I’ve got this problem with my bench lockout. It seems that something pulls my shoulders out of retraction when im locking my arms out. Also, on one side my shoulder pops when I rotate it in to flare at the top, and it stops before full flaring - making the lockout more like an extension.
With the rounding of the shoulder at the top im leaning against posterior capsule tightness, but I’m not sure why it would be tight so im not sure…
Any of you guys have experience with similar issues?
really tough to say without a video, it’s hard to picture what’s happening. i personally forced my shoulder forward when i was first starting. mostly i just went for records all the time, and i had shitty programming.
my advice is pretty basic and general: do a bunch of rows to strengthen your upper back, work your triceps, and back your working weight down to force good technique. once your technique gets better, you will then be more likely to use the correct technique with max weights. I have no idea how long this will take, but be patient.
This is usually because the shoulders are stronger than the triceps. When weights get heavy, your body uses the strongest muscles.
There is something inside the shoulder that pulls them forward when I lock my arms out in front of me. Doesnt matter if I have weight or not on the bar. I can fully retract the shoulders when my arms are bent but as soon as I try to lock them out upper back tightness is sacrificed.
it sounds like your doing a protraction at the end of the rep, there is a definite difference between locking it out and then continuing to push the weight up via shoulder protraction, you may also think youre not locking it out when you are, taking just the bar i would practice on your warmup sets getting used to locking out your elbows while keeps your shoulder retracted the weight should be light enough you can focus on it without getting tired, also as others have said strengthen the back and triceps
listen to wild iron. that’s the realness.
You could try learning to lockout without a flair. Somewhere along the line, I started locking out over my chest- not my neck/face. For me, it was the combination of weak, beat up shoulders and paranoia about holding a max weight over my face got me doing this.
The move is like this: shove the bar straight up and at lockout rotate your arms inward rather than outward. At lockout, it’s kind of a neat trick, because you don’t really push the bar up- rather you slip under it and your arm straightens. This requires a good arch and since you are using your lats to do what your delts would do otheriwse, strong lats become more important. Here’s a pretty good view of what it looks like:
http://www.ironscene.com/videos/3429_zak_freiwald_benches_610_pr_@_275_at_cell_block_meet
As an added plus, like a reverse grip bench, it is a little trickier to judge than a regular J-groove bench.