Understanding Retraction and Why Your Elbows Are "Soft"
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 ส.ค. 2020
- Shoulder retraction is a fairly well known topic, but I think misguided in its application within powerlifting and the bench press. In my latest TH-cam video, I dive fully into this topic and how we should have active retraction and protraction throughout our bench press range of motion. Pinching your shoulder blades back as hard as you can from the get go and holding them there throughout the press has for some reason become this supposed magic trick for shoulder health and decreasing range of motion, but both are fallacies. While there are a lot of factors of why we need a moving shoulder blade, one of the biggest that most do not know is from the relation of the long head of the tricep to the scapula. I break down how this relation affects our bench press movement, I look at how to keep ourselves accountable during our initial setup to make sure we do not over-retract, I describe the two main cues I use to promote active retraction through the eccentric phase, and then the main cue I use to promote protraction through the concentric phase. And lastly, per my title above, I give you the answer for why you can't lock your elbows. Especially the often seen 1 elbow that just stays "soft" no matter what you do, and how you can fix that to not only get the start command, but also hopefully prevent or fix some nagging pec minor issues.
#benchpress #benchtechnique #bench #powerliftingtechnique #benchpresstechnique #benchform #benchpressform #powerliftingform #retraction
Leg Drive Video: • The Definitive Guide T...
Bench Technique Video: • In-Depth Bench Techniq...
Instagram: / prs_performance
Website: prsontheplatform.com/
![เก่งแต่ลับหลัง (FINSTA) - ส้ม มารี (Zom Marie) Ft. Punch 4EVE [Official Teaser]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Fvt0Wz1hfGY/mqdefault.jpg)
You should be really proud of this video. Informative, no repetition of information and well explained. My next PR is dedicated to you
Thank you!
Found a lot of value in this video. Perfectly explains why I been having pec minor pain and the issues with elbows not fully locking out. Thank you for this
Very welcome!
Underrated aff
appreciate it!
I implemented this to my Larsen bench today, it felt way better! And no pain or numbness in left trapezius. I’m definitely gonna start doing this in my comp bench. Thank you so much!!
You’re welcome, glad it helped!
Fantastic content. You're extremely knowledgeable. Looking forward to seeing more
Much appreciated!
now sean norigeas bench makes much more sense in a tactial way for me
great video!
Thanks!
Helped me alot to understand how to Bench better. Technique instantly improved.
🙌🙌🙌
very good detailed video!
Thank you!
Great video. I learned something new and will incorporate into my next bench workout
Great to hear!
I really appreciate this info. I am guilty of this very thing and currently suffer pain at the pec minor on one side. I’m excited to see if this technical change helps and hopefully enables me to ease my grip wider over time.
Hope you hear some good news that it worked!!
Great info!
Thank you!
Great video man!
thank you!
This is interesting. I've been suffering from shoulder pain on all of my upper body movements, and I always thought that I wasn't retracting enough. About a week ago I started letting my scapula protract freely with pull ups, and my shoulder felt much better during the movement. I'll try and implement the same principle with my bench instead of overemphasizing the retraction.
Hope it helps!
where did you feel the pain? was it posterior rotator cuff.
Thank you😮❤
Welcome!
Wow I got to try this thumbs up
Hope it helps!
Exactly! Major 🔑🔑🔑.
Thank you!
I'm sitting here with my mouth hanging open as I rub my pec minor. All this time, I've thought Bench was giving me rotator cuff pain. It's pec minor, and I've been doing it to myself by retracting and trying to stay retracted through the entire lift. Well golly Bob Howdy.
Thank you so much Steve.
You’re welcome man, hope this is the start of some pain free benching!
i used to stay retracted throughout entire lift too. It felt better benching that way for a while until i started having posterior shoulder pain. Still continued for a while as it was the only way i could lift. When you were doing it that way, did you feel your rotator cuff muscles more especially when you kept retracted on the eccentric and eccentric? My form on the eccentric was kind of like rowing the weight to my body then pushing out..
@@batman-sr2px Not only did I feel it, but I strained my supraspinitus bad enough it took 6 months to heal. Not sure if that was the reason of course,but now that I'm letting my shoulders and upper back move more naturally, instead of keeping them locked into place, I feel a lot less strain in my shoulders overall.
Great video
Thanks!
This video changed my life
Glad it helped!!
I think the easiest que is, too do the most natural thing a press up... it is a pressup with weights
I prefer the cue try harder
Having exactly same issue now I have jack up right shoulder and pec minor
Hopefully overtime I get mine fix with these details ☺️
Hope this helps!
Really enjoying the well-explained videos. My question is why the wide grip - isn't it advised to line up the forearms and wrists to your elbows at a 90-degree angle?
No, that is not true.
This is the best bench press video i've seen! Unfortunately i was one of the people who always done the over retraction, thank you so much for this.
Although, sometimes i have a problem with being stable enough on the bench, sometime i feel one of my shoulders moving, is it because of the same issue of over retraction? And how can i be more stable on the bench?
