Bench Pressing Debate!

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Ok I was kind of debating this with another guy in my gym who is a competitor and we were talking about bench pressing and I told him that its better to not actualy go all the way down and actualy touch ur chest with the bar as it takes the bulk of the weight at that point and puts it on your shoulders when you actualy tough your chest and i also said this is especialy true with guys who have longer arms like myself, and I have also read this in one of the main muscle magazine not sure which but i did read this, and he swore up and down that I was way off and totaly wrong and that its a must to always hit your chest with the bar, and well i know for a fact that if i touch my chest with the bar that the bulk of the weight then is put onto my shoulders so i always stop right before i hit my chest and this keeps the weight strain on the chest through the whole motion

So I wanted everyone elses take on this as well
 
You are 100% correct and every study measuring electromuscular stimulation throughout the range of motion supports this fact 100% (these are where they just hook up the electrodes to different muscle groups and measure the amount of stimulation (force) being generated through each muscle at each given point in the exercise.
 
People always tend to bounce the bar off their best too once it startsto get heavy, using the elastic recoil of the rib cage to help them get the weight back up - this is also a no no
 
you are correct on this presser. Its the same as on leg press letting your knees go all the way into your chest, which most guys with long legs will cause their butt to roll up.

You dont have to touch your chest nor lock out each rep to work the chest.
 
i never lock out nor touch my chest when pressing.

maybe sometimes towards the end of my workout i might do full range , high rep low weight sets, to really
sitmualte extra growth in my chest... per mr. glass
 
I might take the last 1 or 2 down deep for a good stretch.. The majority of my reps are done in the top 3/4 part of the movement stopping 1-2" above my mid chest..
 
We use partial reps in Strongman to strengthen different areas of the chest, but then remember in Powerlifting you actually have to pause the bar and touch the chest, minus momentum.

I actually go all the way down and get a deep stretch and touch my chest, I find I get more power out of it that way, and growth..

I have seen guys only go halfway down or halfway up...For my sport you need full extensions for full power, for bodybuilding, I would imagine since you could get away with less weight that a partial lift would work just as good, if not better??

Opinions??
 
Quick Thread Hijacking:

I just wanted to point out the beauty of the plethora of knowledge there is in this forum. It absolutely blows my mind how much one can learn from a community of avid bodybuilders, strongmen, powerlifters, and fitness enthusiasts. You can learn 10x more about the practicalities of the body and how it works from participating in this community than you could from a science journal (although they are very helpful at times).

"Train your mind to build your body" is probably the most accurate and kickass slogan around.

...just sayin.

Back to the topic:

Depending on how you've trained over the years, I think a bodybuilder (at least from my experience) could probably lift more weight (correctly) by not touching the chest because he hasn't shifted the weight to his shoulders, also due to the amount of work performed (work = force * distance).

I feel that both methods have their purpose. Leaving a couple inch gap at the bottom of the reps would keep most of the simulation on the chest, but I also just feel "right" giving a few reps the full range of motion and feeling that stretch.
 
the4mandrummer said:
Quick Thread Hijacking:

I just wanted to point out the beauty of the plethora of knowledge there is in this forum. It absolutely blows my mind how much one can learn from a community of avid bodybuilders, strongmen, powerlifters, and fitness enthusiasts. You can learn 10x more about the practicalities of the body and how it works from participating in this community than you could from a science journal (although they are very helpful at times).

"Train your mind to build your body" is probably the most accurate and kickass slogan around.

...just sayin.

Back to the topic:

Depending on how you've trained over the years, I think a bodybuilder (at least from my experience) could probably lift more weight (correctly) by not touching the chest because he hasn't shifted the weight to his shoulders, also due to the amount of work performed (work = force * distance).

I feel that both methods have their purpose. Leaving a couple inch gap at the bottom of the reps would keep most of the simulation on the chest, but I also just feel "right" giving a few reps the full range of motion and feeling that stretch.
Click to expand...

thnx bro and yeah I am pretty proud of our slogan,lol, and it fits perfect!
 
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