Use the reverse-band bench press when you have sore shoulders. Its easy to start experiencing tender shoulders when you bench press big weights. This can indicate bad form or a muscle imbalance that needs to be addressed. Most of the time when this happens people stop bench pressing altogether until their shoulders get healthier. Ive never had success with this approach. Upon returning to bench pressing my shoulders often started hurting again right away. I noticed the same thing with many clients – when you stop working a problematic area, it usually leads to even worse problems when you get back into it. On the other hand, you dont want to do a movement that causes pain. Powering through, biting the bullet, and continuing the exercise usually leads to a far greater problem. A solution that works is to keep bench pressing, but with reverse bands – bands attached to the top of the power rack, hanging the bar from the bands. The reverse bands drastically decrease the amount of weight in the bottom position, which is the most vulnerable point of the bench press for the shoulders. This technique allows you to keep the joint active while still practicing your bench press technique (or correcting it if thats the cause of your problem) and overloading the pattern. That way when you can go back to standard bench pressing youll be physically and neurologically ready to go. As a side note, I find the reverse band bench press to be superior to the regular bench press for chest and triceps contraction and stimulation, so youll likely build up some more mass while getting back to peak shape. Real life application: When your shoulders are slightly painful, switch to reverse band bench pressing before the shoulder issue gets worse. Continue doing so until youve identified and fixed the root of the problem, which might be bad bench pressing technique. This should allow you to keep practicing the movement while still overloading the muscles involved in the regular bench press movement pattern. Obviously if your shoulder still hurts while doing the reverse bands, dont do it – seek out a good ART practitioner or soft tissue specialist. Christian Thibaudeau
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 08:31:42 +0000
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