HUNTING FOR MISTAKES IN CHEST TRAINING

Training them is popular, good development is desirable and aesthetic – yes, we're talking about the chest muscles. The king of exercises for this area is the bench press, and among its faithful helpers is a whole group of various exercises, from those you do with free weights to those on machines. How's your technique? You can have a great workout written out, the numbers of sets and repetitions fine-tuned, a load that represents exactly the challenge you need — but if you can't perform the exercises correctly, you can't expect good results. And seemingly small mistakes affect training progress too. And perhaps you're making them as well. Quite possibly they've been part of your exercise programme for a long time. Try to spot and correct them; that will start an era of super-effective chest sessions and you'll get the results you've been dreaming of for so long. MISTAKE 1 - THE BAR PATH IN THE BENCH PRESS WHAT IT IS Many lifters lower the bar straight down to the chest and then press it back up to the ceiling. The bar path should, however, describe an arc. An arcing movement – from the lower chest up over the face – lets you load the chest muscles better than a straight path, in which the triceps also get involved and the work of the chest is therefore limited. HOW TO CORRECT IT It seems like a trifle, but believe us, if you've been doing the bench press with a straight movement until now, it will take you a while to get used to the arc. Choose a slightly lower load to begin with; caution is definitely in order. DON'T FORGET……that the force comes all the way from the feet, which should rest flat on the floor so that you can push off them well when you press the bar up. MISTAKE 2 - WHERE THE BAR GOES IN THE INCLINE PRESS WHAT IT IS The aim of the incline press is to activate the upper chest. Even so, just look around the gym and you'll see plenty of people who, in the bottom phase of the movement, lower the bar to the lower chest. Yet it should properly be aimed up…