by Boris Sheiko

translated by Rostislav Kharchenko

From August 12th to 24th I was taking part in a tour of seminars in five US cities: Atlanta GA, Ashland OH, Columbia SC, Boston MA and New York. All seminars had theory and practice parts. We also carried out 4 group training sessions. During practice parts and training sessions we defined the most common mistakes in competition exercises technique.

You can read “Squat. Part 1″ here: http://sheiko-program.ru/sheiko-us-tour-2016-the-most-frequent-technique-mistakes-ive-noticed-part-1-squat

Part 2. Bench press.

1. Incorrect breathing during bench press
2. Lifting the barbell off the rack by themselves
3. Performing bench press without pausing on the chest
4. Bouncing barbell off the chest

 

 

Mistakes during bench press:

 

1. Incorrect breathing during bench press

Some athletes were doing 3-4 reps while holding breath in. Others were taking the air in during bar descent and were letting the air out during pressing.

During this exercise muscle tightness is very important – breathing out is recommended during maximum effort, and breathing in – during the minimal one.

When you’re training with heavy weights, there is chance you will miss the reps if you’ll breathe out too fast. Therefore you need to hold your breath while pressing. It will create necessary tension in the body and with tight upper-body muscles this allows us to handle big weights.

Recommendations       

Perform bench press while holding the breath. You should get the breath in before starting the movement, and let the air out during the final part, when arms are locked out.

 

2. Lifting the barbell off the rack by themselves

Often many athletes try to unrack the barbell by themselves before starting the movement. Lifting the barbell off the rack by yourself diminishes arch in a torso and makes it harder to bring shoulder blades together.

Recommendation

Unracking weights of 80%+ intensity should be done only with assistant’s help.

 

3. Performing bench press without pausing on the chest

Missing pause on the chest during bench press can lead to development of a habit that will create troubles at the competition.

Recommendation

Every first rep in any pressing exercise should be done with a pause, others – can be done without one, but not bouncing off the chest either.

4. Bouncing barbell off the chest

Bouncing barbell off the chest is a common mistake. During such bench press one can injure his/her rib cage, especially if the weight is significant. No powerlifting federation allows bouncing during bench press.

Recommendation

Bar descent should go slow and couple inches before reaching chest it should slow down even further.