Powerlifting Bench Press: How to Actually Retract the Scapula (Don't Squeeze Back and Down)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 มิ.ย. 2024
- An in-depth analysis of how to actually retract the scapula on the bench press. I will be debunking the myth of squeezing the scapula back and down (active retraction) and teaching passive retraction through leg drive.
0:00 Intro
0:40 Common Error
1:33 Leg Drive Setup
3:20 Unracking
4:30 Summary
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I'm telling you, it's always the small channels that no one knows about that has the real gold information. I'll try this setup next time I bench, thank you!
Haha, appreciate your kind words. Hope your training is going well!
Always the little guys that really bring the gospel
yuh
This is actually so helpful i started to do that naturally as I changed the way I set up myself under the bar , before that i was actively retracting them and i started to have shoulder pain as I went with heavy load , i'll focus on that passive setup even more now and i'd say i even feel like it help setting up my arch aswell so thank you for the precious advice man i really enjoy your videos !
So glad to hear it was helpful bro. Definitely, passive retraction when done right will also help the natural arch. Greatly appreciate your kind words my man
Holy shi bro what in the golden content did i find
Hahah thank you bro. You flatter me
Bro thank you so much for this, been struggling to retract my scapula for years especially during the unravel. Just tried them and this has really changed things for me 👍💪
Glad I could be of help for you bro. Keep in mind we don’t want to force retraction as that can actually cause more problems in the upperback and shoulder. Take a bottom up approach to form and find what is pain free and feels the best for you
thanks so much. I am thinking about why my bench press movement is not stable then this video comes and tells me passive setup. I always squeeze my back so hard and maybe this is the problem. Even though my coach told me not to squeeze so hard but i still actively did it.
Glad it helped you make more sense with your coaches advice. Hope it creates more bench press stability for you!
This tip is awesome! Imma try it tomorrow. Great information
Hope it was helpful!
Bro this is life changing
Hahaha I’m glad to hear. Thanks for your support!
Thank you!!!
Bench is my favorite and im always open to learning what i can improve. This helps so much i will try this the next time i have bench🙏🏾 thank you for these informative videos
Thank you for your continued support. Deadlifts would have to be my favourite lift because my arms are too long for benching haha. Keep up the training my man
@@HeadstrongTrainingSystems hahaha yeah man bench has been my favorite for years ! Im gonna try that this weekend for sure and im about to go deadlift now and try that slack pull and wedge. My deadlifts are simple and i always thought i was pulling slack optimally but im always open to trying new ways to improve my lifts and your videos def helped out ALOT🔥 keep the imformative ones coming. Crazy how you don’t have more subscribers because your videos are spot on🔥🫡
@@washingtonfitness1262 Hahah, thanks for your kinds words bro. I just want to put out helpful content for everyone. If it helps, I'm super glad!
@@HeadstrongTrainingSystems bro do you have Ig? I think you just saved my bench😂😂😂😂🔥🔥🔥 i gotta give you a detailed thank you because these commercial gym benches are ass but with your help i think i fixed it no matter what bench im on. THANK YOU BRO
Hahah, you can find my gym account @gymwithjeffrey and I’ve recently started a coaching page @headstrongtrainingsystems
My pleasure bro, I’m so happy to hear my advice has helped you. With slippery commercial benches, I like to put two bands down on the bench to help with stability
Thanks sir
Pleasure 🫡
Yo bro good video was just wondering should your traps making contact with the bench while using this method ? Thats the big difference i feel using this method man.
Thanks for your support bro. That would depend on what area you’re referring to when you mention the traps. Traps can be separated into three segments: upper, middle and lower. Your middle and lower traps will always be on the bench press when you set your back on the bench as your foundation. The lower half of the upper traps also come into contact to add stability but not the upper half of the upper traps. If the upper half of the upper traps comes into contact, it’s possibly an indicator that you have forced your scapula down too forcefully as the upper traps have rolled under.
