Hand placement on the bar. From close grip to normal grip to wide grip is possible.
It's most advice to grip on or around the barbell rings. You can for example always place a finger
of each hand on the rings or right next to the rings and then grip with your whole hand.
-If there are no rings, or if you grip somewhat beyond the rings you can use fast primitive measuring methods.
And I'd advice to never use a thumbless grip, it's very dangerous.
Feet placement on the ground. How much towards you. And how narrow or wide.
-Good feet placement can give you more power.
-Placing the feet wider can give more stability
And you can choose for a full foot placement. Or you can choose for a heel up foot placement, with the balls of the feet and toes on the ground,
but you will need to put your feet far towards you with this and more narrow.
And a heels only is for example possible when pushing the weight up.
Preperation just before the lift while sitting on the bench or laying on the bench. Taking a couple of good breaths for example.
How you grip the bar. Normal gripping or gripping the bar as far down the palms as possible.
How much you arch your back.
Squeezing the shoulder blades together on the bench.
Unracking should be easy, but it's important that you don't hit the rack while going up.
And if some one helps you unrack this can prevent shoulder injuries, if you have to unrack yourself be careful the bar is not to far away from you, this increases the risk of injury (especially shoulder injuries), but on the other hand it's also anoying to hit the rack on the last part of going up with the barbell.
Where you look to or towards. Some people don't really look anywhere, other people focus their eyesight somewhere.
Where the pressure is in/on your hands while pressing.
-Might depend a bit on the wideness of the grip
-The pressure can be exactly in the middle but also a little bit more to one side or the other side
How hard you grip and squeeze the bar.
Breathing. Breathing in and then doing the lift while holding the breath for example.
Or breathing in while lowering the bar is also possible.
The harder you squeeze the bar, the more force will connect.
To where you lower the bar.
-To where you lower the bar can also depend on how long your arms are and where you grip the bar.
Angle of the arms while lowering.
How you lower the bar. For example trying to bend the bar into a U-shape with your hands is possible.
How fast you lower the bar.
Some people put their head up a bit during the lowering of the bar.
In competition you need to pause the bar very shortly on your chest.
How violently and explosive you push the bar up.
Pushing the weight up by pushing yourself into the bench by pushing the weight up.
Angle of the arms.
-Some people change the angle while going up.
-Some people flare the arms, some say it's bad technique, but on the other hand it works for them.
Using leg strength, without putting your ass of the bench. During the upward movement tightening the glutes and driving your legs into the ground.
Some breath out forcefully during the sticking point.
And more.
By Jeffrey Koelewijn from Holland
22-07-2019
