Transcription
You may have heard this advice on the bench press: try to break the bar. In my opinion, this advice can actually slow down your gains on the bench. So, in this video, we're going to discuss why this advice may actually be more a myth than proper advice. In order to become stronger on your bench, and I'll give you the advice that allowed me to reach the same goal as the first one, so having more lat stability during the bench press, but with much better technique. To the point where, by using this position, I'm able to bench press 2.7 times my body weight in powerlifting competitions. So, without further ado, let's talk about this myth on the bench press, and if you should or shouldn't try to break the bar.
If we actually use this advice and we really try to break the bar, almost like it's a stick I want to break, we actually have two big problems that will definitely prevent you from lifting as much as you can on the bench press with proper technique. The first problem comes with the joint stacking. In order to put it simply, joint stacking is the ability to keep your joints—so, namely in the bench press, your shoulders, your elbows, and your wrists—in line with the barbell. This position actually allows us to lift much more weight because we're using our muscles and our joints in a much more efficient way. So, by breaking the bar, if I were to lower it, as you can see, I've completely lost this joint stacking position. So, instead of being here, now I'm here, and you can see my elbows are actually much further away from what would be the bar. And in this position, you cannot bench press a lot of weight.
Now, if we go to mistake number two, when you tuck your elbows again trying to break the bar, the point of contact of the bar and your chest will be different. So, instead of touching high, like around nipple level, I will now have to touch low on the chest, so much lower than my nipple level. And here, as you can see, the distance between the bar and my shoulder is now greater than it would be here. And because of that, your shoulders will be in a weaker position, just in terms of strength, but also in a weaker position in terms of being able to bench press with good shoulder health. And remember, when we're doing the bench press, instead of having our shoulders forward, we actually want our shoulders back as much as possible because it will allow for better shoulder positioning, and also it will open up the chest, which will allow you to engage your chest muscles more into the movement. And by doing so, you have more strength because more muscle is involved, and also you can more efficiently recruit your chest muscles and have better hypertrophy with the bench press. So, that's actually one of the reasons as to why powerlifters usually have big chest muscles; it's because of that good shoulder positioning. So, by trying to over-tuck your elbows by trying to break the bar, you're actually preventing yourself from doing that.
Let's say you have the best setup on the bench press; if at the moment you initiate the lift, you immediately over-tuck your elbows by trying to break the bar, you're actually destroying all of the good work you're doing with the setup. So, now we've seen why we actually don't want to try to break the bar; let's see what you could be doing in order to improve all of those points we've just seen. So, instead of breaking the bar, I want to bring the bar to my chest. I'm not doing this where the bar is getting further away from me and my shoulders roll forward; I'm actually doing the opposite; I'm bringing the bar to my chest. So, instead of being here, breaking the bar in front, I try to be here; so, bring the bar to my chest. So, by bringing the bar to the chest instead of trying to break it, you're actually solving all of the problems we've just seen. If you bring the bar, I'm not changing the position of my elbows, and I'm keeping them in a straight line with the bar. So, instead of being here, I can stay in this position. And again, remember, better joint stacking allows you to lift much more weight. Now, with the second problem, if I bring the bar to my chest, I can still keep a pretty high touch point between the bar and my chest, like I said, around nipple level; could be a bit above, could be a bit lower, depending on your leverages, but that's usually where you want the bar to touch your chest. So, by doing that, you can keep a high touch point, and more importantly, you can keep your shoulders back. And remember, keeping the shoulders back is key in order to have a good bench press.
Let's see together quickly a cue that I like to use in order to improve that positioning and again reinforcing that bringing the bar to the chest instead of trying to break it. It's so when I'm positioning myself on the bench, when I unrack the bar, I don't want to think about getting the bar away from me and my shoulders being pinned forward. On the contrary, I really want to bring the bar to my chest. This will open up my elbows, and also I will have a much better chest positioning. So, I'm not here trying to break the bar; on the contrary, here, and as you can see, I haven't bent my arms yet; it's just really bringing the bar to my chest, improving that shoulder position into the bench press. So, not here, here, and now I can bench press. On a side note, if some of you guys experience some shoulder pain in the bench press, that could be one of the reasons why, as I explained it earlier, by breaking the bar, by bringing it in, you're lowering the touch point, which creates more stress on the shoulder because now your touch point is not closer to that shoulder line, as you can see here. Imagine I have a line at my shoulder level; if I touch very low, the bar will be further away than it would be if I touch higher on my chest. So, make sure if that's something you're experiencing—so, shoulder pain in the bench press—make sure you're not over-tucking your elbows by trying to break the bar.
Now, there's another question we can ask ourselves, and that question is: why? Why do people say try to break the bar for a good bench press? And I think one of the main reasons as to why is to cue more lat engagement into the bench press. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, but but lats on the bench press are here to mainly support the positioning. So, if you're trying to do something and you're actually changing your upper body mechanics, you're having worse shoulder position, you're having worse chest involvement into the movement, I think it doesn't make a lot of sense. If you want to promote, improve lat engagement, lat support during your bench press, instead of trying to do it by actively trying to break the bar, instead of focusing on breaking the bar at the elbows, I would actually encourage you to imagine you simply want to lower your shoulders. So, like I said, shoulders back, and now in order to engage my lats, I'll just try to lower my shoulders a bit more. And as you can see, this contracts my lats, which allows me to have that good support without changing the position of my elbows and having all of the problems I already described. So, make sure you don't try to break the bar, and especially do not break it at the elbow—so, over-tucking the elbows. On the contrary, imagine it's happening all at the shoulder level; so, shoulders back, now I'm closing my shoulder, so shoulders down; that's how I can feel my lats, and now I can have a proper bench press without all of the problems I just said. And that's how you can have good lat engagement, good lat support in the bench press without compromising your overall positioning. And that was it for today's video, guys. I hope you enjoyed; I hope you learned a couple of things. If that's the case, definitely let me know in the comments; I would like to read some of your comments where I'm giving you a cue and that helps you to lift more weight. I'm sleeping like a baby when I read comments like that, that's so if that's helpful, just let me know. And if you want to support the channel, make sure to subscribe, leave a comment, and I'll catch you guys in the next one.