Thread: To touch the chest or to not touch the chest?

I have a bad habit of calling people younger than me "kid"

Originally Posted by Hlanderr

no, im 19.... and ive been lifting for almost 4 years now... but it does look like it was me aha

p-funk, yes, lifting like stength athletes works, but people DONT do that

they bounce, and this bounce is apparant in 95 percent of people who touch... everyone knows that

whoever said it is best to go past the regular stretch.... you cant! it touches your chest! unless you suck in your chest and then touch, then that makes no sense

some people do. a lot of people use shit form on many exercises. I don't understand your argument for not training a full ROM yourself after you just said training like strength athletes works? You make no sense. Maybe if you trained with a full ROM it would look like you worked out more instead of just wasting 4 years of training.

peace.

Originally Posted by Hlanderr

whoever said it is best to go past the regular stretch.... you cant! it touches your chest! unless you suck in your chest and then touch, then that makes no sense

when the bar touches your chest the muscle is past regular stretch. i dont think you quite understand what CP is talking about.

Originally Posted by P-funk

they are right, they have to do more work to perform a correct repetition (longer levers). But, the proper form is to touch the chest so tell them to quit being a bunch of fucking pussies and start lifting weights. Then make fun of their bird chests by saying that they do half reps and have only half a chest. They call them a bunch of bitches and find new friends.

Originally Posted by Hlanderr

whoever said it is best to go past the regular stretch.... you cant! it touches your chest! unless you suck in your chest and then touch, then that makes no sense

I said it is good to go past resting length, not "regular stretch," whatever the Hell that is. If you touch the bar to your chest then you are stretching the muscle beyond resting length.

Originally Posted by Hlanderr

i bet half you guys who touch your chest bounce it off You would be wrong. Don't be mad cuz your a pussy too

i dont touch my chest, but come within an inch of doing so, and slow the rep to make sure of this..... any touch changes momentum...in my opinion id rather keep it just above the chest Stopping short changes momentum as well, it is going down, and you are reversing it's trajectory, that is the point of the concentric portion. If you didn't change the momentum the bar would go thru your chest, through the floor, through the bottom of the planet, and out to space.

i dont see whats so fucking funny either.... they are a bunch of kids...... skinny kids, which implys new to lifting.... they arent fucking pussies They are pussies, most people who make a point of stopping short who do not have an injury typically do so because it is too hard. It is the same as those guys who run a mile on a treadmill or elliptical trainer all the while molesting the machine by supporting their weight on the handles, or people who believe a full squat ends when it gets hard. Teaching young lifters proper technique teaches them not to be a fuckwad pussy when they get older. It also allows them to keep that ROM as they get older.
their full ROM is like 2 feet, and your calling them pussies for stopping 11/12th's of the way? The distance may be 1/12th, but the percent effort is much different. Max out by stopping an inch above your chest and then max out going all the way down and let everyone know how close those 2 numbers are.

stop trying to act like tough guys...

Talking sense doesn't equate to talking like a tough guy.

Originally Posted by Gym_Maniac

touching the chest means full ROM, full ROM means better growth and less injury, tell your friend that.

make sure you don't bounce, a lot of people bounce at the bottom without even realizing. it's actually hard to eliminate all momentum and not bounce, this is something you have to learn in order to gain better control.

No, touching the chest while on the bench press is a hell of a lot worse for the shoulders than keeping your arms (tricep area) parallel to the ground then going back up. However touching the chest is correct if you are compeating, otherwise you can do it however you want. Touching the chest or not you still will build muscle.

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

Talking sense doesn't equate to talking like a tough guy.

lol. and i thought i was a prick.

honestly.... you think i wasted 4 years of lifting? thats a stretch

seriosly man.... do you think touching the chest and going back up would REALLY benefit my chest.... in the mist un-sarcastic way possible
im always open to suggestions to get better but im still confused on this madder

i just got back from a light shoulder injury from benching.... it was only the second time ive had it and i dont know why it happens when i bench.... but i refrain from touching because the bounce throws my momentum off and i keeping the bar under control

so don't bounce!

what is the injury?

I broke my collar bone and I believe my tendons or ligaments i can't remember which one but I broke it and I still use a ROM for chest.

