Benching with the Pecs

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  • Benching with the Pecs

    Benching with the Pecs

    There are a lot of problems people have in the gym but one of the more common is the complaint of “I can’t feel my pecs when I bench”. In the majority of cases, this is simply because the person was never taught to bench press and use the pecs.

    Some gurus even go so far as to say that the bench press sucks for chest development, which usually means that
    1. They never learned how to use the pecs while benching.
    2. They never figured out how to teach anybody to use the pecs while benching.

    Both of which are fairly poor reasons to completely discount an exercise.
    In fact, I suspect one of the reasons bodybuilders became so enamored of cable crossovers following benching is because they weren’t using their pecs to bench in the first place. So they would throw around a bunch of weight to impress their buddies and then go get some actual pec stimulation on the crossover cables.

    In any case, in two simple steps I’m going to teach you how to bench with your pecs.
    I want to make it very clear that what I’m describing primarily applies to individuals benching for either hypertrophy or general fitness. Some of it applies to powerlifting bench pressing but there are different issues involved there and that’s not what I’m talking about. So, please no nasty comments about how “That advice sucks when you’re benching 700 lbs in an open backed denim shirt.”

    To understand what I’m going to describe, you need to understand what the pecs actually do. While they have several other minor functions, their primary function is to pull the upper arm (the humerus) across the body towards the midline. That’s what cable crossovers, flyes or the pec deck train. For the technically minded, this is called adduction (in this case it’s actually called horizontal adduction but I’ll spare you the distinction). Adduction means bringing something towards the midline of the body.

    Now, when you bench press, if you actually watch the upper arm, it is pulled across the body. Just like on the pec deck, flyes, etc. The difference is what’s going on at the elbow which is bending and extending. This is most of what screws people up.

    As well, people often think of the bench press conceptually as ‘push the bar away’ from the body. Invariably what this does is make it a front delt and triceps exercise, the pecs aren’t involved. I found years ago working with clients that telling them to ‘push the weight away’ made them use delts and triceps. Teaching them the following got their pecs involved. At that point, I worked mainly with beginners and I could get them doing this in two sessions tops.

    So, to use the pecs in benching means learning to pull the arms across the body while you’re benching.

    This has to occur while you’re doing two things
    1. Extending at the elbow
    2. Keeping your shoulder blades pinned back. This is important because, as soon as your upper back rounds, you will have little success using your pecs. I’ll detail this aspect of bench pressing in a future article.

    So here’s how to learn to bench with the pecs. You should be doing this immediately prior to bench pressing, you’ll need to strip some weight off the bar if you want to learn how to do it right. Don’t worry about your muscles falling off, your pecs will be getting a better stimulus with the lighter weight. Since we were at home when I decided to write this piece, my lovely model is showing this movement standing up. You’ll be sitting on the flat bench you intend to use.

    Step 1: Figure out what the pecs do

    For this part, I want you to put one of your hands on the opposite pec (i.e. left hand on right pec as shown below). Now perform a dumbbell flye movement as shown below. Focus on feeling the pec pulling the upper arm across the body. As above, this is what happens when you do flyes or the pec deck. This step is just to get you feeling what the pec is doing.




    Note in the second picture how you can see the pec activating as the upper arm is pulled across the body.

    Step 2: Do this while performing a bench press movement

    After 2-3 repetitions of the exercise in step 1, I want you to perform a bench press movement. So bring the arm back and bend at the elbow until you’re in the position that you’d be in the bottom of the bench. Now perform a bench movement, extending at the elbow but do it while thinking of “pulling” the upper arm across the body. You should feel the exact same thing you felt in step 1. This is what should happen when you have the bar in your hands as well. This is shown below.




    Again, as she’s about halfway through the bench in the second picture, you can clearly see the pec firing.

    Clearly you’d continue with this action as you completed the full bench pressing movement.

    After 2-3 repetitions of Step 2 (more if you need it), immediately lay back and bring out the bar for bench pressing. Pull your shoulders back underneath you, get your chest up, and try to do the exact same thing you did in Step 2: lower the bar to your chest and then focus on pulling your upper arms across your body as you “press” the weight up.

    Do 8-10 repetitions (as noted, you should be using a fairly light weight) and make sure you feel your pecs firing. If you need to, repeat step 1 and 2 above between sets of benching until you really have it nailed. You’ll need to work with relatively lighter weights for a few workouts until it really becomes habitual but you’ll be targeting your pecs much better than when you were just “pushing the weight up” and using nothing but front delts and triceps.

    Good luck with your muscles.
    Last edited by inferno_0666; 14-05-2012, 10:15.
    I know from teaching hundreds of seminars that the guys who say they have “awesome technique” are usually the biggest disasters—their ego just doesn’t let them see it.
    - Dave Tate

  • #2
    Kijk dit is nou eens een artikel! Deed het gelukkig al wat hij allemaal zegt, maar heb lang dezelfde fouten gemaakt.

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by inferno_0666 View Post
      Benching with the Pecs

      There are a lot of problems people have in the gym but one of the more common is the complaint of “I can’t feel my pecs when I bench”. In the majority of cases, this is simply because the person was never taught to bench press and use the pecs.

