Tip The Foam Roller Chest Press Search Skip to content Menu Menu follow us Store Articles Community Loyal-T Club Loyal-T Points Rewards Subscribe to Save Search Search The World s Trusted Source & Community for Elite Fitness TrainingVideos Tip The Foam Roller Chest Press Using a foam roller can teach good lifting mechanics on a variety of movements particularly chest presses Try this by Joel Seedman, PhD March 12, 2017April 5, 2021 Tags Exercise Coaching, Tips The Benefits The foam roller allows the scapula to move freely without being encumbered or fixed to the bench. This optimizes natural scapulohumeral rhythm and glenohumeral joint mechanics similar to how a push-up or landmine press https://www.t-nation.com/training/the-ultimate-guide-to-landmine-presses allows optimal scapular movement. It forces you to create heightened spinal rigidity and natural curvature because anything other than proper posture will literally feel miserable on the back. However, with proper positioning, it actually feels quite therapeutic on the spine. The foam roller has a tendency to roll and move unless you remain tight and lock in the core. This creates rotational forces that you must resist to keep from falling off the roller. Any wiggling, cheating, asymmetrical pressing, or shifting will cause you to lose balance. It requires you to aggressively activate the feet and ankles to help grip onto the floor. In fact, screwing your feet into the floor is almost a prerequisite when doing this exercise because anything less will result in loss of balance and instability. Lack of good alignment and activation of the foot and ankle complex during chest presses results in decreased neural drive up the kinetic chain, including reduced signaling to the upper-body pressing muscles. But activating the feet and ankles increases neural drive, full body tension, and motor control via irradiation and concurrent activation potentiation. In other words, you'll increase force production and your 1RM. If you have trouble driving with your hips and legs during the bench press, more than likely it's related to poor foot and ankle activation. The foam roller press helps to resolve this subtle yet significant recruitment issue. The foam roller can also be placed inside a squat cage similar to a floor press setup. This allows you to do barbell presses on the foam roller, resulting in great improvements to your bench press mechanics. Get The T Nation Newsletters Don' t Miss Out Expert Insights To Get Stronger, Gain Muscle Faster, And Take Your Lifting To The Next Level related posts Training Tip Mouth Guards for Bodybuilding Do these really make you stronger like some companies claim? Here's the real science. Tips, Training TC Luoma September 16 Alpha Life Redefining The Female Bodybuilder Let's redefine what it means to be a female bodybuilder. If a woman lifts to build muscle, she is one. And damn proud of it. Bodybuilding, For Women, Opinion, Training Dani Shugart September 24 Training High Octane Training 2 Think you have what it takes to make it in the world of elite sports? Do you have immense talent and ability? Great, but so do a few thousand other guys. Unfortunately, all of these things will only get you so far in this world where good often isn't good enough. At this level you have to be one of the best just to get your foot in the door. Training Charlie Francis December 8 Training Building the Case for Hybrid Training Bodybuilding guru Scott Abel says that training for hypertrophy, size, thickness, density, and shape is not the same as strength training. If the question is how to gain unadulterated muscle mass, is hybrid training the answer? Training Max Shank July 26