Adapting to a different bench

[pinky8713]

I'm not exactly a powerlifter, but I practice a lot of powerlifting techniques. I've been working out at my dad's house the past month and my bench has been doing great. Last workout I put up 225 x 4 with another rep in me for sure. It was real solid and felt great. My benching has been so smooth.

Well i've been forced to head back to my gym where the benches are very freaking low. This gym has the lowest benches i've ever used around here. They seem like they are only a foot off of the ground (i'm sure they are a little higher). The bench i've been using at my dads is definitely significantly higher off of the ground though.

I'm having problems adapting to this. I knew it would be a problem before I even started benching tonight. It's real difficult getting a nice solid arch being so low to the ground. If I get my normal nice solid arch, my ass ends up wanting to come off of the bench considering it is so low. Anybody have any tips to adapting to a bench like this? For the record, I put 225 on tonight again and got three reps. That's two less than I would get with a more "normal" bench. They also felt like crap, meaning I didn't feel solid at all. There has to be ways to adapt to this.

Cliffs
- Forced to workout at a new place.
- Benches are unusually low.. not used to benching on benches so close to the ground.
- Having problems getting a nice solid arch. If I do, my ass wants to leave the bench.
- Any tips to adapting to this?

[Chris Rodgers]

I have the same problem. I hate "regular" bench presses in commercial gym. We actually brought my competition bench to our gym and use that one.


I would just suggest changing your foot position. If you are going to be lifting there regularly, you will have to adapt. Try and get your stance out wider, that should help keep the butt down.

[pinky8713]

Thanks for the reply. I am going to be lifting there regularly. It's a very nice gym and beats the hell out of all of the other gyms around here with insane membership prices. The low benches are the only thing that bother me.

I'll have to work on getting my stance out wider. That's what I was planning on working on. That's the only thing I could think of. I'll be able to work on that while doing some light benching on Wednesday.

[Guido]

That's what I would suggest, too (widening your stance). I know what you mean about crappy commercial gym benches, too. Most are too narrow, too unstable, or too slippery to lift any real heavy weight. If I switch from my regular bench (a competition Forza), to one of the others, I lose up to 20lbs or so off my max.

[smokinHawk]

i hate adapting to new benches, take me a while to adjust, but the only way to adjust is use it and get used to it.
we had this low bench on my old gym and i got to the point i could bench more with it then a standard height one, but now using a standard height id probably get the same amount o f weight as a normal one.