Squeezing shoulder blades during the bench press

[redrabbit]

actually that results in putting more pressure on ur shoulders which is unneccessary in ur case.

I thought squeezing the shoulders into the bench meant that the pressure was focussed on the chest, and not so much on the shoulders?

[FreeFitnessGuru]

Coming from experience, failure to retract your shoulder blades also puts added strain on your rotator cuff, increasing your risk for injuries such as impingement or tears. Cut back the weight if you have to and nail down the form. The heavier you lift the easier it is to fall back into bad habits in an effort to get the weight up.

Bang on !!!

My bench must have gained like 30% in a couple of weeks when I started squeezing shoulder blades.

This was after years of training - I felt like such a doofus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gatvL9y2LBg

over 9000 people have watched my little youtube vid on this now.

[PBJTime]

Coming from experience, failure to retract your shoulder blades also puts added strain on your rotator cuff, increasing your risk for injuries such as impingement or tears. Cut back the weight if you have to and nail down the form. The heavier you lift the easier it is to fall back into bad habits in an effort to get the weight up.

This is very accurate (reps when I recharge). There are a couple of reasons for retraction. For one, it lengthens the pecs more, allowing the exercise to focus on them. Anytime you lengthen one muscle more than others in an exercise, you are targeting that muscle.

Second, is that it changes the whole position of the shoulder girdle. If you lay down on a bench, especially, your shoulder blades naturally want to protract because of the pressure placed on them. Combine that with the fact that a good percentage of the population has some sort of postural deficit, including protracted scapula, or rounded shoulders (after all, most of us sit hunched at computers nowadays.) In any case, in this protracted position, you place a great deal of strain on the anterior structures in the shoulder, especially when you are benching deep for full ROM. Pinching your scapulas together puts your shoulder girdle in a much less stressful position.

[juanitogringo]

I started my benching just trying to get the weight up and worked my way up to the 100lb dumbells for the bench press. I was hitting my chest from all angles as well and I felt that my chest should be bigger but it seemed like my shoulder area was getting bigger and not so much my chest. Anyway after a lot of frustration I applied this little technique to my dumbbell press. I had to lower the weight down to twenty and thirty lbs from my usual lift and I concentrated on squeezing the blades together which pushed my chest out. I did this for the first time yesterday and I felt the difference. It isolates the chest so much more than laying flat. I haven't been sore from chest exercise in a long time and when I used to get sore from chest exercise like dumbbell press it would be my triceps and other areas to. Today I am just sore in my chest. I recommend anyone to at least give this a try when doing your dumbbell press because in a way I feel like ive been wasting time but glad I got this technique to work on.

[batFalcon]

I only recently started benching with a barbell after twelve months with dumbbells, and I knew I wasn't retracting properly but didn't think much of it.

I now have a rotator cuff injury, bursitis. I cannot say for sure that benching badly caused it, but it's the only variable that changed. When I do the action in mid air, no weight, just doing the motion, my shoulder hurts unless I retract my scap, which indicates to me that actually under weight there must be a lot of bad stress on the shoulder when benching badly.

Lesson learned.

[nissan2]

I'd like to know if its necessary to squeeze your shoulder blades together when doing incline bench? I do, do It, but it does feel a little odd.

[MyEgoProblem]

I'd like to know if its necessary to squeeze your shoulder blades together when doing incline bench? I do, do It, but it does feel a little odd.

Ofc... You want your chest in an optimal position don't you?

[nissan2]

Ofc... You want your chest in an optimal position don't you?

Yeah, I was just worried weather the shoulders would be in an unnatural position for the incline.

[MyEgoProblem]

Yeah, I was just worried weather the shoulders would be in an unnatural position for the incline.

It's a safer position for the shoulders... Evan if it feels a little different than hot think it should.

Tbh tho, anything over 30' Inc feels like crap on my shoulders regardless of form/technique/grip ect.

I feel I'm better doing bb Flat with a slightly exaggerated arch, 30' db w/ natural arch and standing bb push press and standing strict db Ohp.
They all feel great on my wrecked shoulders.

[PowerlifterMark]

That trainer is stupid. Drop the shoulders, retract the scapula, and arch lower back. Pretty standard benching form.

[AstralShawn]

I understand when you first try pinching your shoulders back it feels uncomfortable but its worth getting use to because without it sooner or later shoulder pain will kick in and plateus will be hit.

[R0nald0]

I started my benching just trying to get the weight up and worked my way up to the 100lb dumbells for the bench press. I was hitting my chest from all angles as well and I felt that my chest should be bigger but it seemed like my shoulder area was getting bigger and not so much my chest. Anyway after a lot of frustration I applied this little technique to my dumbbell press. I had to lower the weight down to twenty and thirty lbs from my usual lift and I concentrated on squeezing the blades together which pushed my chest out. I did this for the first time yesterday and I felt the difference. It isolates the chest so much more than laying flat. I haven't been sore from chest exercise in a long time and when I used to get sore from chest exercise like dumbbell press it would be my triceps and other areas to. Today I am just sore in my chest. I recommend anyone to at least give this a try when doing your dumbbell press because in a way I feel like ive been wasting time but glad I got this technique to work on.

Something similar happens to me. after watching several videos I realized that my form was wrong, I was pressing with a flat chest, no arch, and rolling my shoulders forward. So I started doing it the right way but instantly noticed that my reps dropped, I was benching for more reps using bad form. and this baffles me because I've read a lot about how by improving your technique you're able to lift more, so its contradictory. Still of course I will keep doing the bench press with proper form like it should, even if I lift less.