      Some gurus even go so far as to say that the bench press sucks for chest development, which usually means that
      1. They never learned how to use the pecs while benching.
      2. They never figured out how to teach anybody to use the pecs while benching.

      Both of which are fairly poor reasons to completely discount an exercise.
      In fact, I suspect one of the reasons bodybuilders became so enamored of cable crossovers following benching is because they weren’t using their pecs to bench in the first place. So they would throw around a bunch of weight to impress their buddies and then go get some actual pec stimulation on the crossover cables.

      In any case, in two simple steps I’m going to teach you how to bench with your pecs.
      I want to make it very clear that what I’m describing primarily applies to individuals benching for either hypertrophy or general fitness. Some of it applies to powerlifting bench pressing but there are different issues involved there and that’s not what I’m talking about. So, please no nasty comments about how “That advice sucks when you’re benching 700 lbs in an open backed denim shirt.”

      To understand what I’m going to describe, you need to understand what the pecs actually do. While they have several other minor functions, their primary function is to pull the upper arm (the humerus) across the body towards the midline. That’s what cable crossovers, flyes or the pec deck train. For the technically minded, this is called adduction (in this case it’s actually called horizontal adduction but I’ll spare you the distinction). Adduction means bringing something towards the midline of the body.

      Now, when you bench press, if you actually watch the upper arm, it is pulled across the body. Just like on the pec deck, flyes, etc. The difference is what’s going on at the elbow which is bending and extending. This is most of what screws people up.

      As well, people often think of the bench press conceptually as ‘push the bar away’ from the body. Invariably what this does is make it a front delt and triceps exercise, the pecs aren’t involved. I found years ago working with clients that telling them to ‘push the weight away’ made them use delts and triceps. Teaching them the following got their pecs involved. At that point, I worked mainly with beginners and I could get them doing this in two sessions tops.

      So, to use the pecs in benching means learning to pull the arms across the body while you’re benching.

      This has to occur while you’re doing two things
      1. Extending at the elbow
      2. Keeping your shoulder blades pinned back. This is important because, as soon as your upper back rounds, you will have little success using your pecs. I’ll detail this aspect of bench pressing in a future article.

      So here’s how to learn to bench with the pecs. You should be doing this immediately prior to bench pressing, you’ll need to strip some weight off the bar if you want to learn how to do it right. Don’t worry about your muscles falling off, your pecs will be getting a better stimulus with the lighter weight. Since we were at home when I decided to write this piece, my lovely model is showing this movement standing up. You’ll be sitting on the flat bench you intend to use.

      Step 1: Figure out what the pecs do

      For this part, I want you to put one of your hands on the opposite pec (i.e. left hand on right pec as shown below). Now perform a dumbbell flye movement as shown below. Focus on feeling the pec pulling the upper arm across the body. As above, this is what happens when you do flyes or the pec deck. This step is just to get you feeling what the pec is doing.




      Note in the second picture how you can see the pec activating as the upper arm is pulled across the body.

      Step 2: Do this while performing a bench press movement

      After 2-3 repetitions of the exercise in step 1, I want you to perform a bench press movement. So bring the arm back and bend at the elbow until you’re in the position that you’d be in the bottom of the bench. Now perform a bench movement, extending at the elbow but do it while thinking of “pulling” the upper arm across the body. You should feel the exact same thing you felt in step 1. This is what should happen when you have the bar in your hands as well. This is shown below.




      Again, as she’s about halfway through the bench in the second picture, you can clearly see the pec firing.

      Clearly you’d continue with this action as you completed the full bench pressing movement.

      After 2-3 repetitions of Step 2 (more if you need it), immediately lay back and bring out the bar for bench pressing. Pull your shoulders back underneath you, get your chest up, and try to do the exact same thing you did in Step 2: lower the bar to your chest and then focus on pulling your upper arms across your body as you “press” the weight up.

      Do 8-10 repetitions (as noted, you should be using a fairly light weight) and make sure you feel your pecs firing. If you need to, repeat step 1 and 2 above between sets of benching until you really have it nailed. You’ll need to work with relatively lighter weights for a few workouts until it really becomes habitual but you’ll be targeting your pecs much better than when you were just “pushing the weight up” and using nothing but front delts and triceps.

      Good luck with your muscles.
      Interessant stuk!

      Heb het zelf ook dat ik mijn borst minder voel als ik bench doe. En alles wat hierin staat komt gewoon overeen met wat ik verkeerd doe. Als ik bench voel ik het enorm in mijn schouders en armen en een beetje in mijn borst. Durf zelfs zeggen als iemand zou drukken op mijn borst terwijl ik bench dat mijn borst amper is aangespannen.

      Volgende keer dat ik bench, minder gewicht pakken en meer focussen op borst aanspannen.
      Stop sitting back thinking, saying yeah man that 'd be cool, that 'd be cool, I want to be this I want to be that, grab your fucking nuts and be it!!

      Comment


      • #4
        Zeer welkom dit artikel!

