Bench press shirt technique

“Moving the Weight”

By Ian Smalley

Hopefully if you’ve already read the “set up” articles so you know how to get into position properly. The set up when bench pressing is the same if you are raw or shirted, you may just need to be a little more patient  and deliberate when your shirted, but the mechanics are the same. The shirt will try to pull your shoulders up and out, so keeping your upper back locked in and your shoulders beneath you becomes the challenge.

Now its time to talk about “the bubble”.  The concept of the bubble is the easiest way to describe the way a shirt reacts to the weight as you lower the bar. The point near the top of your stroke where the shirt  starts to load would be the top of the bubble, and your goal is to go directly into the path of MOST resistance. I repeat MOST resistance, meaning the shirt does not want you to go that way. This would be the direct middle of our theoretical bubble. This is where the shirt actually does something for you. If you wuss out and bring the bar down too high or too low, in effect going  away from the resistance- than the shirt will do 25% of what it should. Or, if the weight is heavy enough you will dump onto your belly or your face. Why would you go away from the bubble?... you want to bench pressing 300 lbs over your raw max. The reason is because it is uncomfortable. The shirt does not want to stretch that way, it wants to go every other way than the right way. The path of most resistance for the shirt is also the path of most resistance for the lifter. This is where staying tight and setting up correctly comes in.

Your mission is to do two things:

-#1 is to hold your position and don’t collapse. If you allow your body position to drop than you de-load the shirt wherever you are in the movement and kill any chance of bench pressing the weight easily. Remember that most shirts are angled sleeve designed, so if you go flat backed for any reason they will not work. This is why you have to maintain you arch at all costs.

-#2 is to keep your elbows directly under the bar. You cannot press a maximum weight to the finish if your elbows are out in front of the bar or behind the bar when you touch you chest/belly. You will dump one way or the other. Keeping your elbows under the bar can be accomplished fairy easily by the “bending the bar” concept, as well as just lowering the bar slowly and tucking only as much as is necessary. Over tucking will de-load the shirt and usually force you to open your hands and let the weight drift back over your wrists. It is very difficult to press correctly after you do this. You end up having to try and re-roll your wrists back into position as you flare your elbows and it rarely works with a maximum weight. You will usually just dump on your face or the weight will freeze 3 inches off your chest.

Once you’ve started to sink into the bubble, BE PATIENT. Remember, the shirt doesn’t want to stretch this way, you have to make it stretch by keeping the weight on the spot and raising yourself up to the bar. The weight will go and the shirt will load if you're patient. This is why at meets all you hear is guys yelling “stay up”, “chest Up” and  “belly up”. 9 times out of 10 if you just hold your body position and keep your elbows under the bar the shirt will load correctly and you will get to feel that “holy grail” of the effortless press that comes when you do it right. You just have to have the guts to not collapse or over- tuck and you’ll get your lift.