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How can newbs prevent shoulder injuries?

Forgot a good point. Correct any internal rotation short comings that you have to keep your shoulders healthy. Mobility WOD has a good one but you need a partner to step on your shoulder to keep your humerus head in the shoulder socket.
 
dave, where do you get all your knowledge from?
online? uni? personal experience?

what do you think of the "powerlifting" style bench press, back rounded, shoulder blades protracted as opposed to just lying flat? better for shoulder health/chest activiation?

21 questions
 
All three, helps to have an interest in it.

When benching keeping the shoulders back can really help remove any chance of shoulder damage. It stabilizes the joint where as lying flat puts the shoulder in a terrible position with the scapula stuck half way and not enough joint articulation. When retracted the humeral head sits in the socket more and allows for greater stability.

Those who are immobile in internal rotation will find issues with benching to the chest as it will start compromising the joint by having the scapula anteriorly tilt and reduce the articulation and increase chances of impingement issues due to loss of space in the sub acromion space. This compensation puts the shoulder in a worse position as the scapula will protract and anteriorly tilt and it is normally only one shoulder that does it which puts a crap load of force all on one weakened and dangerously positioned shoulder.

Now you don't have to arch like a crazy Russian former gymnast but proper thoracic extension will provide a more optimal and safer benching position for the shoulder because it allows proper scapula retraction and alignment. Lumbar or lower back arch is just for ROM shortening and is fine though it does increase forces going through a comprised Lumbar extension position.
 

Far better for shoulder health, but a flatter back is usually better for chest activation. Try and find a happy medium for best results. Extreme PL arching will not be best for building a larger chest.
 
Dave's answer sounded smarter
yours still had valid points lol

the extreme arch brings lats into it a lot more, as thats where the power off the chest comes from with an extreme arch, think of it almost as a decline bench. and you hit the nail on the head for finding the happy medium between the two for optimum results.




pro tip #43 use larger words to sound intelligent.
 
Not warming up enough is a common mistake I see
People will climb in weight way too fast and make things worse. I fucked my shoulder doing charity work of all things and it hurt to bench and I am a skinny guy and at the time benched with no arch and a wide grip so it was pretty bad for my shoulders. I would just do sets with the bar for ages though until the pain went away then upped the weight. If the pain came back then I'd just stick at the same weight and do sets. This turned what most people would call a shitty session of pain into a decent session like any other where I could go heavy with no pain.

I don't think a closer grip really helps at all, you're just avoiding the problem instead of fixing it AND the shoulder rotation is greater so it really would be the last thing that I considered
 

As an exercise using an "extreme arch" is asking for trouble.
 

You're an interesting character

Using a warm up as a means to warm up the muscle is a stupid concept.

Using a warmup as a means to grease the groove is also silly.
 

Correct. Crazy PL style arches are not necessary. PLs do wha they do to increase efficiency.

Lack of scapula retraction, and more importantly, benching with arms flared is a recipe for shoulder disaster. Have had my share of issues.