        Ik heb het soms dat ik het totaal niet in mijn borst voel, en de andere keer staat mijn borst weer in de fik...

        Soms voel ik een rare steek in mijn rug net naast mijn lats zeg maar, iemand dit ook weleens gehad? Maar als het vanavond weer zo is, dan zal ik dit is toepassen!
        "The past is seldom as we would have it. The future yet to be known. Embrace the present and strike all else from concern."

        SQ: 120 - BP: 95 - DL: 155 - Mp: 55

        Comment


        • #5
          zeer goed artikel Inf. Zeer makkelijk uitgelegd ook. Ik heb echt geen idee of ik het wel goed deed dus haha. Ga ik eens even uitvoerig in de gaten houden. bedankt! ;-).

          Comment


          • #6
            Ik heb voorheen zolang verkeerde gebencht.. ging geen steek vooruit zowel in gewicht als in massa, maar de laatste tijd gefocust op de techniek en druk nu zeker 15kg meer en pecs krijgen al wat meer vorm.
            Benchen met je borstspieren is cruciaal! Muscle-mind heeft hier ook zeker baat bij.
            Current status: Bulkin' and gainin'

            "The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something. You can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."

            Comment


            • #7
              Bij met stang banken voel ik mijn pecs amper, maar ik heb vrij lange armen dus dan komt het vooral op triceps aan.
              Lid van de 200 club

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by joachimrens View Post
                Bij met stang banken voel ik mijn pecs amper, maar ik heb vrij lange armen dus dan komt het vooral op triceps aan.
                Mischien doe je het wel niet goed he? Lijkt wel of jij altijd alles op je torso beschuldigt.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Erg moeilijk om hier op te letten.
                  Kan zelf ook moeilijk mijn pecs aanspannen met benchen volgens mij.
                  Er zijn geen excuses als je echt iets wilt bereiken.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by talalelh15 View Post
                    Mischien doe je het wel niet goed he? Lijkt wel of jij altijd alles op je torso beschuldigt.
                    Ik heb precies hetzelfde en merk echt wel dat het uitmaakt.. vooral bij press oefeningen zoals bankdrukken (stang/dumbbells), shoulder press. Voor rug vindt ik het wel lekker, het is alsnog zwaarder door de langere afstand, maar wel een grotere ROM
                    Current status: Bulkin' and gainin'

                    "The mind is the limit. As long as the mind can envision the fact that you can do something. You can do it, as long as you really believe 100 percent."

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Ik doe eigenlijk vlak voor bijna elke oefening wel even zonder gewicht en met een hand op de spier wat reps, precies zoals hij beschrijft. Heb dan tijdens mijn set veel beter in de gaten wat aan te spannen etc. Ben veel effectiever gaan trainen sinds ik dat consequent doe
                      "People laugh and call me lazy, while they twit around in their three-hour workout making zero progress. Sometimes, instead of what you do in the weight room, it's what you don't do that will lead to success."

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Wilcodemug View Post
                        Ik heb precies hetzelfde en merk echt wel dat het uitmaakt.. vooral bij press oefeningen zoals bankdrukken (stang/dumbbells), shoulder press. Voor rug vindt ik het wel lekker, het is alsnog zwaarder door de langere afstand, maar wel een grotere ROM
                        Mij maakt het niet zoveel uit, techniek is wel redelijk maar als je stang gebruikt kan je meer je triceps benutten omdat je ook horizontale krachten kunt gebruiken, als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel. Ik voel het wel een beetje met stang maar pompsets doe ik liever met dumbells. Tal jij traint toch ook lage reps met pressoefeningen? Voel je dat dan in je pecs?
                        Lid van de 200 club

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Als de hiervoor beschreven methode nog niet werkt--> pre-exhaust met cable flyes. Als je dan bencht voel je je pecs al veel beter, en is het makkelijker om te focussen op het aanspannen van je pecs.
                          "Een zoektocht naar kennis moet los staan van het moreel van goed of kwaad, anders is die toch gedoemd niet volledig te zijn." - Genjuro

                          sigpic

                          "Rock is overpowered. Paper is fine" -Scissors-

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Originally posted by GeneralIx View Post
                            Als de hiervoor beschreven methode nog niet werkt--> pre-exhaust met cable flyes. Als je dan bencht voel je je pecs al veel beter, en is het makkelijker om te focussen op het aanspannen van je pecs.
                            goede tip, ga ik ook eens proberen!
                            “If you really want to do something, you will find a way; if you don't, you will find a excuse.”

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by joachimrens View Post
                              Mij maakt het niet zoveel uit, techniek is wel redelijk maar als je stang gebruikt kan je meer je triceps benutten omdat je ook horizontale krachten kunt gebruiken, als je begrijpt wat ik bedoel. Ik voel het wel een beetje met stang maar pompsets doe ik liever met dumbells. Tal jij traint toch ook lage reps met pressoefeningen? Voel je dat dan in je pecs?
                              ja zeker wel, ik doe altijd indd 4-6 reps en focus 100% op mijn pecs. Gewoon in gedachte houden en als je dan forced reps doet denken aan dat je borst het werk doet.

                              Comment

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