Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [106]
This is not to say that everybody with their feet up under the hips will bridge. But most lifters who bridge do so from this position. A little wider foot position, particularly with the feet in full contact with the floor, will make it difficult to bridge because the slack has been taken out of the hips.
The proper position for the feet is flat against the floor so that the heels can be used as the base of the drive up the legs. As with most of the things in the weight room, your heels need to be nailed down to the floor. If you are up on your toes, you cannot use the force of knee extension nearly as efficiently as you can if your heels are planted, unless your feet are back under the hips. Flat feet are stickier feet, better connected to the ground through more surface area. A less-than-flat position represents a less-than-complete kinetic chain. Any rolling of the feet to either side during a rep implies that the knees have moved, the chain has loosened, or the floor connection has been interrupted. If you keep your heels down, driving off of them with flat feet, the problem goes away.
A bad problem when it occurs is an actual foot slip. It usually happens when the weight is very heavy and the floor connection is loaded heavily and therefore crucial. A foot slip results in a disruption and collapse of the lower-body support for the kinetic chain, and usually a missed rep or attempt, and any miss with a heavy bar can be dangerous. A foot slip is usually caused by conditions on the surface of the floor or the soles of the shoes, like the presence of baby powder (as is used on the legs in the deadlift in meets, or as an aid in putting on a tight squat suit) or just a dirty floor.
There are people – usually casual trainers, fitness enthusiasts, or retired powerlifters – who insist on benching with their feet up on the bench or even held up in the air (Figure 5-29). The effect of either position is to eliminate the use of the lower body during the movement and thus make the bench press less efficient than it would be with the brace against the floor. It is useful for a trainee with a lower-back injury that makes spinal extension painful, distracting, or otherwise contraindicated, but who still needs to bench. If you prefer to bench with your feet up, it might be due to lower back discomfort caused by a lack of lumbar flexibility; if the spinal ligaments are too tight to permit the degree of spinal extension that the normal bench position requires, stretching is in order. If your back is okay, you should be able to keep your feet down on the floor. Blocks or barbell plates can be used to add height to the floor for inflexible people until they stretch out or to accommodate shorter-legged trainees. The net effect of the use of the lower body is to increase the weight that can be lifted, so putting your feet up lowers the amount of weight lifted, but the exercise can still be done without it. The decision to do a feet-up bench should be made by a lifter who is cognizant of the benefits of training around injuries and the limitations inherent in doing it this way.
Figure 5-29. The knees-up position in the bench press is less stable than the conventional position and should not be used by novice lifters.
Breathing
As it is for all barbell exercises, air is support for the bench press. In the squat and deadlift, the Valsalva maneuver (as described in the Squat chapter) provides increased back support. In the bench press, it provides support for the chest. This support takes the form of increased tightness throughout the