Quote:
Originally Posted by n4rf
Bench took me the longest to actually get "correct" and I still don't feel I have it all figured out.
So much going on with the breathing, shoulder blades, arch, tightness of abs, legs, grip, back. All this crap going on, it drives you crazy when first learning. Def gets to be second nature soon enough
Then you throw in leg drive and you're like CMON MAN
Yeah, bench is a bitch. I'm quickly finding it to be the most technically difficult lift for me. I had been dismissing it as a "bro" exercise for too long, but there's actually a ton going on there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RUDIKULOUS
Bench is stupid. I never felt really solid at it until I got some coaching from guys I lift with regularly. Another thing I think helped a bit was I stopped doing the same stupid accessory stuff every time. I used to do a ton of pushdowns and really nothing else, maybe some db bench. Recently I've added in a few more things. Some anecdotal evidence of it working is my pushdowns are way stronger than ever after a long break from them too, on top of bench feeling strong.
DFII posted something a few months back I liked and I'm going to try if I do 5/3/1 bench again is to do the AMRAP all the way down the 3 sets.
I think you make a good point about the assistance exercises. I've fallen in love with a few of them and basically haven't changed anything in about a year. I think that's worth doing.
I did some research last night and came away feeling very prepared to attack the upcoming cycles of 5/3/1. One principle I learned from the mental game of poker is that you're only as strong as your weakest link. I'm going to try to adopt that principle to powerlifting and start strengthening my sticking points.
Here's a phenomenal article on t-nation about sticking points and what needs to be strengthened in order to blast through them.
http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_..._point_therapy
My sticking points are:
Bench: 2-3 inches off chest [weak point: anterior delts]
Squat: a foot above the hole [weak point: quads]
Deadlift: breaking the floor [weak point: quads]
I'll do some research over the next week and try to find some assistance to improve my quad strength. The dips+DB flys that I recently added in should help with my anterior delts for bench.
One other observation on my bench is that I've been benching with a 'touch-and-go' style. I think a good plan would be to drastically reset my bench (~80%), and switch to a style where I pause every rep for a second or two. I think the touch-and-go style has allowed me to get by without developing much 'off the chest' strength. I'm also hoping to do my first meet in may, so it's worth learning the pause for that.