Bench Press & Chek

[Guest guest]

Bob Forney <bobage24@...>

<<I have also recently read Chek's article Big Bench, Bad Shoulders:

<http://216.150.5.6/exclusive/chek/benchpress.htm>

I have an opinion on the subject, but would also like to hear what everyone

on the list thinks >>

***Thanks for bringing this latest Chek point to our attention. This tale

warranted some in-depth analysis, because it addresses several issues that are

part of fitness and therapeutic folklore, so be prepared for some lengthy

reading based upon a series of extracts taken from this article!

------------------------

Big Bench, Bad Shoulders

By Chek

Chek point:

The bench press exercise was never intended to be a benchmark of man (or woman!)

hood. It is an exercise for improving the size and/or strength of the chest,

anterior deltoids and triceps, nothing else.

Siff Comment:

*** Historically, the bench press has long been associated with producing an

impressive chest, one of the hallmarks of bodybuilding. Try excelling in any

bodybuilding event with an underdeveloped chest and see how far you go! Chest

size and shape is important in some sports and careers, so it is fairer to say

that the bench press may play an essential role in certain situations.

Chek point:

The movement-restricting factor during a bench press is not the muscles of the

shoulder; it is the special connective tissue casing around the shoulder joint

called the " joint capsule " . This highly specialized structure is anatomically

designed to not only allow just right amount of motion to prevent joint damage,

but also contains thousands of specialized nerve endings called

" proprioceptors " .

Comment:

*** Wrong. The connective tissues also stretch and enhance the efficiency of

muscle action, especially if it is more rapid or ballistic, as in throwing and

running, or if prestretch is involved. Interestingly, the shoulder joint is

ballistically thrust much further back (extended) during sprinting and fast

running than any form of barbell bench pressing and for many more reps at a

time. The force imposed on the shoulder joint under these conditions can

exceed that experienced by the average recreational bench presser, so does this

mean that we should not forcefully swing the arms back when we run?

This highly specialised structure is meant to manage different types of passive

and active range of movement which are significantly greater than the unloaded

passive range stipulated by Chek. If the shoulder is designed to allow only

just the right amount of motion (i.e. display what is known as “zero safety

factor” in engineering), then it would be incapable of handling any unexpectedly

large or extensive loads. That is not the way in which the body is designed.

Even more cleverly, the different parts of the body obey the well known

principle of SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands), so that progressive

gradual (or fluctuating) overload will cause adaptive reconstruction and allow

the trained parts of the body to cope easily with loads which were impossible at

the beginning.

To state that each joint permits only “just the right amount” of movement is

tantamount to saying that musculoskeletal adaptation does not take place. In

other words, stretching and strengthening programs cannot significantly increase

the safe range of motion of any joint. Chek should have stated that it is not

advisable to begin bench pressing with loads that are too demanding for you to

cope with, but that it would be more sensible to progressively increase loading,

range and rate of movement so that the body can adapt effectively to ultimately

work over a greater range of joint motion.

Chek point:

Additionally, because the bench press is performed on a flat weight lifting

bench, normal movement of the shoulder blades (scapulae) is disrupted. This

demands that more movement must occur in the shoulder joint itself. As the bar

is loaded with heavier and heavier weights, the shoulder blades are pressed into

the bench harder and harder, further disrupting the normal mechanics of the

shoulder girdle joints and overloading the shoulder.

Comment:

*** The use of an inappropriate bench or position on a bench may indeed inhibit

the scapula from rotating freely, but that does not mean that the shoulder joint

has to produce more movement. Scapular restrainment controls the movement of

the shoulder so that the connective tissues associated with the thoracoscapular

‘joint’ and the glenohumeral joint may have to stretch to offer an alternative

mode of movement under those specific conditions.

This is one reason why it is incorrect to refer to certain joints as behaving

like “force couples”. A couple comprises a system of two equal and opposite

forces which implicate only rotation and NO element of translation, but most

joints that are popularly thought to produce couples are passively restrained by

various connective tissues which are there to handle translational forces. That

is why all this trendy talk about joint “couples” and “force couples” needs some

serious reappraisal - this misinformation is leading too many folk to understand

joint action imperfectly.

