Geometry

(Bench)

Below is a video of a light pause bench press. A pause bench press is when the bar reaches the lifters chest the lifter must pause until the bar is stable the lifter has been given the command to press the bar and weight up. It would be effective to re-watch the video after the following information in order to analyze my technique.

When benching it is important for the competitors technique that the competitor keeps the bar level, which means that the bar is parallel with the bench fame [refer to the picture below the bottom of the yellow box should represent the frame of the bench and the top of the line should represent the bar. The we know that these two lines are parallel because opposite sides of a box are parallel].

If the bar is not parallel then one arm will be lifting more weight than the other, which can be seen in the image below and in the video. My left arm tends to drop more than my right which causes the bar to lean and not be parallel. This means that my left arm is working harder to push up the weight (it is also my stronger and more relaxed arm). I want the bar to be balanced so I try to use my fore-arms and wrists as another set of parallel lines. When these lines are perpendicular to the bar and the frame then they create the other corresponding sides of my rectangle. When my arms are perpendicular to to the bar and the bench frame then I create a rectangle that shortens and lengthens [imagine the yellow box on the picture below when you re-watch the video; the box is growing and shrinking due to my arms dropping]. But when the lines are not longer perpendicular a trapezoid is made, like in the picture below when the actual bar replaces the top line.

My Lift would be more efficient and I would get better results if the bar was parallel to the bench frame and my forearms remained perpendicular to those parallel lines because the weight of the bench press would be equally distributed to both arms, therefore one arm wouldn't have to work more than the other.