Thank you so much 🙏🏽
If you have not watched my bench technique and leg drive videos I would start there. There could be many answers to your question, but most likely it has to do with your initial setup and/ or leg drive.
Very interesting. I've had very frustrating pec pain for years, making me almost completely unable to raw press. Hoping this is a solution
Hope this helps get that pec pain moving in the right direction, I know for me it was a game changer!
Are there any extra exercises you would put in a block to help with this if focusing on locking your elbows is not doing the trick? Something similar to what did with Autumn's first block as seen in the "My 3 Biggest Coaching Questions Answered" video? I saw there was a lot of reaching and protraction focus for the accessory work there.
Not really, as this requires no special skill or strength. It’s simply just being accountable to locking the elbows and not over retracting. The reaching movements in Autumm’s program was for different reasoning.
That's what I needed! And how about when I train my back, the same principle? Some coaches say, when training back you have to extend your thoracic spine and keep chest up while exercising. What is your opinion about that?
I'm going to try to keep my ribcage stacked on back training too for the most part, but if you bias into extension a bit I wouldn't consider that wrong per se and probably will find yourself naturally wanting to do that more often than not.
@@PRsPerformance that means what you do for bench you do it at rowing too?
This is a goldmine
Thank you!!
@@PRsPerformance thanks for the content. Recently came across your channel. Lots of great training tools. Really enjoyed the slack pull tutorial, helped to refocus my technique. As for bench I've always been focused on retraction, no wonder lockout felt extra difficult!!
In order to lift maximum and I’m talking about 1 rep competition you need an incredibly strong upper back. You simply will not find a world class bencher without a back to match. That strength comes primarily in the form of rows, cable, dumbbell bent-over,whatever . It is the foundation on which your lift is based and the last MUST be strong enough to stabilise the weight and do actually help control a lot on the way down. Shoulder retraction well I do see where you are coming from where the retraction does help is stabilising the upper back or traps on the bench. I’m not disputing or trying to be a know all just adding to the conversation. Cheers
I won't argue that powerlifters shouldn't have a strong back, but I'm not sure you can call the back the foundation for the bench press when its an antagonistic muscle of the movement. Does the back and lats have role in stabilizing the spine through the movement, yes, but there is a reason some coaches like Mike Tuscherer do not even really prescribe direct back work outside of deadlifting, and have still coached numerous world record holders. I actually have a lifter who is missing a good deal of one of their lats, and oddly enough the only movement it really affects is squat. No effect on bench side to side.
@@PRsPerformance Of course the antagonists help. The lats are required to stabilise as you say but they are responsible for correct placement of the bar on the chest and keeping the elbows tucked in for maximum drive. If you want a 500lb bench you need a back capable of handling 500lb it’s that simple. Have you noticed how powerlifters invariably have an overdeveloped upper back compared to other body parts ? Reason - it’s the one muscle group under tension on all 3 lifts. That very much includes the bench. I say all this as a former (long time ago) -national record holder. My opinion is just one of many and I’m not trying to invalidate your opinion merely add to the discussion.
I have a cramping / very tender teres major ( tender to touch the bottom outside edge of scapula so could be my lat also but I feel it heaps when setting up for bench… also setting my shoulders/ lats aggravates it when trying to deadlift too as well as any sort of pulling exercise that goes with out saying, sometimes when picking up my shoes the cramp goes from the bottom of my scap straight into my rear shoulder ..
If that has been chronic, I’d recommend seeing a sports based Chiro or PT.
@@PRsPerformance what would you class as chronic ?
im also curious if that over retraction stresses the posterior rotator cuff muscles more because the scapula is locked down? Also what do you think is happening if you do this form with an alternate grip(like people do deaflifts). Like what is happening on the concentric and eccentric to the supinated grip/externally rotated shoulder?
There is no issue with mixed grip on deads with the shoulder, I wouldn’t worry about that.
@@PRsPerformance sorry I meant mixed grips on bench press.
hey what happens if you punch your shoulder blades back and depressed and you keep them like that never protracting. does it use more shoulder/triceps/ rotator cuff on the concentric? on the eccentric phase it feels like rowing the weight and i feel the upper back and rotator cuff muscles doing work stabilizing the weight down.
1.) Literally impossible to never protract.
2.) This entire video about is what happens when you try to do that.
If we're trying to maximize the power output for competition bench press, is it fine to train the "over-retracted" tehnique as a main lift, and then do this as variation work? Or are we actually more powerful doing the technique you discussed above?
You should be producing more power with what I discussed in this video, as it will allow the triceps to extend without the antagonist fight of the shoulder blades trying to stay retracted. If the shoulder blades stay retracted, the tricep then is to not only fighting to lock out your elbow, but also fighting against the shoulder blade. So this how I recommend to bench press at all times. If you were to go push or punch someone right now, you wouldn't keep your shoulders retracted, as you wouldn't have any power.
@@PRsPerformance that analogy at the end drove the point home. Thanks for explaining it thoroughly! Off to relearn how to bench.
Gains Gandhi
haha I like the nickname!
Time to go bench 500
why not just match your deadlift and go straight to 601 today?
200 iq
🧠