It depends on your stats! IMO I was giving Joel some tips on his bench given his personal stats!
Supervenom, the tips are great. I think maybe though the bench is not the culprit. I’m not having pain in the bench; in fact I only rarely use it; I substitute incline press instead; but only because I’ve read so much blame being laid on the bench. I tried a few sessions of the 3/4 partial bench I mentioned in the beginning of this thread and it just doesn’t feel beneficial. I’ll return to the full ROM.
The real problem I think is shoulder flexibility. Getting into the back squat position is when I experience the pain. Just sitting in this chair right now typing this message, if I stop and try to move my hands back behind my neck line in the squat position; they just don’t want to go back that far! Any tips on extending this flexibility? I was debating either a safety squat bar or the Dave Draper Top Squat device. I get the impression that the safety squat bar differs a bit from the muscle activation that occurs in the back squat, instead isolating the back more (with the safety squat bar). I’m leaning towards the Dave Draper device since its cheaper and seems like it will keep the back squat truer to the same muscle activation.
Don’t make me reveal my weight lifting #'s. I’m just a puny 800m runner!
You could then have a number of problems, i.e. overuse in running and wts! To increase flexibility in the shoulder are only certain exercise must be used! They are to be used for 1 minute on for the left shoulder then switch to the right shoulder and then repeat this cycle for a total of 3 times for eachs stretch! Always stretch after training and make sure you are warm (i.e. ride the bike for 6 min after your done your wt workout, after jogging you are already warm!). Make sure each stretch is felt in the middle or belly of the muscle, not at the end ROM! At the end ROM you are stretching ligaments and tendons that need to be tight not loose! Apply microstretching, that is when you stretch make sure you definately don’t overdue it! Go gentle and with each stretch cycle try and go a little farther with the above guidelines! So do one cycle (1min for each shoulder rotating each arm done 3 times) for each shoulder stretch and do this static stretching everyday!
Shoulder flexibility exercises include but are not limited to,
*Javelin stretch = this a dynamic stretch which can be slowed down to hit each angle. Grab a javelin or dowel and put you arms the same length (or greater) as your bench press and see if you can grab the dowel with both hands and bring it over your head and behind your back. Note you may have to increase the width until you can do it! Gradually every week try and bring the dowel grip closer and closer to each other.
*Javelin dynamic rotations = grab a javelin or dowel and place your hands in the same position and grip as the javelin stretch. Now bring one arm behind and above your head while the other arm is below your back. You are trying to do a javelin stretch mentioned above while trying to rotate both shoulders in the same direction. This one is hard to explain do a javelin stretch search on yahoo and I’m sure you’ll see what I mean!
*Shoulder stretch #3 = put your hand supinated (back of hand) and arm against a wall at shoulder height across your body and try to push your body against the wall and hold for 1 min and then switch to other arm. Remember gentle stretching and try and go a little further each week!
*Tricep stretch = put your elbow near your ear and then put that same elbow against a wall or doorjam. I prefer the doorjam bc i can put my foot in front of it. Same protocols as the above stretches.
*Towel stretch = put one hand behind you and on your neck while putting the other hand behind you and on your lower back. Now make sure you have a towel that both hands can grab onto and try to get your hands as close as possible, once they are as close as possible keep that position for 1 min and then switch hand positions and repeat for 1 min. Try and get closer each week!
Good luck! When I graduated high school I could grab both of my hands together without a towel! I could have my arms on a dowel shoulder width and do the javelin stretch!
a good palce to start
http://www.t-nation.com/readTopic.do;jsessionid=72D9498260152CBFE7DC2F349D7DADA5.titan?id=459716
Make sure that you do a warmup before stretching, i.e. jogging or jumping rope.
Food for thought.
From Pg 18 Supertraining by Mel Siff,
“…will decrease the torque acting [on the shoulder joint]… [by doing]supine dumbell flyes and bench press by bringing the load closer to the shoulder fulcrum, thereby enhancing the safety of these exercises.”