Re: Bench press and rotator cuff

[Guest guest]

>

> > I am a competitve powerlifter, so I have no choice but to bench. I

> > had dealt with nagging shoulder pain until I had modified my

> > technique. I increased my arch, decreasing the bar travel and

> > alleviating pain. I moved from pressing in an arc, to pressing in

a

> > straight line by thinking of pushing toward the feet. Also, I

raised

> > the volume and focus on the smaller groups involved in the bench,

> > fortifying a weak link in my pressing. This eliminated shoulder

pain

> > and increased my bench by 45 pounds in a year's time. I have no

> > complaints.

>

> I would be really interested to hear which smaller groups you

focussed on in

> your assistance lifts, how you identified these as your weak links

to work,

> and what caused you to consider altering your lifting plane as one

aspect of

> the solution to your nagging shoulder pain?

>

> Best,

>

> Di

> Dianna Linden, diannal@n...

> http://www.netVIP.com/users/diannal

> " This is Preservation month. I appreciate preservation. This is

what you do

> when you run for president. You've got to preserve. "

> W. Bush to several hundred children at an elementary school

in Nashua

> that was celebrating what it called Perseverance Month (not

Preservation

> Month).

Ironically, the identification of certain muscles as weak spots came

from the recommendations of my chiropractor. While he did not have my

bench in mind, but my posture, the areas he specified to focus on

helped my bench. Due to the nature of my posture, he suggested

working more on the rhomboids and supraspinatus to help draw back the

shoulders and keep them from rolling forward. By working on my

posture, coupled with the external rotation work I do, after two

weeks, I noticed a big difference in the control of the descent and

the placement of the bar. It was much easier to get tighter, and my

stability on the bench was far better.

As for the path of the bar travel, another member of my powerliting

team is an orthapaedic P.A. I was asking him about the shoulder, and

he was explaining the position the humeral head is in when benching

with arms in and arms out. This, coupled with the recommendations of

other lifters, I removed the arc, increased my arch, and focused on

pushing the bar towards the feet, per Louie . So far, I have

had a discernible increase in my bench, and shoulder pain is no

longer exsistant.

Another reason why I feel that the rotators are so often injury, is

that there is too much pressing. Given the nature of the bench press

and the muscles involved, I believe that for the mass majority, the

shoulders are overtrained. Only on occaision do I do a press for the

anterior delts. I stay largely with raises and raise the rep volume

to flush the shoulder. No more shoulder pressing for me.

[Guest guest]

>From: " Nadzeika " <Mindfunky1@...>

>Ironically, the identification of certain muscles as weak spots came

>from the recommendations of my chiropractor........Due to the nature of >my

>posture, he suggested working more on the rhomboids and >supraspinatus to

>help draw back the

>shoulders and keep them from rolling forward.

I wonder why didn't just work on the " nature of your posture " . Just a

problem of a weak rhomboids? The supraspinatus is not involved in postural

problems.

Joe Alden

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