Starting Strength, 3rd Edition - Mark Rippetoe [93]
Figure 5-6 . Grip width for the bench press.
You are now ready to take the bar out of the rack. Look directly up at the ceiling, above your position on the bench, and push up on the bar, locking out your elbows. With elbows locked, move the bar out to a position directly over the line of your shoulder joints – the glenohumeral joints – to place your arms in a perfectly vertical position relative to the joints and thus to the floor. Don’t stop before you get the bar over your chest, because if you do, the bar will be over your chin or throat. Make sure the bar gets out to the place it needs to be, right over the joint. This is the place where the bar is in balance at lockout, where there is no moment arm between the bar and the fulcrum that is the shoulder joint. Move the bar to this position quickly and without hesitation, with your elbows locked out the entire time. Your spotter can help you do this the first few times, just making sure the bar clears your face and neck and gets all the way out over your chest.
Figure 5-7. The bar is in balance when it is vertically aligned with the glenohumeral joints. Any horizontal distance between the bar and the balance point represents a moment arm that must be worked against. The distance between the rack and the start position is a significant moment arm at heavy weights, and the spotter’s job is to help the lifter deal with this bad mechanical position. (M.A.= moment arm)
As the bar becomes stable in the lockout position, look at the very important picture directly overhead. You will be staring at the ceiling directly above the bar, and the ceiling with the bar in the foreground will comprise your entire field of vision. This picture is your reference for the path the bar will take as you move it down and up. You will see the bar against the ceiling in the lower half of your field of vision. Look at the bar’s position relative to the features you see on the surface of the ceiling. Don’t look at the bar; look at the ceiling and just see the bar. Move the bar a tiny bit. Notice that if the bar moves even a little, you can tell by the change it makes against the ceiling. The bar moves and the ceiling does not, and the ceiling is therefore your position reference for the bar.
Figure 5-8. View from the trainee’s position on the bench. The position of the bar is referenced against the ceiling. Note the focus; the eyes look at the ceiling, not at the bar.
Note carefully the position of the bar against the ceiling. You will lower the bar to your chest, touch the chest, and then drive the bar right back to exactly the same position. Stare at the place on the ceiling where the bar is to go. DO NOT look at the bar as it moves; do NOT follow the bar with your eyes, but just stare at the ceiling. You are going to make the bar go to that place every rep.
With the bar locked out over the shoulders, have your spotter touch your chest a few inches below (inferior to) the bar’s vertical position, at about the middle of your sternum. Have him push hard enough that you can feel it after he takes the finger away. This tactile cue will quite effectively identify the point on your chest to touch the bar. If there is no spotter and you are benching alone inside a rack, unlock your elbows straight out to the sides and then allow them to drop towards your feet a little on the way down. Just a little. If you do this correctly, the net effect will be the same as the spotter’s touch – the bar will contact your sternum a few inches below your clavicles, and therefore below your shoulder joints. Note that the precise position the bar should contact the sternum will vary with the chest up position of the lifter on the bench, but the middle of the sternum, a few inches below the clavicles, is a good place to start. The goal here is to produce a bar path that is not vertical, for