Groove of a Titan F6

[Diesel454]

I feel that I am in the grove of my shirt when the bar hits right at or just below my nipple line. As i drive up I push the bar towards my stomach. To me, this feels like I am in the grove of the shirt. When I miss a lift I tend to either float too low and hit closer to my stomach, or miss high on the press and have the weight float my head. Am I correct in my grove of the shirt? Also I feel I get the most pop out of my shirt when i put it and and when someone puts the sleves on to push them up and out while my palms are turned in. Am i correct on this too?

thanks

[mark]

sounds about right on the groove.

Try putting the shirt on with your palms facing up and the sleeves twisted so that way the seam of the sleeve is along the inside of the arm between the bicep and tricep. This should tighten up the chest up some, and give some more spring off the chest. The downfall is that you'll need to hit your lockout a little bit harder since you'll loose a little bit of support up top.

Hope this helps,
mark

[Panzer]

Do you bench flat back or with an arch? I us a katana. The grove should be to your stomach if you bench with an arch. Kathey Fields use an F6 that she has jacked ask her for the best advice.

[Kathy Fields]

You're on the right track for finding your groove. You are correct, if you force the bar too low towards the belly, it will dump. If you hit too high, you'll stall at transition and drifting back will just float the bar to your head. You are doing the movement correctly as you try to hit towards your stomach right below your chest (sternum or slightly below) as your drive up to the bar with your legs. To avoid dumping the bar too low, you pretty much have to perform something similar to a bent row by pulling the bar in and continue to drive your belly up to the bar, we call this "cutting". Some will lift their head slightly, but be careful doing this, it can cause you to lose your arch. If you can maintain your arch while just slightly lifting the head to look at the bar, you might be able to bring it in closer to touching. Then when you press the weight back up, throw your head back and keep trying to drive up into your arch, flare your elbows out near lockout.

Palms up when putting the shirt on is good because when we bring the bar down, the wrinkle in the sleeves are more stressed on the triceps and provide better support. The best way to load the shirt is to break wide with your elbows in the first couple inches in the descent, then start bringing your elbows in towards your sides as you get closer to touching. It also helps to use speed when bringing the bar down. This loads the shirt best and provides more pop for the press. If you bring the bar down too slow, you'll lose momentum and wind up with a grinder or stall at transition. The best analogy to this is when you drop a basketball, it only bounces so high. When you throw the basketball down with force, it bounces higher and faster. Even though we're not bouncing the bar off our chests, it's still taking advantage of the elastic potential energy.



I use a double F6. I wouldn't say it's jacked, I've actually cut the inner layer of the chest plate so it's double ply in the sleeves but single ply in the chest. I also opened the back, shortened the sleeves and tightened them to fit my arms since I need a shirt that would typically be ordered for a 220lbs man. I wear the shirt like this because my style of benching was best performed in a phenom or denim, so I adjusted my shirt to fit me like one. I like the F6 because the material is far superior and I don't need as much rebound like the phenom due to the use of speed in the descent.

[Diesel454]

i bench with an arch. For me, it feels like I am in the grove the best when I hit below my nipple line, at the bottom part of my pectoral where it meets my ribcage, and then drive the bar towards my stomach. As for keeping my head on the bench, i lift in the usapl and if your head comes off now you wil see red lights. Kathy does my grove sound right?

thanks

[Kathy Fields]

As for driving the bar towards the stomach to touch, yes. When you press the weight back up you want the bar to be back where it first started at lockout, which is usually right above the pecs. Many try to push the weight back up to above the eyes, but this can either hit the uprights or drift too far back. USAPL rules are to keep the head on the bench, correct. But you also don't want to touch too far to the stomach in this fed, you have to hit sternum or above otherwise it's a red light.

[AU_Lifter]

Kathy, I have an F6 single ply closed back. It seems like I'm only hitting my groove half the time in it and I can't figure out why? Anyways, my big problem is that I never seem to get as much leg drive when I wear my shirt versus when I bench raw? i don't understand why because I set up the same way both times. Any ideas or suggestions as to why this could be plagueing me?

[Kathy Fields]

Leg drive is very dependent on your set up. If something is hindering your ability to set up the same way consistently, you must change it. I don't know if this is the cause, but I have noticed that in many closed back shirts, the collar comes close to the neck so many lifters try to pull it down as far as possible and belt it in place. When this happens, the material is very tight with no bunching over the chest and belly. This can prevent the lifter from getting up into a solid arch like he/she is used to and tilting the hips forward is more difficult. When a lifter is unable to roll or tilt the hips, leg drive is reduced. All of these factors can also affect your ability to hit the right groove consistently.

Do you have video of your set up and benching? It would be easier to troubleshoot if we could see it.

[AU_Lifter]

Kathy, No I don't have any videos of my lifting yet. I am competing in a meet next weekend on the 31st near Brook Park, OH. Being from PA I don't know if you were planning to attend or not, but if you had previous intentions to go then that would be great! If not, I will do my best to get some video of my bench set up raw and in shirt. Thank you for any advice you've given or will end up giving later.

[Kathy Fields]

I'll be attending the Barno Newman Classic near Philadelphia that Gene Rychlak is hosting to help out.

Good luck with your meet and stay strong!