I learned the elbows out style and it took a persistant shoulder injury to convince me to retrain the movement. My suggestion would be to do it the way MK suggests from the start.

The second video (bench tutorial)on that page is very good. I like how he explains the slight elbow adjustment. Pardon my explanation here but, I always thought that when you come down with the bar you put your arms into the “L” position, like you are pushing the bar straight up with it being over your chest the whole time. The way he explains it in the video with the elbow adjustement, you push it up in an upside down “J”, much like how Krista explains it in her dork to diva tutorial, with the bar at it’s highest point being slightly over your head and at it’s lowest point being over your chest.

I’m going to try my next bench with the elbow adjustment, to see how it feels. How do you all bench press? Straight up and down or with an upside down “J”?

The good news: he walked away unscathed and even finished the meet. (Let’s hear it for intra-abdominal pressure).

The bench press is the most dangerous lift in a gym. Where I train, we not only have spotter rails, we use the spotter rails.

Safety first!

That video made me throw up in my mouth a little. Bleh.

Apparently people react differently to the experience of pain — some people do a bit of research to figure out what they’re doing wrong, and some people experiment on their own and find a less-painful alternate grip, with the predictably horrific result.

Wow.