1. I understand you are frustrated and I am with you on your quest. It is ok to see the bar as a strange object and feel it […]
How to, and when to fix (and when not to fix) the bench press grip width
Originally published at the Elitefts website, authored by me A long time ago, when I was still experimenting with technique and using whatever I found useful in the […]
How to Fix Your Bench Press: Programming Issues and Assistance Work
This is the third and last part of this series on how to fix your bench press. Let us start by repeating one of my half a dozen favorite sayings in powerlifting coaching: “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This said, understand that this series is not about teaching the bench press or offering a new protocol; it is about solving a problem or several problems.
How to Fix Your Bench Press: The Execution
Let us just review the concept of “fixing a lift.” We decided in How to Fix Your Bench Press: The Setup that fixing included having learned the lift and having issues that make it less than optimal. We also agreed that it could include a number of approaches, but that in this series we would restrict our focus to form or technique, which includes setup (part one), execution (part two) and programing and assistance work (part three).
How to Fix Your Bench Press: The Setup
A lift is not exactly “a” movement. It is a complex of movements sometimes called a sport gesture or, for simplicity, a compound movement. A compound movement is just a movement that engages more than one joint. The bench press could be seen as an exercise with more than one compound movement, for example.