Bench Press, Correctly Options

[Castaway]

I haven't thought of my form that much until someone approached my friend and I in the gym. He told us that we should be bringing the weight down so that your arm forms a 90 degree angle. (We were on a flat bench)

I listened to his advice and ended up increasing my max by 10lbs.

Is that the correct way to bench? Is it different for incline and decline?

Note: My goal is to build a bigger chest.

[Reidar]

You shouldn't be looking at the trajectory of your arms; the bar should simply be making contact with your chest through elbows drawn in tightly to your sides.

Most people are gymbeciles who don't study the biomechanics of what they're doing and instead rely on hearsay. Unless you train at somewhere embedded in the culture, like Gold's in Venice or something, ignore what you hear from the average gym bunny.

Two things you should be doing but most likely aren't:

1.) Retracting back the scapulae.



You want to pinch back your shoulder blades together to relieve pressure from the anterior delts and to put yourself in a better position to output force.

2.) Engaging the lats. Note the concaveness of my chest as the bar is locked out:



This is from pushing my arms forward with my back. The lats play a great deal in recruiting power.