STOP “BENDING THE BAR,” START USING THE “REACHING” CUE

Let me start by saying that people were not crazy to use this cue for equipped powerlifting. “Bending the bar” cues hard external rotation, which is very useful to someone fighting the powerful internally rotating force of a bench shirt. But when would a raw lifter want to “bend the bar?”

The short answer is: anytime they’d like to look like a weird pterodactyl or mangle all sorts of stuff in the shoulder while bench pressing.

For a raw lifter, a much better cue is “reaching” for the bar with the chest. It’s best not to think of pinching the scaps together or to directly focus on the shoulders in any way. Rather, think of reaching the chest up toward the bar before initiating descent, decreasing the distance between the bar and the contact point on the lifter’s chest.

With the lifter planted high on their traps (think: neck), driven back hard toward the rack with their legs, the reaching cue should raise the chest at least an inch, promoting thoracic extension, which is desirable in this context for a number of reasons. This cue can be used in training to develop the strength required to avoid losing a shoulder and failing on a max attempt in a meet.

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