Do you activly squeez your lats during concentric and eccentric? Very good video man
Thanks for your feedback and great question. For most my athletes, I don’t cue activation of the latissimus dorsi during the movement for 2 main reasons. Firstly it isn’t a muscle group that is actively producing force during the movement (rather the pecs and triceps are primary movers whilst the lat is more a stabiliser). Secondly, cueing movement at the lats can actually lead to rotational and changing of the movement pattern through the elbows which we may or may not want). That’s just a general view but I adapt cues for various lifters as needed so it all depends on your specific needs.
never thought about the butt up liftoff to take load off shoulders interesting. Question on the passive retraction. If you’re going to get into that active retracted position anyways at the bottom of the lift what’s the difference? Or are you saying passive retraction is safer and more consistent
Yep, that's exactly right. Sometimes with active retraction, individuals may overretract and really jam the scapula back which can lead to problems with the shoulder joint because the scapula does also need a degree of freedom to perform the movement.
Quick question. when lowering the bar to the chest should you use leg drive or have the feet glued on the descent and only use leg drive when you push the bar away from you?
Great question. We want the tension and stability generated from leg drive to remain constant throughout the whole lift so I recommend for it to be constantly always on and applying force
I started doing this after watching this and added a couple reps to my bench. My bench is weak and I’m hoping this will get me stronger long term. I’ll just wait and let you know.
Everyone has a weak lift man. Don't let that get you down. Keep working away and it will come in the long term as your gains slowly add up. Excited to see your progress!
I think Ive damaged my shoulder from forcing retraction with the get tight cue, Question tho, for rep work how would you stop your self from losing that position without the back and down due?
Great question, in order to passively retract and set our position, we need to combine our use of leg drive with other cues. These include, raising your chest to meet the bar and keep the chest high and abs relaxed. These cues are done during before and during the reps and effectively reset you for rep work.
How would someone do it on an incline bench? Not sure if you have a relevant video as I just stumbled across this one. Cheers.
Great question. The concept is very similar as our goal is to elevate the chest. Firstly we can still focus on our leg drive (pushing the floor away) to help dig out scapula down and elevate the chest. Secondly, cueing to keep the chest high and expand the chest upwards will also achieve the scapula positioning we desire.
Any tips on how to do so on a floor press?
That’s a great question. As the floor press removes our ability of using leg drive to set up your scapula. We must look to other means to achieve passive retraction. The best method would be the cue of ‘arching the chest to meet the bar’. This cue will passively put your scapula in the correct position as instead of moving the scapula down, you’ve approached it from the other side and moved the chest up (thus leading to the scapula going down.
Do your feet return to being flat after you do the lift off? It’s hard to see since it’s out of frame
Yep, for me I set them flat again as that’s my feet position throughout the bench press (a flat foot is required in my federation).
However, if you prefer to bench with the heels up, there is no need to set them flat. The main takeaway is that after unracking, adjust yourself to your usual benching position.
Yo bro quick question : when i use this method i feel some sort of pain in my lower back its not really pain but it jus feels like some sort of stretch ... do you know why this could be ? Also would you use this same method for dumbell flat bench press ?
Hey man, that's a great question. It's hard for me to make a comment on your circumstances without actually seeing footage as there are a number of variables that could be causing it back pain. Most likely if you have recently started using this method to bench or haven't really created an arch in your bench press, it is normal to feel a stretch in your lower back. I wouldn't be too concerned unless it becomes pain then I would recommend taking a look at your arching technique.
In regards to the Dumbbell Flat Bench Press, you definitely are able to apply this method but in all honesty, the dumbbell bench press is alot less technically demanding than the barbell bench press. So I wouldn't worry about a need for it there unless you're feeling massive instability.
Hope that was helpful man.
@@HeadstrongTrainingSystems thanks a lot for ur in depth response brother really appreciate it. Im jus gonna carry on with it and see how i get on. stay blessed brother ur videos are really helpful 🤜🤛
My pleasure man, feel free to reach out to me directly it you’d like to have a quick chat about anything :)
Do any of your athletes ever have issues actually getting up onto their traps when doing this? I've been trying to get it down, but I feel like I get my onto my upper back rather than traps. The end result then is that I don't roll up onto my shoulders/my shoulders stay rather protracted rather than rolling under me.
