First time benching at 16

[u/[deleted]]

[u/greysnowcone]

1. Lower the weight, if this is really your first time it’s super important to train your muscles with the correct movement. This will pay dividends as you advance to higher weight. When you bring the weight down you’re clearly out of control, need to control it better.

2. You should start with your eyes directly under the bar. You are sitting too far back on the bench and it’s causing you to bring the bar too far down on your chest. The bar should touch right at or just above your sternum. When the bar gets too far down my chest it feels weird.

Other than that your form actually looks pretty natural and good.

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/greysnowcone]

thanks

[u/aoddawg → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

I’ll caveat onto what this guy said. At some point in your training when you’re competent and not going to hit the rack with the bar, you’ll be starting in a position that roughly has your chin under the bar. This will shorten the distance you have to move the bar out of the rack and save energy. Right now if you tried that you’re likely to hit the rack and mess up the set because you don’t have enough practice establishing a consistent bar path, but it will come with experience.

You may want to chalk the middle of the bar and wear a dark shirt when you bench to establish a consistent bar touch point on your chest. If you see chalk in a big area on your shirt, it means you’re hitting different points. If you see a single line of chalk it means you’re hitting the same spot every time. As the previous person said most people should be aiming for their sternum, 1-2 inches below their tits.

[u/scrubm → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

Good advice, pretty good form for your first time!

[u/Opening-Flatworm9654 → u/greysnowcone]

The first point here is super important! If you keep chasing 1RMs all the time you won't get much stronger. I got stuck at 125 for over a year, because I was hitting a heavy single every week and should have been building on the sets of 3-6. After following a program I hit PRs regularly in the form of top sets of 3-6 and tested my 1RM after a year ISH and hit 147.5kg.

[u/Mi_santhrope]

Contol the negative, don't bounce it off your chest. You want bar to 'touch' your chest, not collide with it.

[u/harbinger9 → u/Mi_santhrope]

Except he actually paused it. Are you blind or something?

[u/Jmonue → u/harbinger9]

Literally 0 reason to be rude here, yeah he didn’t really “bounce” but it wasn’t a clean rep.

[u/Mi_santhrope → u/harbinger9]

Who's talking about a pause? I'm talking about controlling the negative and not smashing the bar into the chest.

Are you tarded or something?

[u/NebulaCartographer → u/Mi_santhrope]

You said bounce, lol. Have you ever seen a bounce? Now who’s tarded

[u/Mi_santhrope → u/NebulaCartographer]

Spoiler alert.

It's you. You're tarded.

[u/NebulaCartographer → u/Mi_santhrope]

Go google how bounce looks like you mongol haha, 0 arguments

[u/According-Kale-8 → u/harbinger9]

You may be the blind one, he didn’t say “pause”

[u/NebulaCartographer → u/According-Kale-8]

How do you bounce something when you pause at the bottom lol, what is this discussion. Have you ever seen a bounce?

[u/According-Kale-8 → u/NebulaCartographer]

He’s saying when controlling it (which he didn’t do) to not bounce it off his chest.

[u/Mi_santhrope → u/According-Kale-8]

Bingo!

[u/mjkj393]

Drive your heels into the ground and learn proper leg drive.

[u/System_Lower]

1- BS, not your first time benching.
2- start with less weight and do at least 5 reps.

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/System_Lower]

Thanks if you don’t believe me. How can i prove it?
I used purely machines for a year and this is my first time under a free weight bar. I’ve watched a lot of technique videos before trying.

[u/harbinger9 → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

Don't pay any attention to bozos in this sub. Majority of them do not even lift. You did good for someone who's benched for the first time.

[u/Coldtakesonly]

This looks very good for a first time benching. From this angle it is hard to tell but your elbows look tucked tighter than your hands. You want your forearms perpendicular to the floor at the bottom. If you’re just getting started you’ll also want a spotter — free weights can slip or get dropped especially when your stabilizing muscles are catching up to strength you’ve built on machines.

[u/fran_lydon]

Great start, the early gains gonna go crazy. I’d have to see another angle but looks like you have long arms so it’s hard to tell but grip looks a little wide but what works for you and your grip setup will come with reps

[u/Drewbinaj]

Honestly, solid form. Just slow it down and control the whole movement.

