Starting Strength

applied to other lifts as well. It is a way to conceptualize the lift so that tightness is built in and elastic energy can be stored in the eccentric (negative) phase for use in the concentric drive up. The bench press, like the squat, consists of two movements: lowering the bar and raising the bar. Don’t think about lowering the bar; just think about driving it up . As you lower the bar down to your chest, you should be thinking about driving up hard, not about the descent. Focus on up only. In an attempt to get ready for the upward drive, you will slow down the descent and be tighter as the bar approaches your chest, thus improving your rebound efficiency and minimizing rib cage bounce. By thinking about driving up while the bar is on the way down, you will have focused on the thing you are actually trying to do, at the best point in the movement to start the process. Lowering the bar is awfully easy, and if you think past that to the drive, you will slow your descent as you prepare to actively drive the bar up. This excellent technique works for any exercise with an initial eccentric component.
     
    Upper back
     
    This important group of muscles has two functions. First, the upper back needs to be planted firmly against the bench and used as a platform to drive against while the arms drive the bar up. When this is done correctly, the shoulder blades will be adducted, or pulled together, to make a flat spot on the upper back to push against the bench itself. This stable platform is the anatomical surface against which the kinetic chain begins. Stated another way, when you bench press, you drive the bench and the bar apart – the bar moves and the bench doesn’t, but you push against both ( Figure 5-20 ). The upper back and shoulders push against the bench, and they need to be tight while doing so, just as the hands are tight against the bar. Second, the shoulders in their adducted position, and the upper back muscles as they contract and rotate or “tilt” the upper back into a chest-up position, push the rib cage up and hold the chest higher above the bench. This approach increases the mechanical efficiency of the pec/delt contraction by steepening the angle of attack on the humerus, as discussed earlier.

    Figure 5-20. Just as we do when climbing a chimney (it still happens occasionally, really), when benching, we are in between and pushing against two opposing things. When we are benching, the bar moves and the bench does not.

    Keeping your back tight is sometimes a difficult thing to do, since so many other things are going on at the same time. So it needs to be learned in such a way that it requires little active attention. Think about the “driving against the bench” model and why you need your chest up. Then sit on the bench in the same position you assume before lying down to take the bar. Before you lie down, imagine a hand touching you right between the shoulder blades, as illustrated in Figure 5-21 , and imagine pinching the hand between your shoulder blades. This pinching will also cause you to raise your chest as your upper back tightens, further contributing to a good position. Now actively raise your chest, lifting it up as if to show someone your boobs (Again, sorry for the coarse analogy, but you now know exactly how to produce the contraction). This is the position you will take against the bench. Now lie down, take the bar out, and assume this position, making sure your shoulder blades are together and your chest is up high. Do a few reps, correcting your position before and after each one and focusing intently on the way it feels to do it correctly. This way, the position becomes embedded quickly and you can assume it without a lot of conscious thought or direction.

    Figure 5-21. Retract the shoulder blades by thinking about pinching a hand between them. This effectively tightens the upper back for pushing against the bench.

    During the lift, minimal shoulder movement should occur. If the shoulders move much, something in the upper back has loosened and the chest has lost some of its “up” position. The thing that moves is the elbow. Now, it should be obvious that the humerus moves within the glenohumeral joint, so the shoulder movement referred to here is the forward shrug that novices often add to the end of the bench press before being coached. Some minimal scapular movement is unavoidable, particularly in a set of more than a couple of reps, but if it is excessive, it will