How low do you bring the bar when pressing?

[ConstantChange]

How low do you bring the bar down when doing flat barbell bench and incline BB bench?

I've always brought the down all the way and touched my chest. The PT at my gym always has all of his clients bring the bar down until their upper arms are parallel to the floor and then back up. So their is still 3-4+ inches between the chest and the bar.

Another guy that works at the gym was showing some younger guys this at the gym the other day too. He was saying after your arms go past parallel to the floor you're no longer targeting the chest. He had them feel their chest muscle while they brought their arm down and notice how it no longer has pressure past parallel.

I'm just curious what everyone here has to say about it.

 

[spatts]

All the way to my belly button.

 

[ConstantChange]

This is referring to the bodybuilding/conventional style press.

 

[Mike_Rojas]

Those PT's are smoking something.

 

[Thaibox]

I always tap just slightly then launch

 

[louden_swain]

I bring the bar lower than my sternum. . . . into my lungs and heart.

 

[jackangel]

So you don't need your chest off the bottom?

A bench press is defined by a full ROM, imo. If I'm not hitting the chest, I'm not doing a bench. I like doing the bench as I understand it, and even if I do it primarily for chest development, I'll take whatever else I can get. There's no good reason not to use a full ROM, unless it's not possible without pain.

 

[ffknight84]

i TOUCH about 1/2 inch below my nips

 

[sinjinsmythe33]

i cant take my eyes off you pic

to the nipple on flat, clavicle on incline.

 

[Devastation]

roughly half way between nipples and belly button

 

[spatts]

roughly half way between nipples and belly button

Pay attention D, he's talking to BODYBUILDERS! lol...

 

[Devastation]

Pay attention D, he's talking to BODYBUILDERS! lol...

ah, shit..... Nevermind

 

[sk*]

I see so many people doing that half rep shit, pathetic ... (and I don't mean a board press)

Bring it down to your chest, you damn sure will feel it.

-sk

 

[c3ntrifug3]

The one thing about telling new kids to go to their chest is that they'll probably start bouncing it when they get into heavy weight. Go all the way down only if you can do so with the weight under control, I'd say.

Plus some people don't have very flexible delts, I guess.

 

[Liftbig]

to my belly

 

[spatts]

to my belly

I give up.

 

[jeremys]

upper gut

 

[Tiervexx]

I’ve seen a lot of people that just bench that just do half reps, and they all have one thing in common. THEY ARE VERY PUNY. Any PT that honestly believes that half reps (not talking about board presses, that totally different) are a good idea needs to be fired, and/or beaten up by somebody that knows what they are doing.

 

[ConstantChange]

I know a lot of people here use the powerlifting style, which is cool.....I wasn't trying to insinuate anything. It's just the guys telling the other people to only go half way down were using the conventional, elbows wide, bring the bar straight down form.

I didn't mean to start a bodybuilding vs. strength training debate....sorry if I initiated anything.

 

[Parabellum]

All the way to my belly button.

Really, wow that's low.

 

[spatts]

I didn't mean to start a bodybuilding vs. strength training debate....sorry if I initiated anything.

Hahaha...naw, I'm just bein' ornery.

Very nice avatar, BTW.

 

[BigBadBootyDaddy29]

Regardless of what style you use to bench or where on your body the bar touches, it should ALWAYS touch, the PT's at that gym don't know what they're talking about, this is why I don't necessarily just automatically respect someone because they have a paper saying they're a certified trainer. There happens to be a lot of jackasses out there, and the sad thing is the guy's they are training are paying good money to be trained incorrectly.

So, to answer the question, whether you're a BB, PL, bench elbows wide, or tuck em in, TOUCH, always TOUCH, and if you're too injured to touch, find another exercise, cause doing something the wrong way is a waste of time.

 

[Island Son]

Gee.. never even heard of anyone bringing a bench down to the belly button before. I'll have to check it out, thanks for the info.
I ALWAYS bring it down to touch my lower chest, no bouncing. I workout alone so the weight must be my bitch all the way through the rep.

There was one time I was on vacation in Dominican, they had a pushup competition by the pool. A bunch of bigger (and fatter) guys did halfway pushups and figured they won. I beat them by 20 doing flat-body-to-the-floor pushups. Then the last guy (the one after me) did one more than I did, halfway, with his ass in the air. The staff still slipped me a prize cause I got the most applause.

Um.. there's no point to this story, I'm just getting old

 

[SeanHolmz]

To my crotch.