Do YOU HAVE Difficulty performing the bench press or OTHER pressing variations?
For most people we see, the ability to dynamically stabilize the the upper quarter (scapulohumeral control) throughout the press motion impacts people the most. Let’s break it down:
Our arm has a ball at the end of it which sits in a socket coming off of the shoulder blade
The shoulder blade is a relatively free floating bone with a lot of muscular attachments
This means there is a lot of range of motion that needs to be controlled and the shoulder blade and upper arm have to work together to provide a smooth and efficient motion
To make it simple, we have big prime movers which produce force and power. We also have small local stabilizing muscles that help with precision of movement and to keep the ball centered on the socket in addition to stabilizing the shoulder blade against the back side ribcage dynamically.
It’s important when performing pressing variations to incorporate lower level exercises targeting the stabilizers to balance out the training of the prime movers.
Check out the videos below demonstrating a few exercises that we like to incorporate with horizontal pressing after having clears mobility/range of motion restrictions.
We hope you have a great weekend ahead!
Perspective Physical Therapy and Performance