So a kid asked me to look at his bench today. Im no expert but I know a bit and his form was pretty good. However when the bar came down to his chest it wasn’t even. It was flat on his chest, but one end of the bar was about an inch higher up towards his head at the end. What could cause something like this?
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
So a kid asked me to look at his bench today. Im no expert but I know a bit and his form was pretty good. However when the bar came down to his chest it wasn’t even. It was flat on his chest, but one end of the bar was about an inch higher up towards his head at the end. What could cause something like this? [/quote]
I see a lot of people when they bench they look like [o--<] (Imagine this is a person on a bench) when they touch their chest. I would guess that he might be slightly shrugging that shoulder upwards unconsciously or that they have ROM issues with that shoulder. Maybe they sleep on that side?
I didn’t really have time to get into possible alignment issues with the kid, but I did notice that one shoulder sat lower than the other when he stood. I have a similar situation but doesn’t affect my bench. Would this just be a matter of consciously making sure both shoulders are depressed? I told him about creating a shelf with the upper back but maybe at the same time he should focus on actively depressing his shoulders as well?
Btw zephead, you just used 5 symbols to describe what I was trying to say but didn’t know how to clearly. So impressed right now
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
I didn’t really have time to get into possible alignment issues with the kid, but I did notice that one shoulder sat lower than the other when he stood. I have a similar situation but doesn’t affect my bench. Would this just be a matter of consciously making sure both shoulders are depressed? I told him about creating a shelf with the upper back but maybe at the same time he should focus on actively depressing his shoulders as well?
Btw zephead, you just used 5 symbols to describe what I was trying to say but didn’t know how to clearly. So impressed right now [/quote]
I know a guy who works out at one of the gyms I train at who wrecked a shoulder playing highschool football. he benches exactly like that. I have very overpowering traps and whenever I do anything physical, or have to brace my body I have to consciously keep my traps pulled down or I flex them and pull my shoulders up. Your gym friend may do that, but just on one side.
I brought up the sleeping thing because I’ve heard that people who sleep on the same side all of the time sometimes have problems firing the muscles that they lay on all night, which would be lats/upper back/shoulders if they lay on their side. I have no idea if it’s true or not though.
IMO most issues can be resolves by dropping weight temporarily and rebuilding with better technique. Might be worth measuring his arms for limb discrepancy as well though.
Ah I see. Well me and him will try some things out and see if it helps. I’m very interested to see what it is/what fixes it. I’ll post an update if we come across something interesting. Thanks for your help btw
[quote]bulkNcut wrote:
Ah I see. Well me and him will try some things out and see if it helps. I’m very interested to see what it is/what fixes it. I’ll post an update if we come across something interesting. Thanks for your help btw [/quote]
Sounds good man, Let us know!