# how low do you lower the bar when bench press?



## Amazin (May 22, 2014)

Do you let the bar hit your chest or do you stop just an inch before that? for some reason I always let the bar hit my chest before I press it up because "it feels more manly". lol


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## RocoElBurn (May 31, 2010)

Do what gets you the results you want.


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## G-man99 (Jul 15, 2008)

Control the weight down and I either touch the chest slightly or stay an inch above and then power up, avoiding locking out at the top and repeat


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## will69176 (Jul 16, 2012)

i stop about an inch above my chest. if i let it touch my chest i cant seem to get my breathing correct


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## JohhnyC (Mar 16, 2015)

too many gym heros these days doing 1/4 squats and half way bench presses...


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## T100 (Oct 8, 2011)

I stop maybe 2-3 inches above my chest at times, any lower I feel I'm pushing more of the weight using my delts and tri's, never felt the need to feel manly in the gym if I'm honest but if I did I would just do my workout with my cock out


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## monkeybiker (Jul 21, 2010)

You should have an arch in your back and bring the bar slowly down to the chest and then forcefully press the bar back up. It's when you have your back flat on the bench and bring the bar down to the chest you can put a lot of stress on the shoulders.


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## vildgut (Dec 12, 2013)

Full range of motion anyone who tells you anything else is an idiot.

Bar goes down till it just touches your chest NO BOUNCE and carry the weight with control.


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## SK50 (Apr 7, 2013)

The only circumstance where it should not touch your chest is if you have an injury (rotator cuff usually) which prevents you from doing so. In which case, you should probably be substituting in DB press, or in worst case machines.


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## rsd147 (Nov 14, 2012)

Do people have their feet flat on the floor or not?


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## Mingster (Mar 25, 2011)

I lower the bar to the base of my sternum, pause, then raise the bar to full extension.


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## vildgut (Dec 12, 2013)

rsd147 said:


> Do people have their feet flat on the floor or not?


Yes ofcourse you do to provide yourself with a stable platform  Only thing that should be moving is your chest, arm and shoulders.


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## Prince Adam (Mar 17, 2012)

Controlled decent.

Pause on chest for half second.

Power up


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## Alanricksnape (Apr 5, 2013)

I usually use my arms.


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## TommyBananas (Nov 23, 2014)

SK50 said:


> The only circumstance where it should not touch your chest is if you have an injury (rotator cuff usually) which prevents you from doing so. In which case, you should probably be substituting in DB press, or in worst case machines.


Or if youre doing spoto presses


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## Jordan08 (Feb 17, 2014)

A slight touch on my chest and then boom upppp


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## RocoElBurn (May 31, 2010)

Many elite lifters bench shy of their chest for different reasons. I'm someone who does make contact, but I'm not judging what I don't fully know.

Recent article by Greg Nuckols touched on this ...I find his posts worth a read personally.


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## SK50 (Apr 7, 2013)

TommyBananas said:


> Or if youre doing spoto presses


Yeah fair point, you could also add board presses to the exception list.

OP should note these are exceptions though. A bench press touches the chest.


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## Theseus (Feb 27, 2014)

I take it down till my upper arms are parallel to the floor and aligned to my body. any lower than that is just extra strains to the shoulder and elbow joints without added benefit.

whether it touches chest doesn't matter, as long as the depth is achieved.

no bounce of course


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## rsd147 (Nov 14, 2012)

vildgut said:


> Yes ofcourse you do to provide yourself with a stable platform  Only thing that should be moving is your chest, arm and shoulders.


Some people have their toes etc just on floor though?


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## vildgut (Dec 12, 2013)

rsd147 said:


> Some people have their toes etc just on floor though?


Midgets gotta bench press as well


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## swole troll (Apr 15, 2015)

i like to do stiff elbow bench press

i basically unrack the bar and hold it with locked elbows slowly counting my reps "1....2....3.....4.....5.....6...7.....8!!" then i rack it

range of motion is an outdated technique, better to keep constant tension on the joints


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## p.cullen (Jun 6, 2014)

how important is it not to lock out your arms at the top?


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## Prince Adam (Mar 17, 2012)

p.cullen said:


> how important is it not to lock out your arms at the top?


Bad for your joints.

Also it will encourage you to bring your shoulders into play.


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## G-man99 (Jul 15, 2008)

p.cullen said:


> how important is it not to lock out your arms at the top?


It removes the tension from your chest and brings your shoulders into play a lot more


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## swole troll (Apr 15, 2015)

p.cullen said:


> how important is it not to lock out your arms at the top?


if you plan on competing in powerlifting then you will have to lock your elbows out to be given the rack command

plenty of evidence out there to suggest that locking out actually strengthens the joints and connective tissue

as opposed to strengthening the muscles beyond what the joint can handle increasing chance of injury if you were to attempt that one rep max on the bench and you accidentally lock out yet youve never put your locked joints under significant load

Rips against the premise of partial reps also

"Yes, lock your knees at the top. That's how you rest between reps. Same with bench, press, deadlift, cleans, snatches, and every other exercise that uses a barbell, and this is obvious to everybody except people who use Swiss balls. I suspect you glanced through SS rather quickly and failed to notice that all the pictures at the top position showed locked joints.

If you're too tight to correctly perform the exercise, stretch. If you're sufficiently flexible, don't.

And if you're not training with weights right now, why are you asking me these questions?"


