Do you touch the bar to your chest on flat bench?

[babymonkey]

Is there some sort of research done on this? Is it better to touch the bar to your chest or to stop an inch or so from your chest and then go up? I've seen it both ways. I used to always touch my chest but found myself bouncing the bar sometimes to help get it up (the bar...HA,HA). I just started stopping the bar an inch from my chest and found I had a little more control. I don't know why but it just felt that way. Is there any concrete info on this or is it all opinion on what works best for you?

 

[needsize]

I've always beieved that the longer the range of motion, the more muscle fibres you stimulate, which in turn means more growth. So when I bench I lower the bar all the way to my chest, and lock out at the top of each rep (some people dont like to lockout). The key is to keep it slow and in control

 

[thriller]

i always touch the chest. i always use the most range of motion possible in every exercises

 

[spatts]

I never touch it to, or above, the chest...I bench to my sternum.

That in mind, if I want to eliminate any momentum, and train my speed out of the pause, I "touch down" on the sternum and pause, but I don't let it just sit there. Gotta stay tight.

 

[BodybuildingUniverse]

if you dont touch — it aint a bench!

 

[babymonkey]

I said chest but meant the bottom of my sternum. Between Spatts' and Needsize's posts, I need not look any further. They are both a source of true wisdom. I just felt phylosophical for a minute. Thanks.

 

[duritz]

go to a powerlifting competition. You gotta pause at the sternum for 2 secs and then press in order for them to consider it a press. If you practice doing this during your sets, with full control you will have godlike strength. The guys who use momentum or the wusses who don't even touch their chest don't train their entire muscle. You need full range of motion. I have taken this pause to an art form. I can pretty much pause with 315 on my chest for a rep. I weigh 205 btw. I like the idiots in the gym who need you to bump them up when they do dumbells on their first rep. If you can't press it from scratch you shouldn't do it. I can easily take the 100s and pause for like 15 secs on the bottom of the rep and still press them during incline press. That shows true for and power Sorry to ramble on

 

[Lord_Suston]

Always have touched, no bouncing but a controlled pause then explode out of the hole....

 

[RusPA81]

Unless you have somekind of shoulder injury that prevents you from going all the way down you should always go down to the chest. Those last few inches are important. I am not actually suppose to go all the way down because I tore my rotator cuff playing football in high school, but I still do it and have had no problems even though my doctor recommended against it.

 

[Victorian guy]

Injury concerns

If you are using a weight that you can handle for 10 reps, then go all the way down.
But I say that on maximum effort sets, when you shoot for 3-5 reps, you dont go all the way down...

What I'd like to know is what part of the movement benching injuries occur at...haven't had a bench injury yet, though I have had back, shoulder and chest injuries from other movements.