comment. Luckily I was already done so I got to enjoy the workout undeterred.

Laree

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