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## ohh_danielson (Oct 16, 2013)

The whole locking out at the top technique will not be settled in this thread, there's no definitive answer really. like most things in bodybuilding someone will tell you to do one thing then someone else will tell you to do the opposite.

Do what works for you


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## p.cullen (Jun 6, 2014)

swole troll said:


> if you plan on competing in powerlifting then you will have to lock your elbows out to be given the rack command
> 
> plenty of evidence out there to suggest that locking out actually strengthens the joints and connective tissue
> 
> ...


Have you got me mixed up with someone else? None of the highlighted text relates to anything i have asked.


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## swole troll (Apr 15, 2015)

p.cullen said:


> Have you got me mixed up with someone else? None of the highlighted text relates to anything i have asked.


you asked how important it was not to lock out at the top

i gave you reasoning why you should lock out

the highlighted text does in fact mention bench press and overall marks opinion on whether or not you should lock out, i think it was pretty relevant to your question on locking out


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## p.cullen (Jun 6, 2014)

swole troll said:


> you asked how important it was not to lock out at the top
> 
> i gave you reasoning why you should lock out
> 
> the highlighted text does in fact mention bench press and overall marks opinion on whether or not you should lock out, i think it was pretty relevant to your question on locking out


You also mentioned

I suspect you glanced through SS rather quickly and failed to notice that all the pictures at the top position showed locked joints.

If you're too tight to correctly perform the exercise, stretch. If you're sufficiently flexible, don't.

And if you're not training with weights right now, why are you asking me these questions?"

you say you suspect i glanced through SS and failed to notice the pictures showing lock out....whats SS?

And you asked if i am not training with weights then why am i asking you these questions?

Why would you assume i wasnt training with weights?

I never directed any questions specifically at you.


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## Smitch (Dec 29, 2008)

Always touch the chest.

Training in a commercial gym at the 90% of peolpe do half reps at best.


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## 2004mark (Oct 26, 2013)

Unless you're powerlifting it really doesn't matter how you bench.

Benching is a tool that can be used for many different purposes, so there's not one correct answer.


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## swole troll (Apr 15, 2015)

p.cullen said:


> You also mentioned
> 
> I suspect you glanced through SS rather quickly and failed to notice that all the pictures at the top position showed locked joints.
> 
> ...


all of that text was in between " "

so that whole block of text wasnt directed at you, it was a quote from a question asked on rips starting strength forum regarding locking out the joints

i have no clue of your training methods so how could i make a judgement on them? read the text back and everything you highlight in red in your original response was a section i quoted by putting it in between " "

here's original source -


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## LRB (Jan 26, 2015)

i was always taught to touch the chest, it means a full range of motion , more muscle fibers recruited, more work been done per rep. Yes you will be using more of your shoulders the lower you go but who gives a ****, its part of the game and its not an isolation exercise. Your main muscle will be the chest.

In some cases if i want to try a much higher weight i will not go all the way down but as i just stated its because i have an objective to achieve


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## p.cullen (Jun 6, 2014)

swole troll said:


> all of that text was in between " "
> 
> so that whole block of text wasnt directed at you, it was a quote from a question asked on rips starting strength forum regarding locking out the joints
> 
> ...


lol thats what said in my first post to you, asking if it was for someone else because its not related to my question :lol:


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## JohhnyC (Mar 16, 2015)

ohh_danielson said:


> The whole locking out at the top technique will not be settled in this thread, there's no definitive answer really. like most things in bodybuilding someone will tell you to do one thing then someone else will tell you to do the opposite.
> 
> *Do what works for you *


Goes with many exercises that

in all my years i have never had a single issue doing bench and its the one exercise i never skip. Always lock out

Hurt or sprained just about every other part of my body at some point or other


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## Dawson86 (Aug 17, 2014)

once I've set up and unracked to bar it will be at lock directly above my collarbone. I then lower the bar slowly toward my nips bringing my elbows towards my body(approx 60 degree to torso at the bottom)and touch the bar against the lower part of my pec (nip level or just below).

Then depending on the weight I'll either initiate the press with leg drive or just start to press, as the bar hits the halfway point flat my elbows and finish with my tris to lock out.


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## DappaDonDave (Dec 2, 2013)

Lower it two to three inches and push it back up... 16. 1/2 reps is 8 full reps...


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## Joe Shmoe (Jan 12, 2009)

I do half reps these days as all the way to chest causes me pain, so stop around 4 inches from chest. It works for me.


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## freddee (Mar 2, 2009)

I saw two young lads yesterday, they were slightly bending their arms while lay on a bench, they started out with 15kg a side, slightly bent their arms then when up to 30kg a side then done much the same, went over to DB incline, working too heavy, the only time I said anything is when they had two sets of DB's out and I noticed one fella put his down by the side of the bench, this is where the other DB's where, I have seen someone nearly take a finger off before and didn't want to see it again, so told them, but god did I want to tell them about there deplorable training!


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## JonSupps (Apr 24, 2015)

Nice one freddee. People don't like being corrected but damn it's just for their own good.

I usually just touch the chest (without bouncing like a madman) and go up again. Imagine going to the chest on the way down like you had a piece of glass (or PVC). Just touch it and go up again.


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## peanutbob69 (Aug 26, 2010)

Lightly touch the chest and then forcefully up. If you don't feel comfortable touching your chest then the weight is too heavy.


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