Weightlifting Question

[kaizasosei]

When i do the benchpress, i try to keep my lowerback to the ground and not arch my back, i also lower the bar down to my chest almost touching.
My question is, is it wrong to lift ones head? Right now i don't have a decent bench-just some boards i stacked up-so i'm forced to raise my head. I can't remember having to deal with this back when i used to bench...?

Can someone please tell me-will i achieve a crazy strong neck like this or should i aim to keep the head rested.

thanks in advance

j

 

[Archangel M]

You should be arching your back...

http://www.leehayward.com/bench_press_arch.htm

 

[kaizasosei]

Thanks for the speedy reply. Basically, i do arch my upper back in the way mentioned. It actually feels really good and it's been a while.
When i meant i dont arch my back, i meant the lower back like the picture with the x. I try keep my feet posted flat-right now it's not that easy as i don't really have a bench. However, the feeling i mean about not arching the lower back is that i try to get the feeling of raising my legs up like in a fetile position so that the lower back is completely flat and pressing against the bench almost equally to the upper back but without the belly/solar plexus rising.

I got this feeling again when at mma training, our instructor told us to push our lower backs to the ground hard and firm while doing situps....know what i mean?

What about the head thing-is it an added plus to hold the head up if necessary or for extra training??

j

 

[seasoned]

Lay on the bench flat. Pick up the weight and as you lower it to your chest, chest out and lower back arched. As the weight goes up, once again lay flat and push against the bench with your body, as the weight goes up. Also head down.

 

[exile]

If you do a full-range BP, you're not getting the real benefit of the exercise.

A full-range BP takes you through your weakest leverage range, and then some. The amount of weight you can lift is limited by that fact. A short-distance BP, in your strongest leverage range, can add close to 100lbs to your BP in a single shot, in most cases. The reason this is important is that the body will mobilize as many neural motor units as necessary to lift the weight you're trying to move, up to the point where no further mobilization will do any good; at that point, neural activation ceases, which is why, when you get the weight too low in a BP, you can't do anything further with it and you better either be in a power rack or have a damned good spotter. So if you take 225 lbs down too far, you'll never get it back up again. Keep it high, in a range where you have optimal mechanical advantage, and you can add more and more weight to that 225 and still be able to move it, or at least keep it stable, which means, more time under tension, and greater stimulus to muscle growth. Cut your range to a couple of inches, get in a power rack, and you can be working in the 300s within six months, probably (or more, if you're genetically gifted), going up 5 lbs or so every workout—if you give yourself plenty of recovery time.

The problem with the standard BP is that people are using a competition test format for muscle growth, and the two impose radically different criteria. For rapid strength gains, short range/very high intensity workouts yield the fastest results. Once you gain that extra strength, your full range BPs will be correspondingly heavier. But to get there, you'd do best to work in a power rack with very, very heavy weights using quick short-distance reps—a few inches at most, and less as your weights get really, really heavy—that keep you in your strongest leverage range.

In the end, all the muscles know is how much weight you're shifting; when you approach the outer edge of your comfort envelope, that triggers the physiological changes that lead to hypertrophy. If you shift a weight you can already move easily, there's no incentive for the body to channel resources into muscle growth. You have to keep ramping up the weight... and if you do that but keep going into your biomechanically weakest range, you're going to hit a ceiling you can't break out of (assuming you're training drug-free). To break through that ceiling, you really have to stay in a range where your mechanical advantage is the greatest possible.

 

[SensibleManiac]

I would be very careful if you don't have a proper bench as this movement is dangerous if not done properly on a solid surface like a proper bench.
Keep your head down.
If you want to work your neck do back bridges on your head.
Also I agree that you should be going through multiple ranges of motion concentrating on lower and mid.
You can also try various push ups with a weight vest.

 

[exile]

One thing I wanted to add to what I was saying above, and this is critical for safety: you must absolutely use a power rack for the heavier weights that this kind of BP routine calls for. You cannot rely on a spotter. When I was doing this stuff more regularly than I've been able to do lately, my top bench was almost a static contraction hold at 400lbs—and there is no way someone else could save me if something went wrong on the lift. You must have those cross bars between you and the weight. If you can't get access to a power rack, forget everything I was saying: it's just not worth the risk.

 

[Drac]

For a great BP try using dumbbells and not a barbell..Do the presses and then flys..I do this combo on the flat and the decline bench..Its something ya gotta work up to .and when you start doing the heavier weights for the flys use a spotter

 

[kaizasosei]

Thanks everyone. This gives me a pretty good idea.
Thanks Drac i have been doing just that- after seeing it on you tube, i've been doing pushups, then flys, then bp with light dumbbells.

It's just that the ex inhabitant of the place i moved into now seems to have left behind an awesome bar- and i wanted to get the feel of lowering the weight low down to chest-on the floor you can't do that-
i get what has been said about working on the strong areas before moving to the weak spots like low down..
hope im making sense, im kindof pressed for time


j

 

[KempoGuy06]

You should be arching your back...

http://www.leehayward.com/bench_press_arch.htm

agreed

to answer the question, keep ad on bench, and chin pointed up

B