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By Root 603 0

a quarter-inch off the bench during the rep; think about touching the bench with your hair instead of with your head. If your head is held off the bench, your neck muscles are tight. It is tempting to use the neck to push the bench, as it adds contracted muscle and tightness to the upper back area, but it is too dangerous a habit to let become established in a novice lifter. If you become a competitive lifter and decide that pushing your head forcefully into the bench is enough help to your bench press to warrant the risk, fine. But save that for later, when you’re in a better position to evaluate the cost/benefit situation.

Figure 5-23. The preferred position of the neck and head during the bench press. Cervical injury can result from pressing the head into the bench under very heavy weights, and this position prevents the improper use of the neck muscles in this situation.

Likewise, do not get in the habit of shifting your head so that your eyes can see one side of the bench uprights when you’re racking the weight. Doing so requires that your fatigued neck rotate under a load, and this is just plain old dumb. You know where the rack is, and if your grip has been set correctly, your elbows are locked, and your spotter has been instructed even a tiny bit, the bar will get back into the rack just fine without your having to look at one side of the uprights.

Lower back, hips, and legs

The bench press is an upper-body exercise, but since the lifter’s feet are on the floor, everything between the feet and the upper body has the potential to be somewhat involved in the exercise. The lower back and the hips and legs are thus the connection between the ground and the upper back. Strictly speaking, the kinetic chain begins at the bar and ends at the upper-back/bench interface; the legs are not in the kinetic chain because the movement can be performed with a large percentage of 1RM with the feet up in the air. Since the movement itself is not dependent on the feet and legs, they are not part of the kinetic chain (kinetic = movement, chain = components), in the same way that the arms are not part of the kinetic chain of the squat. But the correctly utilized back, hip, and leg positions actually represent an important connection to the ground. In the same way the arms are a necessary connection to the bar in the squat, even though they’re not an actual part of the kinetic chain, the legs do more than stabilize the lower body as the bar is moved through its path, although that is a major part of their function. Used correctly, the legs drive against the floor, transferring force horizontally along the bench through the hips into the arched back to reinforce the arch and keep the chest in its high position, established when the shoulders were pulled back. The legs and hips thus function as a brace for the chest and shoulders, giving the upper body a connection to the floor and allowing the lower body to contribute to the movement.

Figure 5-24. Force applied by the legs from the floor acts as a stabilizing force during the bench press and contributes to proper exercise posture.

Before you have a chance to misinterpret, this is not the same thing as bridging or heaving the bar. That happens when the butt actually comes off the bench. Correct use of the legs and hips involves only the maintenance of chest and back position, with the force directed horizontally along the bench and not vertically up off of the bench. The descent of the bar tends to drive the elevated chest back down, taking arch out of the back if it is inadequately supported. The legs drive from the feet against the floor, back up along the bench, using a controlled isometric knee extension, with a slight hip extension produced by isometric contraction of the glutes and hamstrings. They actively counter the loss of arch in the back and chest height by reinforcing the arch from the floor.

Figure 5-25. Not the same thing as described in the previous figure. This is bridging, and it is a bad habit to acquire.

But a common problem usually