I misspoke, my shoulders stay elevated, not protracted... rather than them rolling under me. Thanks!
Great question. I apologise for any misunderstandings but we don't actually want to have our traps under us as this will tighten the muscles in a way we don't want them to be. Rather the goal is to set the scapula down into the bench. Instead of thinking that our goal is to roll the upper back under ourselves, think about simply using the leg drive to dig the scapula into the bench naturally.
@@HeadstrongTrainingSystems I feel like this is what I'm trying to accomplish, or at least I consciously am aware that it's the output I'm trying to create, but I just seem to inconsistently get the upper back/scaps to roll under me. Any thoughts? It's almost like an arch is created, but when I push with my legs, I seem to slide up the bench, rather than my shoulders/upper back catching on the pad and rolling under.
So i set up the same way at 2:40 without thinking about retracting my scapula, so after the set up im already retracting my scapula’s? Also does locking out at the top protract the scapula? I keep hearing people say retract scapula during the set up
That's correct. With the method of using leg drive to set up our bench press foundation, this technique automatically forces the chest to rise up which sets correctly sets the scapula down into the pad as a byproduct.
Yes we want to retract the scapula in the bench press to set up our foundation, but we DO NOT want to forcibly jam it down by cueing 'scaps back and down' and jamming back the shoulder blades as this closes up the shoulder capsule and prevents the required degree of scapula movement to actually press the barbell. Essentially, we want to retract the scapula but not forcibly, thus we do it through our leg drive.
Protraction of the scapula is not very common as it involves a forcible protraction of the scapula past its retracted state and then further movement forward for it to become protracted. Essentially, if you extend too much and keep pressing even after lockout, you will likely be causing your scapula to protract. If you feel that your shoulders are rolling forwards/upwards then it is likely a sign that you are protracting.
@@HeadstrongTrainingSystems Thanks for the reply! Means a lot to me because I was going to start forcing the scapula retraction. I will keep using the same form and no need to change! So in short, leg drive does retract the scapula along with a tight back so I wouldn’t side across the pad.
Exactly right. Forcibly retracing the shoulder blades/scapula back and down is a very old school technique cue which has been outdated. We want a slight degree of natural scapula retraction to come from mainly leg drive (pushing the floor away) and raising the chest to meet the barbell.
I noticed that my shoulder hurts after I push my scapula down but feels alright when just normally retracting it but thought that I had to get used to pushing it down, thank you for this!
For sure man, forcing retraction of your scapula can actually lead to an impingement of the shoulder.
Achieve retraction via passive means i.e leg drive and reaching the chest up to the bar.
Never approach pain with the mindset that it’s something you need to adapt to. Pain is a warning from our body that something isn’t right.
Glad this was helpful my man
Im going to try this for some reason i just cant retract my scapula and i barely feel my chest.
For sure man, instead of actively trying to pull the scapula back and down, use leg drive to push your chest up to meet the bar.
@@HeadstrongTrainingSystems bro i tried it and i still couldn’t feel my chest and next time i’ll try to use this advice.
Apologies for the delayed response, youtube held your comment for some reason.
Feeling your chest isn’t necessary as an indicator of whether scapula retraction was done right. It isn’t needed either in general.
Rather, the purpose for proper scapula retraction is for increased stability in the shoulder and whole body. If you would like me to take a look at your bench, you’re more than welcome to DM me on instagram at @gymwithjeffrey
@@HeadstrongTrainingSystems I thought the bench press works alot of the chest. Shouldn't I feel it then?
The bench press is definitely a chest dominant push movement. My point above was that feeling a certain muscle group (the chest in this case) during the movement isn’t an indicator of scapula retraction being set correctly nor will you always feel particular muscle groups during movements. You will definitely feel the used muscle groups after the session when doms kicks in.