Tips » Weight Training
Is is true that for the bench press to be effective, I must go all the way down as far possible?
"Is this true" ... true for what? There are a million ways to bench press, and no single method is going to be the right way. There are a variety of methods and sometimes the method you're not accustomed to is what will produce the most results.
Pausing above the chest keeps contraction on the chest and keeps the tension, instead of allowing you to "rest" between reps as you would should you let it actually go down and set on the chest. Furthermore, the optimal range is different for every person due to a variety of parameters such as your height, chest girth, length of your arms, etc ... in fact, going to the chest for some people entails a slight rotation of the shoulders which can result in rotator cuff impingement, so in those cases it is not recommended ... on the flipside, someone with a 60" chest would definitely want to go all the way down or else they simply won't be getting sufficient range.
Press play to begin the animation. For dozens of fully illustrated exercises like this one, visit MyNaturalPhysique.com.