Starting Strength

is uncomfortable enough already, without your exacerbating the problem with a lack of good support. Keeping the chest up holds the thoracic spine in proper anatomical position, and this is primarily accomplished with the upper back muscles and your breathing pattern. When the upper erector spinae muscles contract, they rotate the rib cage up, holding it in place against the load on the shoulders. Remembering to “lift the chest” is usually all that is required, but most people will need to really focus on this in every rep for a while. The attention span can be short under a bar, especially a heavy bar on the front of the shoulders, and focusing on technique gets more difficult as the weight gets heavier. A big held breath – the same Valsalva maneuver that is used for all barbell exercises – is your friend during the press. Air is support, in this case for the rib cage as well as for the spine, and the act of tightening and lifting the chest is so enmeshed in the action of taking a big breath under a heavy load that the two are essentially inseparable. They happen at the same time and they signal each other to happen.

    Figure 3-20. Lifting the chest is primarily a function of the upper back muscles.

    You will have to take a new breath before each rep, at least for a while, or you risk a “blackout” at heavier weights. Vasovagal syncope is the term applied to a blackout or fainting. It can be caused by a sympathetic/parasympathetic nervous system response to 1) pressure on the neck from the bar, 2) the shrugged lockout position, and/or 3) the general effects of the anterior bar position’s load on the vascular structure in the neck that is known as the carotid sinus. Pressure applied to the carotid sinus by any of these three mechanisms can produce a blackout in susceptible people by reducing the heart rate at exactly the wrong time (interestingly enough, this seldom happens in women). The phenomenon is not directly related to the Valsalva itself because a loaded Valsalva is not a problem for healthy people in the squat, bench press, or deadlift, in which the loaded Valsalva results in increased blood flow to the brain. The chances of a blackout happening increases markedly if you do not release the pressure between each rep by taking a new breath.
    Blackouts under the bar can be a problem because if you fall, your weight room surroundings are never a comfortable place to land in a big heap with a loaded barbell. The press and the rack position of the clean are the only two places that blacking out is usually a problem, so be prepared if it happens. You will feel a change in perception before the event occurs. If possible, rack or drop the bar. If the feeling persists or gets worse (your knees will begin to wobble), take a knee so you’ll have a shorter distance to fall. The blackout itself is harmless and will pass in a few seconds with no lasting effects; the fall is the problem, so be careful.
    The other way to be loose is to let the elbows and the shoulders slide down, or to never get them up in the correct position. When you fail to hold the elbows up, the shoulders drop, too. This combination not only places the elbows in a bad mechanical position to press, but also lets the bar drop down the chest a little, thereby adding to the distance the bar must be pressed. A longer bar path means more work done on the weight from a worse position, thus decreasing the weight you can lift that way. Keep your shoulders up and your elbows just in front of the bar so that the bar path is shorter and more efficient and the bottom position is better supported between reps.
    Using an inefficient bar path
     
    The second major problem is an inefficient bar path. Barbells like to move in straight vertical lines, and your job is to arrange your body movements so that the bar can do this. You have to lean back before the press starts, and 95% of people will not lean back enough to enable the bar to clear the chin without introducing forward movement into the bar path. Leaning back enables you to perform the press efficiently. Make up your mind that you are going to lean back before you start every rep of the press.
    The heavier the weight, the greater the tendency for the bar path to head away from the shoulder joints. When the distance between the shoulder joints and the bar gets to the point where the leverage created by this moment arm exceeds your strength – even if the load itself does not – you will get stuck