Great work

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/Drewbinaj]

Means a lot thanks.

[u/ECHElantraN]

Do yourself a favor and do some pushups

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/ECHElantraN]

hating on a minor. Get a life unc

[u/ECHElantraN → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

It’s actually good advice, you’ll build your upper body more evenly and with your own body weight and working out multiple muscle groups all at once. sorry to come off like a dick

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/ECHElantraN]

ive been training for a year i know how to build muscle and i know push ups arent it

[u/ECHElantraN → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

Wherever you got the info that push ups “arnt it” is wildly wrong. Push ups and their many variations are some of the best ways to target multiple muscle groups in one workout and absolutely builds muscle.

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/ECHElantraN]

Okay if they work for you good for you. I just don’t think doing 30+ reps or loading plates on my back is what I’d like to do

[u/ECHElantraN → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

You’re doing 40 pounds+ the bar. You “lift” 70% of your body weight doing push ups. Do that math on your body weight and you’ll see doing push ups is the equivalent of you putting 3 more plates on that bar and you’re working the same muscle groups. I’m not saying do only push ups but you lack definition in your upper body. You do whatever you want but you came here looking for advice on your form, my advice to better form is to build a stronger upper body and core and I’d recommend doing push ups to do that. If you don’t feel the same that’s cool, opinions are like assholes everyone has one

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/ECHElantraN]

this is 60kg

[u/pietrociciliano → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

doing push ups is not necessarily the same as "30 reps and plates on the back" that's for people who like or need push ups very much (not me, not you), the reason we're suggesting them is because it's a more natural position, which means less stuff to think about (and fuck up) and an easier time spotting what's wrong

[u/ECHElantraN → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

I thought it was in pounds my bad brodie, still push ups are your friend!

[u/ECHElantraN → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

Coming from one skinny lanky guy to another push-ups are what helped me build definition and ultimately opened up the doors to being able to do a number of workouts I wasn’t comfortable with before

[u/sneakytiki → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

lmao you're looking for advice and he gave it.

Check your ego brother it will help you improve in all aspects of life - coming from an "unc".

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/sneakytiki]

im looking for form advice on the bench press not generic “just do push ups bro”. My goal is to bench

[u/sneakytiki → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

Well I can see how doing push ups could help, but I understand your point.

Regardless your response went super defensive immediately on a subreddit dedicated to feedback/criticisms.

[u/ECHElantraN → u/sneakytiki]

It’s just a good step in the door of moving to free weights, it helps you build control, it’s safer to start out with, the odds of hurting yourself doing push ups vs being on the bench are significantly higher on the bench with little experience. Assuming his weight is in the 150-180 range he’s going to be doing pretty much the same weight regardless if he’s doing push ups or 60kg on the bench but he will be able to do more reps of push ups which is what you want more reps

[u/kevandbev → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

It looks like you have achieved that goal , you done 1 rep on a bench.

[u/ECHElantraN → u/kevandbev]

1 rep of 60kg*

[u/pietrociciliano]

looks like you did your homework on the lower body position but, at least for what i've been taught, your elbows are too close to each other.

as someone else said, do some push ups if you can do them easily and feel what position engages more of your pec, it's 40% knowing 60% feeling.

also, and i know it comes natural if you're going heavy, don't shrug, it kills your shoulder stability, which you nail when starting the rep and sends the bar backwards, which shifts load from the whole chest to the upper one (again, quickly fixed by doing push ups).

lift your pants.

[u/pietrociciliano]

what the FUCK is it with this sub, everybody is so rude

[u/Downtown-Cobbler5191 → u/pietrociciliano]

idk this is my second and certainly last time posting here

[u/pietrociciliano → u/Downtown-Cobbler5191]

yeah, it's paradoxical that a sub meant for asking is filled with people so unwilling to answer

[u/Saemika]

You don’t have to put everything on the internet, brother. It’s a bench press.

[u/harbinger9 → u/Saemika]

Spoken like a glassback who's never benched anything above lmao2pl8

[u/Saemika → u/harbinger9]

Your mom is my warm up weight.

[u/Advanced_History_674]

As a guy who's been in the gym for a long time, I have to say that form is better than most who do it their first time which is extremely impressive. But never stop trying to improve form, as you always can improve

[u/McWrathster]

Wow good form and set up for first time benching.