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Leg drive when bench pressing. The idea that anything you could do with your legs could possibly help drive the bar upward was always ridiculous. Many, many ye

Leg drive when bench pressing. The idea that anything you could do with your legs could possibly help drive the bar upward was always ridiculous. Many, many years later, I finally found the right combination of articles and videos where it finally made total sense. Instant improvement and I wished I would have understood it sooner. The problem is really the name, which leads to a particular mental image, which is incorrect, but difficult to break. I think naming is important and for me, can cause enough cognitive dissonance that I can’t get past what something is called to understanding very easily.

_dain_ 4y ago
Do you have links to those articles/videos?
- berniedurfee 4y ago
  Here are a couple videos that provide most of the insight… https://youtu.be/4T9UQ4FBVXI https://youtu.be/4T9UQ4FBVXI https://youtu.be/Bmjr4Q6je8I https://youtu.be/Bmjr4Q6je8I Basically, you can’t bench with elbows straight out, because you’ll hurt your shoulders. So you tuck your elbows a bit, but that means you’re fighting some leverage because the bar is no longer above your shoulders. To fix this, you arch your back, which rolls your shoulders back and puts the bar back above your shoulders, but with your elbows still tucked. One side of the arch, your shoulders, is pinned to the bench by the weight of the bar. The other side of the arch, your butt, is not. So your arched back will straighten out under load, which rolls your shoulders forward, which moves the bar out of position. So, to keep the arch solid, you use your legs to push your butt toward your shoulders, thus reinforcing the other side of the arch, keeping your shoulders rolled back. So, leg drive is _not_ driving the bar, it’s driving your butt toward your shoulders, to keep the arch in your back solid, to keep your shoulders rolled back (and chest up) to keep the bar above your shoulders with your elbows tucked a bit, to keep from impinging a tendon. You could bench with your butt off the bench and make a big arch, though this article explains you’re diminishing your returns by reducing range of motion. https://startingstrength.com/training/keep-your-butt-on-the-bench https://startingstrength.com/training/keep-your-butt-on-the-...
  - _dain_ 4y ago
    Makes perfect sense, thanks!

_dain_ 4y ago

Do you have links to those articles/videos?

berniedurfee 4y ago
Here are a couple videos that provide most of the insight… https://youtu.be/4T9UQ4FBVXI https://youtu.be/4T9UQ4FBVXI https://youtu.be/Bmjr4Q6je8I https://youtu.be/Bmjr4Q6je8I Basically, you can’t bench with elbows straight out, because you’ll hurt your shoulders. So you tuck your elbows a bit, but that means you’re fighting some leverage because the bar is no longer above your shoulders. To fix this, you arch your back, which rolls your shoulders back and puts the bar back above your shoulders, but with your elbows still tucked. One side of the arch, your shoulders, is pinned to the bench by the weight of the bar. The other side of the arch, your butt, is not. So your arched back will straighten out under load, which rolls your shoulders forward, which moves the bar out of position. So, to keep the arch solid, you use your legs to push your butt toward your shoulders, thus reinforcing the other side of the arch, keeping your shoulders rolled back. So, leg drive is _not_ driving the bar, it’s driving your butt toward your shoulders, to keep the arch in your back solid, to keep your shoulders rolled back (and chest up) to keep the bar above your shoulders with your elbows tucked a bit, to keep from impinging a tendon. You could bench with your butt off the bench and make a big arch, though this article explains you’re diminishing your returns by reducing range of motion. https://startingstrength.com/training/keep-your-butt-on-the-bench https://startingstrength.com/training/keep-your-butt-on-the-...
- _dain_ 4y ago
  Makes perfect sense, thanks!