Bench Press Stroke...

[Screwball]

I was curious about the length of other lifters bench press strokes. I am constantly trying to decrease my stroke as I have fairly long arms and I believe this contributes to my relatively poor bench. Do any of you guys ever work on decreasing your bench press stroke? If and when you guys get the opportunity could you measure the distance between your chest and the middle of the barbell while benching with a competition grip and a moderate amount of weight? A bystandard and a measuring tape are all you need.


My current stats:

Competition Grip Bench Stroke (index on rings) - 13 1/2"

Close-grip Bench Stroke (index on smooth) - 16 1/2"

Used a competition set-up with 185 lbs. loaded olympic barbell - raw


I would like to get my bench stroke down to about 10" but for that to happen my already big "Buddha" belly is going to have to grow even further. Thanks for any input.

- Screwball

 

[I'D RATHER BE DEADLIFTING]

I never measured. I'll measure tonight if I remember if somebody is hear to help me. I guarantee mine is long because I am a skinny lil 155-160 lb wuss. Not much of a powerlifting abdomen on me. Oh well.

 

[brianmincher]

hey there screwball,

I don't know it for sure, but I will measure tonight and post it to you. But I can guess that it is only about 8 or 9 inches. I think that there is definately a finite amount that you can reduce your stroke, because your arms, chest and abs are whatever size they are, and you can't do a lot about that.

If you are arching your back, pinching your shoulderblades, and pulling in as much air as possible, then I don't know a lot you could do besides that to shorten your stroke.

I will post again when I know for sure.

B

 

[brianmincher]

I guessed right. Measured it and got 8.5 inches. Unfortunately that is my bench stroke and not . . . something else I was measuring for another message board. Uh never mind.

B

 

[Arioch]

Must be nice. When I arch as much as humanly possible, and I am very flexible, I am still pushing the damn bar 17.5 inches. Laying flat I push it over 22"

I only pull a deadlift 16" (conventional)

 

[koolio]

Try 24 inches!!! I am 6'2" and I weigh around 240 with my upper body dominating the lower in development...I have to get special shirts with a 39" seam...So 470 and soon to be 500 is a nice bench for such a long stroke...My advice is to be careful of overdoing tricep exercises...They need to be strong but you have to be as explosive as possible and just the slightest amount of overtraining could cost you 50 pounds in a meet...

 

[powerlifterjay]

I am about 12 inches. Maybe an inch or 2 off in any direction.

 

[Adam MacKinnon]

IM not sure what mine is but its really small. I have really short arms, when i do close grip floor press the bar is right over my abs/chest and i only weigh 185. I'll check on sunday and let you know.

 

[Screwball]

Bench Stroke...

Thanks for the input guys! It seems like there is a pretty good range of bench stroke lengths. I thought my 13 1/2" stroke was going to be longer than most but I guess mine isn't so bad. I guess I can't use it as an excuse not to be pushing more weight.

Koolio, do you take a very narrow grip when you bench? Do you arch at all? Are you measuring your stroke from chest to mid-bar? 24" seems awfully long. If you are pressing 470-500 lbs. with the length of your stroke then I think that is fucking incredible. That is one hell of a bench!

- Screwball

 

[I'D RATHER BE DEADLIFTING]

Mine is about 14.5". My deadlift stroke(sumo) is about 18".