Proper setup on the bench press can be the difference between either making a lift or missing it. Not only can your setup technique be the difference in successfully completing a lift, it can also play a huge role in reducing the risk of injury during the lift.

There are a handful of setup techniques for the bench press. Our setup technique was taught to me by a world class power lifter and record holder, and over the years has proven to be the most beneficial technique for our athletes, as well as the safest.

For athletes who have progressed enough to begin bench pressing, we teach a “mild arched back setup.” This setup is a hybrid of the arched back style and the second bench (flat) style. It does not include the Japanese setup. It should also be noted that this setup is designed for a raw bencher and may not be appropriate for shirted benchers or bench only competitors.

We use this hybrid style of benching for three reasons:

The arched back style can be very taxing on an athlete’s lower back.
The second style incorporates too much of the cervical spine; particularly for throwers.
Torso and arm length are always considered during setup as well. We feel this setup gives us the opportunity to adjust arm angles, which is important as we train a variety of different sized athletes.

How to Setup the Hybrid Bench for the Athlete:

START: With the bar in the racked position, slide backwards on the bench and align the bar with the bottom of your chest, or roughly at nipple level.
FEET: Set your feet to the ground, with knees bent. We recommend the heels remain elevated from this point on. More on this in "establishing the arch phase."
GRIP: Set your grip while this position. Keep your pinky finger inside the power ring on both sides. Depending on what you’re training, your grip width will vary. Arm length should also be considered.
ESTABLISH THE ARCH: Now that you have your grip, maintain position of your feet, then slide yourself back down the bench so that the bar is aligned with your eyes. Maintaining your foot placement form step two is important here. Maintaining the foot placement here is what creates the arch in your lower back when you slide into position. We want a normal arched back style, not an exaggerate arched back! Find the foot placement and back arch that allows a shorter distance for the bar to travel while also allowing you to keep your lower back safe and the bar in a stable position during the lift. You should be in a position where your feet are at or slightly in front of your glutes, but not directly under them or behind them. The Japanese method typically has the feet directly under the glutes with the heels down, but we don’t recommend that for our purposes.
UNRACKING PHASE: Once set, un-rack the bar and pause at the top to ensure proper muscle engagement and control of the weight. There are plenty of YouTube videos of people skipping this aspect of the lift and the results aren’t pretty….. After un-racking and ensuring control, engage the lats by attempting to “break the bar.” The lats should be engaged the entire time as they’re one of the most important muscles in the bench. This is hands down the most common mistake young lifters/athletes make. Your lats must be engaged!! You’re likely to cramp up the first time you do this properly.
ECCENTRIC PHASE (LOWERING PHASE): Finally, take a deep breathe in, pull the bar down towards your lower chest. The eccentric (lowering phase) is where most of the action takes place. Take it slow and reap the benefits of the eccentric phase! TOUCH THE WEIGHT TO YOUR CHEST, DO NOT BOUNCE!!
CONCENTRIC PHASE (DRIVE PHASE): Do not let your glutes come off the bench during the drive! If you do this, you will find yourself in an excessively arched position without the proper setup. As you’re driving (up or forward depending on who you talk too), continue to keep the feet engaged and drive through the floor as much as possible. This tension throughout the body is very important both as an advantage in the lift and a safety measure. In simplistic terms, Sherrington’s Law of Irradiation states that by squeezing X muscle, other muscles nearby will assist and engage that much more. This has also been called muscle cheering. Understanding how this additional muscle engagement impacts your lift can make a big difference. Lock out at the top (hypermobility of the elbows should be considered) and rack it up.

The bench press can be a great tool when incorporated properly. At the end of the day, athletes are athletes… they’re not powerlifters or bench pressers. Bench pressing (whether with a barbell or dumbbell) is also not detrimental to pitchers or overhead athletes. All our thrower’s bench and do variations of the bench during the year (pending they have the needed prerequisites). Shoulder issues will arise if the needed prerequisites aren’t met and/or if technique is off. Lastly, special attention should always be paid to the style of bar used, the setup, loading schemes and the time of year an athlete benches.

John Nelson, Founder/Director ELP

Can You Do Too Many Isometrics – Muscle Fatigue – Part 1

This topic was recommended by one of our high school athletes, and it’s a great question.

The answer to this question is “no.” I will preface by saying that the implementation of isometrics by a coach into an athlete’s program plays an enormous role in this. Simply because 99% of the time they are not implemented properly. I’ve seen it time and time again. However when implemented properly, you can train with isometrics every day. And at ELP we do just that.

There are a handful of reasons we incorporate isometrics into our programs:

To train position
To eliminate compensation patterns
To assist in recovery

Each element has a different approach and a different purpose. Each element produces a different stimulus, which leads to a predicable adaptation. If you’re unable to predict that adaptation, then your implementation of the stimulus is wrong.

The Eastern Bloc countries figured out years ago that the same muscle could be trained every day, provided the stimulus was different. This should be common knowledge for anyone who coaches athletes at any level.

With that thought in mind, this article is only going to focus on the recovery element of isometrics. The recovery ability of isometrics is one of the most important reasons you can train with them every day and not “overdo it.” If you’re interested in learning more about the other two elements, please leave us a comment or message us.

Simply put, muscles are designed to work together. When they don’t, that is when fatigue starts to set in. Fatigue is nothing more than the shortening of a muscle. So, if we start our training in a lengthened position, with the understanding that muscles are designed to work together, we begin down the path of resisting fatigue and increasing recovery in our training sessions.

I don’t want to get into too much of the training element of isometrics in this article, but I will briefly touch on the concept. As muscles work together there is both contraction and relaxation. As the bicep contracts, the triceps will relax to the same degree and vice versa. However traditional athletic training doesn’t teach this; it doesn’t teach the body to contract and relax. It teaches that during a bicep curl, the bicep pulls the load up and then lowers or slowly resists the load back to the starting position. However, in normal movement, elbow extension should occur as triceps pulls the arm and load back to its starting position.

Traditional training methods have instead taught the bicep to contract with both elbow flexion and extension, thus never giving the bicep a chance to relax and lengthen. Continue this repeatedly and therefore the muscle fatigues out. This teaches a muscle to be slow, both in contraction and relaxation. When training a muscle slowly, your brain will only allow it to move slowly during competition. This training will ultimately transfer over to the field. So it’s no wonder why so many pitchers get fatigued so quickly, why injuries are increasing and why athletes are exhausted all the time…

So back to the recovery and use of isometrics daily… How do you use isometrics for recovery? It’s simple, create a violent contraction of the opposing muscle group and you will strengthen the pathways for relaxation of the target muscle group. Violent contraction of the triceps to extend the elbow will cause a violent reflex to inhibit the biceps thus allowing it to relax and lengthen. This will subsequently be strengthening both pathways of relaxation. Because the contractions are violent enough that the stimulation to relax will also be strong enough to allow the muscles to lengthen. There will be no fatigue of the muscle because each muscle has a chance to lengthen back to the starting position; away from shortening. Fatigue will only occur when the antagonistic relationship goes one way. For example, when the athlete or client becomes lazy and doesn’t execute the movement properly.

Additionally, when executed properly, isometrics will have a profound effect on the development of the energy systems. So now you’ve trained the muscle to relax, and you’re also building a system of proper energy delivery to aid in recovery; more to come on that in another article.

Hopefully this helps you gain an understanding of how properly implemented isometrics can not only be trained daily, but can benefit you on and off the field.

John Nelson Founder/Director ELP

PROPER BENCH PRESS SETUP FOR ATHLETES

Can You Do Too Many Isometrics? - Part 1