Chek point:

Place your arm in the bench press position and allow your arm to lower to its

passive end range of motion. This is the position where the arm naturally stops

without being forced. At this point you have determined the exact point at which

the shoulder joint capsule becomes the primary restraint to shoulder ROM.

*** This is suitable for unloaded, relaxed measurements of shoulder action, not

the dynamic, loaded or ballistic actions of sport. This sort of relaxed test

can be very misleading because normal sporting movement does not encourage the

muscles to relax at the extreme end of range. Thus, under 'functional'

conditions, it is not just the capsule which stabilises the joint, but also all

the contracted muscles associated with the shoulder (and that means not simply

the adored 'rotator cuff' muscles).

Chek point:

Although many will argue that you must train through the " full range of motion "

to be strong for sport, this concept is unfounded. It is well known among

Physiotherapists and exercise scientists that there is approximately a 15º +/-

carry-over of strength developed at any specific joint angle with strength

training. i.e. if you train the shoulder from 15º to 75º, the strength gained

will carry over from 0º to 90º. This is how sports medicine doctors improve

strength in an injured shoulder or knee without actually ever moving the joint

through the painful ROM.

*** Of course you have to train through full range of sports specific movement

in order to produce sporting proficiency, because a large number of sports

compel the joints to act over far greater ranges than those measured passively

according to Chek’s guidelines. His entire article is based upon the typical

model of the soft tissues behaving non-ballistically or cocontractively under

conditions of predictable and smooth loading, which is the standard model used

by therapists who rely on isokinetic devices and manual muscle testing to

analyse human movement.

Can you imagine if a wrestler, gymnast, weightlifter, powerlifter, field

athlete, judoka and many other types of athlete who throw, catch, push or

manhandle objects or other people did NOT train the most relevant joints over a

full range of ‘functional’ movement? In fact, research done by Iashvili,

Tumanyan and Dzhanyan have shown the importance of this type of training by

thoroughly investigating the ranges of movement (ROM) and ways of enhancing ROM,

as well as the relationship between unloaded and loaded active and passive ways

of stretching (detailed in Siff & Verkhoshansky “Supertraining” 1999, Ch 3.5.8).

The figures of approximately 15 percent carry-over were obtained under isometric

loading conditions, which have nothing to do with the prestretched or ballistic

actions commonly involved in many sports. Physical therapists use this type of

training during the early post-acute stages of rehabilitation, but these regimes

of isometric holding do not condition the muscle complex to cope with ballistic

loading or heavily loaded exercise over a full ROM.

It is entirely invalid to extrapolate highly limited methods from the clinical

setting to the world of normal physical activity and sport, especially when the

biomechanics and neurophysiology involved are so very different. For example,

the brain mechanisms associated with isometric and ballistic movement implicate

different regions of the motor cortex, basal ganglia and cerebellum. In simple

terms, Chek is trying to use screwdrivers instead of spanners to work on the

machine.

Chek point:

What most trainers, athletes and coaches don’t seem to respect is the fact that

training beyond the shoulder’s passive barrier with heavy loads will stretch the

shoulder joint capsule. Once stretched, the joint capsule can no longer

stabilize the shoulder joint with common arm movements such as swimming, hitting

a volley ball or netball, holding power tools over head or even swinging a

hammer. If these arm movements are repeated without the stability provided by a

functional shoulder joint capsule, an impingement develops, resulting in

inflammation and pain in the shoulder joint.

*** That is the very point of the whole exercise, provided that it is done in

manner and rate which suits the individual and that even means using ballistic

loading if appropriate for a given athlete. The fear that an active muscle will

be permanently stretched is incorrect. There are at least two ways of

stretching the muscle complex: by heavy loading or sustained loading. The

former usually causes partial or complete ruptures, so that the issue of gradual

plastic deformation does not arise, though the possibility of cumulative

microrupture may exist. This leaves us with sustained lighter loading, but it

is known that plastic deformation is produced in uncontracted muscle (i.e. in

its non-contracting elements), not in the contracted muscle that is used in

bench pressing. Chek is actually referring to what is known as Repetitive

Stress Disorder (RSD), not permanent pathological stretching of the “muscle”.