Originally Posted by Hlanderr

honestly.... you think i wasted 4 years of lifting? thats a stretch

seriosly man.... do you think touching the chest and going back up would REALLY benefit my chest.... in the mist un-sarcastic way possible
im always open to suggestions to get better but im still confused on this madder

i just got back from a light shoulder injury from benching.... it was only the second time ive had it and i dont know why it happens when i bench.... but i refrain from touching because the bounce throws my momentum off and i keeping the bar under control

Do you have your upper arm perpendicular to your body when you bench, or do you bring them down closer to your sides. I know alot of people who have injured their shoulders by moving with the upper arms perpendicular to the body.

Originally Posted by P-funk

so don't bounce!

what is the injury?

to be honest, im not sure.... it felt like a strained shoulder...
strangest thing though was that it ONLY was felt during benching.... i did shoulder lifts the same way and felt fine

one day i went to go do a set of benching (135 warm up) and my shoulder just HURT.... definetly not DOMS at all... and i dont know why at all. it stayed apparent for weeks, and i think it just cleared but it might still slightly sting in the first few sets
this happened, almost in the same manner, to me a few years ago.... but i think it was on my other shoulder.... and again it only hurt when i benched.... not when i military pressed, deadlifted, or anything else
it was fucking weird, and i couldnt feel the strain unless i benched.

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

Do you have your upper arm perpendicular to your body when you bench, or do you bring them down closer to your sides. I know alot of people who have injured their shoulders by moving with the upper arms perpendicular to the body.

yes, that was exactly how i used to bench..... i used to bring the bar to right over my nipples
ive been benching like that for years too... wide grip right over the nipples.... it felt like the best way to do em so i did it

recently though (right after my shoulder started stinging) i would bring the bar just under my nipples with a more controlled motion.... doing so seems to beign my arms closer to me when i do the motion right here aha... ill make sure i do it this way then from now on!

thanks

I started touching my chest a long time ago after I asked a friend to spot me...and he only counted half my reps cuz I wasn't going all the way down....I've hurt my shoulder before too hlanderr. When i went to sleep at night if I layed on my right side I felt a very sharp pain in my shoulder. I think it may have had something to do with smith machine pressing and rapid progression of weight on the bench presses...since then...I warm up my shoulders through various circular movements and stretching before EVERY SINGLE upper body workout...also when I warm up with 135 I bring the bar down slowly and rest it on my chest to stretch out everything including my shoulders in the process. Once my shoulders are stretched and warm I pile on the weight and bring the heat...haven't had ANY shoulder problems since..and since then I isolate shoulders alot more and still injury free.

word man....thats cool... thanks... i definetly will start to pay more attention to warming up

letting the bar sit on the chest to stretch the shoulders sounds nice.... ill absolutely add that into the warmup with the circle stretches

thanks man

Originally Posted by min0 lee

I'm sorry I didn't mean to talkdown to you at all, If I did well then I am sorry.

hahahahahahahahahhaahahha
that makes NO sense
yet is is SO FUCKING AWESOME

Originally Posted by PreMier

Bird chests!!!!!!!!!

Birds actually have awesome chests for their body size / weight... Next time you eat a chicken breast check out how thick that muscle is compared to the size of a chicken. And that is a bird that doesn't really fly. Birds that fly are all about chest muscles. Every time they flap their wings, all that strength comes from their chest.

Now bird legs on the other hand...

Originally Posted by Hlanderr

hahahahahahahahahhaahahha
that makes NO sense
yet is is SO FUCKING AWESOME

In simple English he called me a pussy for being so damn apologetic.

Originally Posted by NeilPearson

Birds actually have awesome chests for their body size / weight... Next time you eat a chicken breast check out how thick that muscle is compared to the size of a chicken. And that is a bird that doesn't really fly. Birds that fly are all about chest muscles. Every time they flap their wings, all that strength comes from their chest.

Now bird legs on the other hand...

Damn, that does make sense.

Originally Posted by NeilPearson

Birds actually have awesome chests for their body size / weight... Next time you eat a chicken breast check out how thick that muscle is compared to the size of a chicken. And that is a bird that doesn't really fly. Birds that fly are all about chest muscles. Every time they flap their wings, all that strength comes from their chest.

Now bird legs on the other hand...

I was waiting to see someone ruin a good joke by pointing out the truth. You're no fun.

Originally Posted by min0 lee

In simple English he called me a pussy for being so damn apologetic.

How did you know about that??