His understanding of the mechanics of joint damage need some revision.

Chek point:

In any sport, your arm rarely ever reaches a loaded end point in the same

position twice in the same game or event. Because the loads in sport are both

brief in duration and seldom as high as those encountered during a bench press

session, the shoulder joint capsule can recover from intermittent exposure to

end range loading. For those with insufficient range of motion to perform the

traditional Bench Press, going to the gym and lowering heavy loads to your chest

with slow speeds of movement, 30-100 repetitions or more per week is like

repeatedly crashing your car into a brick wall at slow speeds just to prepare

for the one day may actually have an accident!

*** What!!?? The loads in any sport are seldom as high as those encountered

during a bench press session?? I am sorry, but I simple cannot couch my

response to this utter nonsense in more diplomatic terms, because it is

seriously incorrect, as is obvious to anyone who has ever carried out

biomechanical analyses of upper extremity movement in throwing sports. Even a

basic application of Newton II will show you how wrong this comment actually is

- this is one reason why shoulder injuries are far more common among athletes

who throw or hit (baseball, football, tennis, etc) than among those who do bench

press. As mentioned earlier, sprinting action also ballistically produces very

large forces about the shoulder joint.

Chek point:

Begin your return to the bench press from the floor, not a bench. The floor

creates a range of motion barrier, protecting your shoulder joint capsules and

tendons from excessive stretch.

*** It is incorrect to assume that movements which do not permit full prestretch

are safer. Floor presses are commonly used by my powerlifting colleagues as a

more advanced exercise (the aim is training of starting strength, not general

training) not really for beginners, unless the load is seriously light. In

fact, injuries are common in muscles that are not prestretched, so, if you are

doing floor presses to limit joint range, then you must not rest the upper arm

on the floor, but retain plenty of muscle tension before you begin the upward

drive. Chek’s rudimentary prescription of floor presses can pose more risks

than prevent them. Why not simply do full narrow hand spaced pushups or

pushups from the knees for beginners if you wish to limit shoulder movement?

Chek point:

Always start with dumbbells. Dumbbells allow your body the needed freedom of

motion to find a new bench press pathway that does not stress the injured

tissues.

*** Dumbbells (DBs) always allow you to move the shoulders over a GREATER range,

one that is generally beyond one’s unloaded passive range. I thought that

Chek’s main point was not avoiding this possibility! DB bench presses (or

flyes) are excellent for increasing shoulder range of movement (besides

challenging balance), not controlling it. I am not decrying such exercises, but

simply pointing out a contradiction in Chek’s article. For the novice, shoulder

width bench pressing with light loads on a bench with a hard smooth sponge

surface of the right width is far safer.

A final concluding point - personally I have bench pressed with reasonably heavy

weights for over 35 years and never ever experienced a shoulder problem.

Admittedly my best was only 165kg (363lbs) in the 90kg division as an over 40

years Master (Olympic lifters aren’t the greatest benchers in the universe), but

that is still a heavy enough load for this steroid free athlete to make such a

remark. Besides that I have snatched every week of my life over the same

period and I have a very deep squat with shoulders well back behind my head.

The only time I ever injured my shoulder was roller painting the extensive walls

of our house when we moved back to Denver a few years ago. Give me good old

serious bench presses, and Olympic lifts, any day: statistics-wise these

activities are a lot safer than pitching a baseball . I am by no means unique

-very few of the bench pressers I ever trained or trained with ever injured

their shoulders unless they technically did something silly or overtrained. I

am sure others who are top level powerlifters would be happy to share their

happy experiences with those horrid benches! Over to them, now!

Dr Mel C Siff

Denver, USA

mcsiff@...